Tremearne, FL 21:205, and Tailed-Head-Hunters, 322, tells a Hausa story of a Hyena who has stolen a holy man’s horse. Spider offers to bring the Hyena to him in its place, and persuades Hyena, under pretence of taking him to a dead animal, to be saddled and bridled and ridden by Spider to the holy man, who then mounts Hyena and completes his journey.
In Ellis, Yoruba 265, Tortoise rides Elephant into town to sustain an idle boast.
In Smith’s Brazil version, the little animal is tied on for safety, and takes care to slip into a hole when he finally dismounts.
In Ernst, VBGAEU 20:277 (Venezuela), Rabbit rides Tiger across a river. The story is coupled here with the murder in mid-stream.
4. Tiger’s Sheep-skin Suit. [[Story]]
Parkes heard this story in St. Ann Parish. Wona, 62–67, tells how Anansi steals Monkey’s clothes and passes the theft off on “Bone.”
Compare: Tremearne, FL 21:352; Harris, Nights; 68–74; Parsons, Sea Islands, 145; JAFL 32:366.
The common theme of teaching to an unsuspecting comrade an incriminating song (as in Parsons, Sea Islands, 145) is here emphasized by a second intrigue, that of the sheep-skin suit. The idea seems related to the next number. In Wona, 30–36, Tacoomah puts on a sheep-skin and hides in the fold from which the sheep are being stolen, Anansi ties and accuses him because he wears the sheep-skin. [[236]]