Reading Notes: Nigerian Reading Notes, Part A

This week, I decided to write up my notes for the first reading about Why the Bat Flies by Night, from Elphinstone Dayrell’s Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria. In this story, playing a prank has deadly consequences, as the bat finds out.

Reading Notes

• A bush rat and a bat were friends, but for unlisted reasons, the bat was jealous of the bush rat.
• They often dined together; the bat’s food was always good and tasty, and the bush rat asked the bat for his secret.
• The bat told the bush rat that he boiled himself in the water he used, and that was what made the food tasty.
• The bat offered to show the bush rat his process: he took a pan of warm water and told the bush rat it was boiling, then jumped in and out relatively quickly.
• The bat had prepared some soup beforehand but pretended it had just been made from the water he’d “boiled” in; as usual, the soup was tasty.
• After their meal, the bush rat went home and told his wife he was going to make soup the same way as the bat.
• He had his wife boil up some water; then, when she wasn’t looking, the bush rat jumped into the boiling water and quickly died.
• When his wife realized what happened, she reported the matter to the king, who ordered the bat to be captured. 
• The bat managed to hide himself before anyone could catch him, but now he has to hide during the day and can only come out at night.

Fortunately, Bat’s gotten used to flying around at night (Source)