Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa

Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria West Africa by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910). Text from Project Gutenberg, audio from Librivox

[Intro stuff here.]

There are a total of 40 stories within this book ranging from 262 to 2,639  words for a total of 38,565 words.  The stories are organized from shortest to longest - they are not in the same order as the original book.  Speed-adjustable audio files and StenoJig are enabled on all.  Some minor changes to capitalization, punctuation and spelling have been made to better align with modern English punctuation and American English spellings.

Punctuation used:  Note original punctuation from this text has been lightly edited to better conform with modern English punctuation usage and/or simplified to ease steno practices.  Only the following punctuation is used:

• Period . 
  
• Comma ,
  
• Exclamation !
  
• Question Mark ?
  
• Single quote ' ( -PBT, use AES for 's)
  
• Double quote " (Open KW-GS close KR-GS)
  
• Semi-colon ; 
  
• Colon :
  
• Hyphen - H-PB
  
• Dash --  (Default stroke is TK-RB) 
  
• Parentheses (Open PREPB close PR*EPB) 

Names/words not found in Plover's default dictionary:  You will need to create your own brief/outline in your user.json dictionary for these words (or fingerspell them):

• Abijon
• Abragba
• Adiagor
• Adiaha, Adiaha Umo
  
• Adiaunen
• Adit
• Afiong, Afiong Any
  
• Agbor
• Akim
• Akon Obo
• Akpabryos
• Akpan
• Ama Ukwa
• Ambo
• Archibong, Okun Archibong
• Aro
• Attem
• Atuk
• Ayong, Ayong Kita
• Calabar
  
• calabash, calabashes
  
• Cobham (create new entry or write "cob" and "ham" then retro remove space)
  
• Edet Etim
• Effiom
  
• Effiong, Effiong Edem, Edem Effiong
  
• Efriam
  
• Egbo, Egbos
• Ejuqua
• Ekpawor
• Ekpenyon
• Ekpo
• Emiong
  
• Enfitop
• Esere
• Essido
• Essiya
• Etim, Etim Ekeng
• Eyamba
  
• Eyo
• Eyong
• Hensham (create new entry or write "hen" and "sham" then retro remove space)
• Ibibio
• Ikom
• Ikwor Edem
  
• Inde
• Injor
• Inkita
• Insofan
• Itam
• Itu
• Ituen
  
• juju
• Mbotu
  
• 'Ndarake
• Nkoyo
• 'Nsasak
• 'Nsiat
• 'Nsidung
• Odudu
• Obokum
• Oborri
• Offiong
  
• Okponesip
• Oku
• Okuni
• Okun, Okun Archibong
  
• Oyaikan
  
• Oyot
  
• tombo
• Udo, Udo Ubok Udom
• Yambi

Words/names that may trip you up: You won't find entries in your Plover dictionary for these words (and some others), but they can be stroked through the use of prefix/suffix strokes and/or upper/lowercase command strokes.  Of course, you can simply create your own strokes for these names/words if you prefer!

• Adet A*ED/ET
• Emme EPL/PHE
• Eyo AOE/KWROE
• Idu EUD/SKWRU
• Ininnen, Ininnen Okon 
• • EUPB/EUPB/*EPB
  • O*EBG/*OPB
• Odey OED/KWRAOE

Useful prefix/suffix strokes:

• ad^ A*ED
• e^ AOE
• ^et ET
• ^y KWREU
• em^ EPL
• ^en *EPB
• ^ey KWRAOE
• in^ EUPB
• ^in *EUPB
• ^on O*PB
• ^u SKWRU

Useful command strokes:  These command strokes are not in the Plover main dictionary by default. If you wish to use them, you'll need to create new entries in your user dictionary using strokes of your choice.

• {*>}  Retroactively lower case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {*-|}  Retroactively upper case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {>}    Force lower case first letter of next word stroked 
  
• {-|}    Force upper case first letter of next word stroked
• {*?}   Retroactively inserts a space before last stroke
  
• {*!}   Retroactively remove space before last word stroked

Footnotes from the original text:

