Barker-Sinclaire. West African Folktales

Today's free book is West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair. You can find out more about this book in the West African Folktales unit of the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook.

For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The book is available at Internet Archive, Hathi Books, and Sur La Lune. There is also a free audiobook at LibriVox.


I. Anansi, or Spider, Tales
How We Got the Name "Spider Tales"
How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race 
Anansi and Nothing 
Thunder and Anansi 
Why the Lizard Moves His Head Up and Down 
Tit For Tat 
Why White Ants Always Harm Man's Property 
The Squirrel and the Spider 
Why We See Ants Carrying Bundles As Big As Themselves 
Why Spiders Are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings 
Anansi and the Blind Fisherman 
Adzanumee and Her Mother 
The Grinding-Stone That Ground Flour By Itself 
Morning Sunrise 
Why the Sea-turtle When Caught Beats Its Breast With Its Forelegs 
How Beasts and Serpents Came into the World 
Honourable Minu 
Why the Moon and the Stars Receive Their Light From the Sun

II. Miscellaneous Tales
Ohia and the Thieving Deer 
How the Tortoise Got Its Shell 
The Hunter and the Tortoise 
Kwofi and the Gods 
The Lion and the Wolf 
Maku Mawu and Maku Fia 
The Robber and the Old Man 
The Leopard and the Ram 
Why the Leopard Can Only Catch Prey On Its Left Side
Quarcoo Bah-Boni 
King Chameleon and the Animals 
To Lose an Elephant For the Sake of a Wren Is a Very Foolish Thing To Do
The Ungrateful Man 
Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked 
The Omanhene Who Liked Riddles 
How Mushrooms First Grew 
Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies

Halpern-Miller. Quechan Oral Literature

Today's free book is Stories from Quechan Oral Literature by A.M. Halpern and Amy Miller (2014). For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The book is available at Open Book Publishers:


Table of Contents

1. The Man Who Bothered Ants

2. Two Stories about the Orphan Boy and the Monster

3. Xarathó

4. Three Stories about Kwayúu

5. Three Stories about Old Lady Sanyuuxáv

6. ‘Aavém Kwasám

Finnegan. Oral Literature in Africa.

Today's free book is Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth Finnegan. For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

For a variety of online versions, see the Open Book Publishers site.

This book is made available thanks to the UnGlue.It organization which raises money to buy the copyright to books and then to make them free, open publications. This book was first published by Oxford University Press in 1970, and now, thanks to the UnGlue.It contributors who raised $7500 to buy the copyright, the book is free to all.


Table of Contents

Introduction
Poetry
- poetry and patronage
- panegyric
- elegiac poetry
- religious poetry
- special purpose poetry
- lyric
- topical and political songs
- children's songs
Prose
- prose narratives
- proverbs
- riddles
-oratory
Special Forms
- drum language
- drama

McLaughlin. Myths and Legends of the Sioux

Today's free book is Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie McLaughlin. You can find out more about this book in the Sioux Legends unit of the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook.

For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The book is available at Project GutenbergInternet ArchiveSacred Texts ArchiveGoogle Books and Hathi Books. There is also a free Kindle eBook from Amazon.


The Forgotten Ear of Corn
The Little Mice
The Pet Rabbit
The Pet Donkey
The Rabbit and the Elk
The Rabbit and the Grouse Girls
The Faithful Lovers
The Artichoke and the Muskrat
The Rabbit, and the Bear with the Flint Body
Story of the Lost Wife
The Raccoon and the Crawfish
Legend of Standing Rock
Story of the Peace Pipe
A Bashful Courtship
The Simpleton's Wisdom
Little Brave and the Medicine Woman
The Bound Children
The Signs of Corn
Story of the Rabbits
How the Rabbit Lost His Tail
Unktomi and the Arrowheads
The Bear and the Rabbit Hunt Buffalo
The Brave Who Went on the Warpath Alone and Won the Name of the Lone Warrior
The Sioux Who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter
The Boy and the Turtles
The Hermit, or the Gift of Corn
The Mysterious ButteThe Wonderful Turtle
The Man and the Oak
Story of the Two Young Friends
The Story of the Pet Crow
The "Wasna" (Pemmican Man) and the Unktomi (Spider)
The Resuscitation of the Only Daughter
The Story of the Pet Crane
White Plume
Story of Pretty Feathered Forehead
The Four Brothers or Inyanhoksila (Stone Boy)
The Unktomi (Spider), Two Widows and the Red Plums



Harris. Daddy Jake, The Runaway

Today's free book is Daddy Jake, The Runaway: And Short Stories Told After Dark by Joel Chandler Harris (1889). For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The book is available at Hathi Trust (I have not checked for other online sources). You can find the stories listed and linked in Diigo. For versions of the stories with the eye-dialect and frametale removed, see: Daddy Jake.



Table of Contents

Crazy Sue's Story.
How a Witch Was Caught.
The Little Boy and His Dogs.
How Black Snake Caught the Wolf.
Why the Guineas Stay Awake.
How the Terrapin Was Taught to Fly.
The Creature With No Claws.
Uncle Remus's Wonder Story.
The Rattlesnake and the Polecat.
How the Birds Talk.
The Foolish Woman.
The Adventures of Simon and Susanna.
Brother Rabbit and the Gingercakes.
Brother Rabbit's Courtship.



