TWO PENCE and HALFPENNY - A Gypsy Children's Story from Wales E-Book

Anon E. Mouse

• Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 139In this 139th bedtime story from Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories, Baba Indaba narrates this ancient Welsh Gypsy tale from long ago. Three brothers go on the road to seek work. Hungry from travelling all day, they are passing through a wood when they see a small light. Following it they come to a cottage. Hungry and tired they saw the door was open. Inside was a table with food upon it. Helping themselves to dinner, an old woman eventually enters. In the morning, to pay for their meals, the old woman sets the brothers to work – and that’s when interesting things begin to happen.........…… Download and read this intriguing fairy tale to find out the fates of the three brothers.Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story, on map. HINT - use Google maps.INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. 

Leseprobe

Twopence-Halfpenny

A Gypsy Folk Tale from Wales

Illustrator

MAGGIE GUNZEL

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

2016

TWOPENCE-HALFPENNY

Typographical arrangement of this edition

©Abela Publishing 2016

This book may not be reproduced in its current format

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without the prior written permission

of the publisher.

Abela Publishing,

London, United Kingdom

2016

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

ISSN 2397-9607

Issue 139

Email:

[email protected]

Website:

www.AbelaPublishing.com

Introduction

Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.

In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.

In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to the tribe’s Wenxoxi Indaba to learn the stories. Every day the Wenxoxi Indaba would narrate the stories and Baba Indaba would have to recite the story back to the Wenxoxi Indaba, word for word. In this manner he learned the stories of the Zulu nation.

In time the Wenxoxi Indaba grew old and when he could no longer see or hear, Baba Indaba became the next in a long line of Wenxoxi Indabas. So fond were the children of him that they continued to call him Baba Indaba – the Father of Stories.

When the British arrived in South Africa, he made it his job to also learn their stories. He did this by going to work at the docks at the Point in Port Natal at a place the Zulu people call Ethekwene (Eh-tek-weh-nee). Here he spoke to many sailors and ships captains. Captains of ships that sailed to the far reaches of the British Empire – Canada, Australia, India, Mauritius, the Caribbean and beyond.

He became so well known that ship’s crew would bring him a story every time they visited Port Natal. If they couldn’t, they would arrange to have someone bring it to him. This way his library of stories grew and grew until he was known far and wide as the keeper of stories – a true Wenxoxi Indaba of the world.

Baba Indaba believes the tale he is about to tell in this little book, and all the others he has learned, are the common property of Umntwana (Children) of every nation in the world - and so they are and have been ever since men and women began telling stories, thousands and thousands of years ago.

Where in the World – Look it Up!

This next story was told to him by a traveller who hailed from the small town of Bala. Can you find Bala on a map? What country is it in?

Twopence-Halfpenny

 

A Gypsy Folk Tale from Wales

 

 

A story, a story

Let it come, let it go

A story, a story

From long, long ago!

Umntwana Izwa! Children Listen!

ONCE upon a time long, long ago, in a far, far away land, there were three brothers. The three were going on the road to seek for work. Night came upon them. They knew not where to go to get lodgings: it was night. They were travelling through a wood on an old road. They saw a small light, and they came to a cottage. They were hungry and tired. The door was open. They saw a table with food upon it.

Said the eldest brother, 'Go you in.'

'I am not going in; go in yourself.'

'Not I, indeed.'

'You are two fools,' said Jack. And in he went, and sat down at the table, and ate his bellyful. The other two watched him. They were afraid to enter the house. At last the other two went in, and sat down and ate.

Now a little old woman comes. Said the old woman, 'I have seen no man here for many years. Whence came ye hither?'

'We are seeking for work.'

'I will find work for you to-morrow.'

They went to bed. Up they rose in the morning. And there was a great pot on the fire, and porridge and milk. That was the food they ate. Now the old woman tells the eldest brother to go into the barn to get the tools, and to go into the wood to fell the trees. He took off his coat. There he is doing the work. There came an old dwarf, and asked him who told him to fell the wood. He could not see this little man, so small was he. He looked under his feet; he saw him in the stubble. The old