• A piece of cloth is generally about 8 yards long by 1 yard broad and is valued at 5s.
• A rod is made of brass and is worth 3d. It is in the shape of a narrow croquet hoop, about 16 inches long and 6 inches across. A rod was native currency on the Cross River.
• The fatting house was a room where a girl is kept for some weeks previous to her marriage. She is given plenty of food and made as fat as possible, as fatness is looked upon as a great beauty by the Efik people.
• The Egbo Society has many branches, extending from Calabar up the Cross River as far as the German Cameroons. Formerly, this society used to levy blackmail to a certain extent and collect debts for people. The head juju, or fetish man, of each society is disguised and frequently wears a hideous mask. There is a bell tied round his waist, hanging behind and concealed by feathers; this bell makes a noise as he runs. When the Egbo is out, no women are allowed outside their houses and even at the present time, the women pretend to be very frightened. The Egbo very often carries a whip in his hand and hits out blindly at any one he comes across. He runs round the town, followed by young men of his society beating drums and firing off guns. There is generally much drinking going on when the Egbo is playing. There is an Egbo House in most towns, the end part of which is screened off for the Egbo to change in. Inside the house are hung human skulls and the skulls of buffalo, or bush cow, as they are called; also heads of the various antelopes, crocodiles, apes, and other animals which have been killed by the members. The skulls of cows and goats killed by the society are also hung up. A fire is always kept in the Egbo House and in the morning and late afternoon, the members of the society frequently meet there to drink gin and palm wine.
• Foo-foo is yams boiled and mashed up.
• Tombo is an intoxicating drink made from the juice which is extracted from the tombo palm, and which ferments very quickly. It is drawn from the tree twice a day:  In the morning very early and again in the afternoon.
  
• A matchet is a long sharp knife in general use throughout the country. It has a wooden handle; it is about two feet six inches long and two inches wide.
  
• The Egbo society would meet together and would be provided with palm wine and food, as much as they could eat and drink, which frequently cost a lot of money. Dancing and singing would also be kept up and a band would play, consisting of drums made of hollowed-out trunks of trees, beaten with two pieces of soft wood, native made bells and rattles made of basket work, with stones inside, the bottom consisting of hard dried skin, and covered all over with long streamers of fibre. Other drums are also played by hand; these are made out of hollow wood, covered at one end with dried skin, the other end being left open. The drummer usually sits on two of these drums, which have a different note, one being a deep sound, and the other slightly higher.
  
• The Esere or Calabar bean is a strong poison, and was formerly much used by the natives. These beans are ground up in a stone mortar, and are then swallowed by the accused person. If the man dies he is considered guilty, but if he lives, he is supposed to have proved his innocence of whatever the charge may have been which was brought against him. Death generally ensues about two hours after the poison is administered. If the accused takes a sufficient amount of the ground-up beans to make him vomit it will probably save his life, otherwise he will die in great pain.
  
• A stick of fish consisted of two sticks with a big fish in the middle of each and small fish at each end, there being eight fish on each stick, making sixteen in all. These sticks were then tied together, and smoked over wood fires until they were quite dried. One stick of fish would sell at Calabar in the dry season time for from 3s. 6d. to 5s. a stick, and a stick would be got for five large yams which cost Chief Oborri only 1s., so a large profit was made on each canoe load—the canoes carrying about a thousand yams each. A bag of shrimps would be bartered for twenty-five large yams, and the shrimps would be sold for 15s., being a profit of 10s. on each bag. At the present time, however, the same sized bag of shrimps, in the wet season, would sell at Calabar for £3, 10s., and in the dry season for between £1, 10s. and £2.
  
• Every compound has a small juju in the center, which generally consists of a few curiously shaped stones and a small tree on which the 'Nsiat bird frequently builds. There is sometimes a species of cactus at the foot, an earthenware pot is supported on sticks against the tree, and tied on with tie-tie, or native rope. In this pot there is always a very foul smelling liquid, with frequently some rotten eggs floating in it. Small sacrifices are made to these jujus of chickens, etc., and this juju is frequently appealed to. The liquid is sometimes taken as a specific against sickness or poison. In the dry season, the author has often observed large spiders with their webs all over these jujus, but they are never touched. There is also frequently a roughly carved image of wood, and sometimes an old matchet and some broken earthenware on the ground, with a brass rod or manila. It is generally a very dirty spot.
  
• As the king bird is always very difficult to shoot with a bow and arrow, owing to his sharp and keen sight, the young men, when they want his feathers, set traps for him baited with rats, which catch him by the foot in a noose when he seizes them. Except when they are nesting, the king birds roost on very high trees, sometimes as many as twenty or thirty on neighboring trees. They fly many miles from where they get their food and arrive at their roosting place just before the sun sets, leaving the next morning at dawn for their favorite haunts. They are very regular in their habits, and you can see them every night at the same time coming from the same direction and flying over the same trees, generally fairly high up in the air. There is a strong belief amongst many natives on the Cross River that the king bird has the power of influencing the luck or the reverse of a canoe. For example, when a trader, having bought a new canoe, is going to market and a king bird crosses the river from right to left, then if he is unlucky at the market that day, whenever the king bird again crosses that particular canoe from right to left, he will be unlucky and the bad luck will stick to the canoe. If, on the other hand, the bird for the first time crosses from left to right and he is fortunate in his dealings that day at the market, then he will always be lucky in that canoe the day he sees a king bird flying across the river from the left to the right-hand side.
  

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