Kline. Homer's Odyssey

Today's free book is Homer: The Odyssey, translated by Tony Kline. You can find out more about this book in the Homer's Odyssey unit of the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook.

For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

Tony Kline, the translator, has generously made his work available to read for free online: Homer: The Odyssey.


Book I: Athene visits Telemachus
Book II: Debate in Ithaca
Book III: Telemachus in Pylos
Book IV: Telemachus in Lacedaemon
Book V: Odysseus and Calypso
Book VI: Odysseus and Nausicaa
Book VII: Odysseus meets Alcinous
Book VIII: The Games in Phaeacia
Book IX: Polyphemus the Cyclops
Book X: Odysseus and Circe
Book XI: Odysseus in the Underworld
Book XII : Scylla and Charybdis
Book XIII: Odysseus in Ithaca
Book XIV: Odysseus and Eumaeus
Book XV: Telemachus Returns
Book XVI: Odysseus and Telemachus
Book XVII: Odysseus in the palace
Book XVIII: Irus the beggar
Book XIX: Odysseus and Eurycleia
Book XX: Preparations for revenge
Book XXI: The archery contest
Book XXII: The fight in the palace
Book XXIII: Odysseus and Penelope
Book XXIV : Athene makes peace

Calmet. The phantom world: Spirits, Apparitions, etc.

Today's free book is The phantom world: or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, etc. by Augustin Calmet (1850), based on Calmet's original publication in 1746. For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The book is available at Hathi Trust (I have not checked for other online sources).


Table of Contents

Volume 1

I. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the Old Testament

II. The Appearance of Good Angels proved by the Books of the New Testament

III. Under what form have Good Angels appeared

IV. Opinions of the Jews, Christians, Mahometans, and Oriental Nations, concerning the Apparitions of Good Angels

V. Opinion of the Greeks and Romans on the Apparitions of Good Genii

VI. The Apparition of Bad Angels proved by the Holy Scriptures—Under what Form they have appeared

VII. Of Magic

VIII. Objections to the Reality of Magic

IX. Reply to the Objections

X. Examination of the Affair of Hocque, Magician

XI. Magic of the Egyptians and Chaldeans

XII. Magic among the Greeks and Romans

XIII. Examples which prove the Reality of Magic

XIV. Effects of Magic according to the Poets

XV. Of the Pagan Oracles

XVI. The Certainty of the Event predicted, not always a proof that the prediction comes from God

XVII. Reasons which lead us to believe that the greater part of the Ancient Oracles were only Impositions of the Priests and Priestesses, who feigned that they were inspired by God

XVIII. Of Sorcerers and Sorceresses, or Witches

XIX. Instances of Sorcerers and Witches being, as they said, transported to the Sabbath

XX. Story of Louis Gaufredi and Magdalen de la Palud, owned by themselves to be a Sorcerer and Sorceress

XXI. Reasons which prove the Possibility of Sorcerers and Witches being transported to the Sabbath

XXII. Continuation of the same Subject

XXIV. The Truth and Reality of Possession and Obsession by the Devil proved from Scripture

XXV. Examples of Real Possessions caused by the Devil

XXVI. Continuation of the same Subject

XXVII. Objections against the Obsessions and Possessions of the Demon—Reply to the Objections

XXVIII. Continuation of Objections against Possessions, and some Replies to those Objections

XXIX. Of Familiar Spirits

XXX. Some other Examples of Elves

XXXI. Spirits that keep watch over Treasure

XXXII. Other instances of Hidden Treasures, which were guarded by Good or Bad Spirits

XXXIII. Spectres which appear, and predict things unknown and to come

XXXIV. Other Apparitions of Spectres

XXXV. Examination of the Apparition of a pretended Spectre

XXXVI. Of Spectres which haunt Houses

XXXVII. Other Instances of Spectres which haunt certain Houses

XXXVIII. Prodigious effects of Imagination in those Men or Women who believe they hold Intercourse with the Demon

XXXIX. Return and Apparitions of Souls after the Death of the Body, proved from Scripture

XL. Apparitions of Spirits proved from History

XLI. More Instances of Apparitions

XLII. On the Apparitions of Spirits who imprint their Hands on Clothes or on Wood

XLIII. Opinions of the Jews, Greeks, and Latins, concerning the Dead who are left unburied

XLIV. Examination of what is required or revealed to the Living by the Dead who return to Earth

XLV. Apparitions of Men still alive, to other living Men, absent, and very distant from each other

XLVI. Arguments concerning Apparitions

XLVII. Objections against Apparitions, and Replies to those Objections

XLVIII. Some other Objections and Replies

XLIX. The Secrets of Physics and Chemistry taken for supernatural things

L. Conclusion of the Treatise on Apparitions

LI. Way of explaining Apparitions

LII. The difficulty of explaining the manner in which Apparitions make their appearance, whatever system may be proposed on the subject

