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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
When small creatures face dangerous rivals, strength is not always the thing that saves them.
In South-African Folk-Tales, James A. Honey gathers animal fables, tales of tricksters and fools, and stories about how the natural world comes to be as it is. Animals speak, scheme and quarrel like people. A meal or an escape from danger can depend on who thinks fastest.
These stories belong to the oral traditions of southern Africa, shared from grandmother to child and from elder to listener around the fire. Alongside their lively contests of wit, they explore respect for elders, the cost of greed, and the mistakes that foolish characters make when clever rivals stand in their way.
What you’ll discover
- Small creatures, dangerous rivals Meet animals whose quick thinking offers a chance against opponents with greater strength.
- Tricksters and fools Follow schemes where a meal or an escape depends on outwitting someone else.
- Questions about the world Explore stories that explain why animals look and behave the way they do.
- The cost of greed Discover how tales of cunning and folly bring shared values into sharp focus.
- Stories around the fire Enter a storytelling tradition where elders pass tales to children and gathered listeners.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy animal fables, trickster heroes and stories that explain why the world is as it is. It suits families who read aloud and anyone curious about southern Africa's oral traditions.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Animal tales put power to work
- Strength can mistake fear for danger
- Jackal turns partnership into private profit
- Shared water puts trust on trial
- Cleverness is not the same as learning
- Small animals find room to act
- Fables ask what creatures deserve
- Repeated patterns prepare the next surprise
- Who gets cheated reveals what matters
Who’s who
- JackalA quick, flattering trickster who cheats Lion, Hyena and others out of meat, but sometimes meets a sharper mind than his own.
- LionThe proud king of the animals, strong and trusting, who is often fooled because he cannot resist a boast or a meal.
- HareA small, quick creature who guards the animals' fat, carries the Moon's message, and escapes by wit more than once.
- TortoiseA slow, steady animal who traps Jackal and Rabbit with pitch and outwits Elephant and Giraffe by staying calm.
- BaboonA guard and judge who is sometimes tricked by honey and sometimes saves himself with a clever disguise.
- HyenaCalled Wolf in many tales, a greedy creature who follows Jackal's advice and gets beaten, dropped or skinned.
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South-African Folk-Tales
Jackal outwits Lion again and again, while Hare garbles the Moon message about death.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Who gets the fattest meat when a lion and a jackal go hunting together? In these tales the answer is nearly always the jackal, and the lion pays for it.
South-African Folk-Tales at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 25 min1 h 5 min fast, 1 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 20,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The tales come from many peoples and tellers
Honey opens with a preface that tells you where the stories come from. He says they come mainly from the Bushmen, the wandering hunters who, in his account, were the first people of southern Africa. Hottentot and Zulu tellers took the stories up and bent them to their own ways. A few are Dutch.
He is modest about his work. He does not claim to be an authority on folklore, only a man born in South Africa who loves what comes from that sunny country. He gathers the tales because a journal he quotes warns that the native peoples will be swept away or so changed that their old traditions fade.
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Details
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Honey, James A. South-African Folk-Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/south-african-folk-tales.
Honey, J. A. (2026). South-African folk-tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/south-african-folk-tales
Honey, James A. South-African Folk-Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/south-african-folk-tales.
@book{honey2026southafrican,
author = {Honey, James A.},
title = {South-African Folk-Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/south-african-folk-tales}
}
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What is South-African Folk-Tales about?
It is a collection of short animal stories from southern Africa, mostly Bushman in origin. They tell of Jackal tricking Lion, of Hare and Tortoise outwitting stronger animals, and of why animals look and act as they do.
Who is Jackal in these stories?
Jackal is the clever trickster who appears in tale after tale. He flatters, steals meat, cuts ropes and plays on greed, but he can be tricked in return, as Cock shows.
Are these stories true or ancient folk tales?
They are folk tales passed on by word of mouth. James A. Honey gathered them from English collections printed before 1880, from Dutch sources and from childhood memory, and he wrote his preface in 1910.
The author
James A. Honey
Folklore collector
James A. Honey was born in South Africa and wrote the preface to this book in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June 1910. He did not claim to be an expert on folklore. He gathered tales from earlier English collections, from Dutch sources and from his own childhood memories, and he worked to keep them close to their sources.
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