The tailed head-hunters of Nigeria : an account of an official's seven years' experiences in the Northern Nigerian pagan belt, and a description of the manners, habits, and customs of some of its native tribes / by A.J.N. Tremearne.
- Arthur John Newman Tremearne
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The tailed head-hunters of Nigeria : an account of an official's seven years' experiences in the Northern Nigerian pagan belt, and a description of the manners, habits, and customs of some of its native tribes / by A.J.N. Tremearne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![these on, so that if I touch you we shall go more quickly.” And when he had put on the spurs and had mounted the Hyena again, he kept digging the spurs into her stomach, and making her run, until he had brought her to the Learned Man. ^ Ihen the Spider said, “O Learned Man, mount, here is the Hyena, I have brought her to you.” So the Mallam made a charm for popularity [by writing out a verse of the Koran, and encasing It in a piece of soft leather], and gave it to the Spider, and then he mounted the Hyena, and went off towards Kano. As he was moving off, the Spider called out, “When you get to Kano, do not tie up the Hyena with a hide hobble, put a chain on her.” Then the Learned Man said to the Hyena, “ Stop, the Spider is saying something behind us.” But the Hyena said, “ I heard ; he said that when you have reached Kano you must tie me with a hide hobble, you must not chain me up, for if you put a chain on me I should die, and you would have nothing to ride.” So he spurred her, and they ran oflP. When he had come to Kano he dismounted, and tied her up with a hide hobble, so when night came the Hyena ate the hide, and got free. Then she drank the water set ready for the inmates of the house, and ate all the fowls that she could find, and then she seized a goat and ran off with it to the forest, and succeeded in finding her way home to her cubs. When she had refreshed herself, she went out to look for the Spider, but he had been given a charm for popularity, so every Animal she inquired of wished to save him from her anger, and said, “ I have not seen the Spider.” She searched for him until she became tired with traversing the forest, but she did not see im, and after a time an internal sickness griped her, and she led in the forest. That was the reason why the Spider became popular; every tale is ascribed to the Spider. The spider had not much cause to be proud of his victory over the hyena perhaps, for she is known as a silly beast, quite the buffoon of the animal world, but he soon had another adventure on his hands.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29010445_0389.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