Volume 2

I. That the Resurrection of a Dead Person is the Work of God only

II. Revival of Persons who were not really Dead

III. Resurrection of a Man who had been buried Three Years, resuscitated by St. Stanislaus

IV. Can a Man really Dead appear in his own Body?

V. Revival or Apparition of a Girl who had been Dead some Months

VI. A Woman taken Alive from her Tomb

VII. Revenans, or Vampires of Moravia

VIII. Dead Men of Hungary who suck the Blood of the Living

IX. Narrative of a Vampire from the Jewish Letters, Letter 137

X. Other Instances of Revenans. — Continuation of the "Gleaner"

XI. Argument of the Author of the Jewish Letters, concerning Revenans

XII. Continuation of the Argument of the Dutch Gleaner

XIII. Narrative from the "Mercure Gallant" of 1693 and 1694 on Revenans

XIV. Conjectures of the Dutch Gleaner

XV. Another Letter on Revenans

XVI. Pretended Vestiges of Vampirism in Antiquity

XVII. Ghosts in Northern Countries

XVIII. Ghosts in England

XIX. Ghosts in Peru

XX. Ghosts in Lapland

XXI. Return of a Man who had been Dead some Months

XXII. Excommunicated Persons who went out of Churches

XXIII. Some Instances of the Excommunicated being rejected or cast out of Consecrated Ground

XXIV. Instance of an Excommunicated Martyr being cast out of the Ground

XXV. A Man cast out of the Church for having refused to pay Tithes

XXVI. Instances of Persons who have given Signs of Life after their Death, and have withdrawn themselves respectfully to make room for more worthy Persons

XXVII. People who perform Pilgrimage after Death

XXVIII. Reasoning upon the Excommunicated who go out of Churches

XXIX. Do the Excommunicated decay in the Earth?

XXX. Instances to show that the Excommunicated do not decay, and that they appear to the Living

XXXI. Instances of these Returns to Earth of the Excommunicated

XXXII. A Vroucolaca exhumed in the presence of M. de Tournefort

XXXIII. Has the Demon power to kill, and then to restore to Life?

XXXIV. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon can restore Animation to a Dead Body

XXXV. Instances of Phantoms which have appeared to the Living, and given many Signs of Life

XXXVI. Devoting People to Death, practised by the Heathens.

XXXVII. Instances of dooming to Death among Christians

XXXVIII. Instances of Persons who have promised to give each other News of themselves from the other World

XXXIX. Extracts from the Political Works of the Abbe de St. Pierre

XL. Divers Systems to explain Ghosts

XLI. Divers Instances of Persons being Buried Alive

XLII. Instances of Drowned Persons who have come back to Life and Health

XLIII. Instances of Women thought Dead who came to Life again

XLIV. Can these Instances be applied to the Hungarian Kevenans?

XLV. Dead People who masticate in their Graves and devour their own Flesh

XLVI. Singular Example of a Hungarian Revenant

XLVII. Argument on this matter

XLVIII. Are the Vampires or Revenans really Dead 1

XLIX. Instance of a Man named Curma being sent back to this World

L. Instances of Persons who fall into Ecstatic Trances when they will, and remain senseless

LI. Application of such Instances to Vampires

LII. Examination of the Opinion that the Demon fascinates the Eyes of those to whom Vampires appear

LIII. Instances of Resuscitated Persons who relate what they saw in the other World

LIV. The Traditions of the Pagans on the other Life, are derived from the Hebrews and Egyptians

LV. Instances of Christians being Resuscitated and sent back to this World.—Vision of Vetinus, a Monk of Augia

LVI. Vision of Bertholdus, related by Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims

LVII. Vision of St. Fursius

LVIII. Vision of a Protestant of York, and others

LIX. Conclusion of this Dissertation

LX. Moral Impossibility that Ghosts can come out of their Tombs

LXI. That what is related of the Bodies of the Excommunicated who walk out of Churches, is subject to very great Difficulties

LXII. Remarks on the Dissertation, concerning the Spirit which appeared at St. Maur des Fosses

LXIII. Dissertation of an Anonymous Writer on the Appearance of Spirits at St. Maur, in 1706

Letter of the Marquis Maffei on Magic

Letter of the Reverend Father Dom Calmet, to M. Debure

Zitkala-Sa. Old Indian Legends

Today's free book is Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa (1901). For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image. You can find out more at the Myth-Folklore UnTextbook Sioux unit.

Also available at: Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, Sacred Texts, Hathi Trust, Google Books, and LibriVox. There is also a free Kindle ebook.




(Zitkala-Sa)

Table of Contents

IKTOMI AND THE DUCKS
IKTOMI'S BLANKET
IKTOMI AND THE MUSKRAT
IKTOMI AND THE COYOTE
IKTOMI AND THE FAWN
THE BADGER AND THE BEAR
THE TREE-BOUND
SHOOTING OF THE RED EAGLE
IKTOMI AND THE TURTLE
DANCE IN A BUFFALO SKULL
THE TOAD AND THE BOY
IYA, THE CAMP-EATER
MANSTIN, THE RABBIT
THE WARLIKE SEVEN