AI-generated tale-crocodile interpretation.
Species, colour, pose and bank imagined.
Overview
Two children are bathing when a crocodile takes one in its teeth and carries him alive to a hole in the river bank. The animal tells its captive that it is returning for the second child. Left inside, the boy sees living fish stored as food and notices another opening above him. He climbs out through it and returns to the village, where people celebrate his escape by firing guns.
The crocodile finds the bathing-place empty. Villagers then shoot at it, but their shots do not even wound it. Returning to its hole, it discovers that the imprisoned child has also gone. It follows him into the middle of the village, where the account leaves it barking and trying to kill someone for three days. No subsequent capture, death or successful attack is narrated. Its resistance to this gunfire is an event in the tale, rather than evidence about real crocodiles or immunity to every possible weapon.
Nassau identifies this as the second of four Benga primer stories written down by missionaries Mackey and Clemens from Corisco dictation, then translated into English by him. He says that this double mediation lost most of the original idiom. This is a different collection chain from his later direct Bapuku/Batanga tellings. Ngando is the source’s crocodile term, not proof of a unique personal name; the profile concerns the particular actor of this short escape narrative.
Origins & earliest records
Corisco dictation transmitted through a Benga school primer and Nassau’s English translation.
Records & interpretation
Complete Part Second tale2 and Benga foreword; general preface read for performance and editorial context.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Where Animals Talk: West African Folk Lore Tales
Part Second, Benga tale2, Crocodile, p.82
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected narrativeNassau1912, Part Second, Benga tale2, Crocodile, p.82Research access: 2026-10-18
Image credits
AI-generatedAI-generated tale-crocodile interpretation.
Species, colour, pose and bank imagined.