Part One opens a new shelf: Senegambian tales from Bérenger-Féraud (1885) and Franz de Zeltner (1913), heard here in fresh English translations from the French — a sage whose careful "perhaps" defeats a ruler's trap, a rich man who tests a hundred friendships in a single night and finds one, and a horseman who learns in captivity what his horse could have taught him in freedom.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In this part:
- The Sage Who Never Lied — Mamadi has never lied, and the Almamy lays a trap to make him: a message to be carried word for word, and a foot already in the stirrup.
- The Man Who Had Many Friends — Mafal feigns disgrace and begs his hundred friends for horse, gun and canoe; all refuse with insults except Samba, a kinsman of the Brak, on his own wedding day.
- The Three Imbeciles — three simpletons are set to fish, to fetch bark and to gather baobab fruit, and each comes back empty-handed for the same reason: he did not think of it.
- The King and the Fool — King Nouman's fool will not drink, will not take the king's gifts, and counts the five fools of the court.
- Silver and Gold — a wife escapes a wicked general, then makes him walk at her camel's bridle; she lets fall silver, and finds gold.
- The Man Who Made the King Serve Him — Boubakar wagers ten oxen that the proud king, who obeys nobody, will work for him within three days — with a staff, and a dish of couscous.
- The Horseman Who Cared Badly for His Horse — a careless rider neglects the finest horse in the Fouta; war, capture and a talking horse teach him the price of care.
The tales:
02:03 — The Sage Who Never Lied
07:09 — The Man Who Had Many Friends
15:28 — The Three Imbeciles
19:11 — The King and the Fool
21:24 — Silver and Gold
24:05 — The Man Who Made the King Serve Him
28:24 — The Horseman Who Cared Badly for His Horse
Source and rights: Senegambian tales from Bérenger-Féraud (1885) and Franz de Zeltner (1913), in fresh in-house English translation from the French for this performance. Bérenger-Féraud's Recueil de contes populaires de la Sénégambie (Paris, 1885; the author died in 1900) and Zeltner's Contes du Sénégal et du Niger (Paris, 1913; the author died in 1930) are in the public domain. Zeltner's tales were collected 1904–1912 in the colony of Haut Sénégal-Niger and are not individually provenance-tagged, as his book states. Screened in full for this part and not read: from Zeltner, The Chicken Leg and The Three Chests; from Bérenger-Féraud, Comparison of a Father's Love and a Son's Ingratitude, The Three Sons of Noah, The Guilty Brother-in-Law, The Indiscreet Friend, The Legend of Malik Si and The Serpent of the Bambouk — each set aside under this shelf's content screen, as were the items the screen already excluded by name (the monkey and the wolf, the heir whose portion was sleep, the two friends parted by a mistress, Cothi-Barma, the two Peul friends), the whole of Bérenger-Féraud's Part III and the Koli material, the war legends and ballads, the Bagnoun lion hunt, and Zeltner's Soundiata block, The Old Mare, The Hyena and the Hare and Little Ballah. No completeness for either volume is claimed.
Narrated by Orson.
Music: Crimson Peak — opening and closing theme, with a short instrumental separator between stories, and no music under the narration.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
