Gathered here is a beguiling selection of folktales from Zimbabwe and Botswana. This treasury contains most of the stories previously collected in Children of Wax and seven new tales from the Setswana-speaking people of Botswana. A girl discovers that her young husband might actually be a lion in disguise, but not before they have two sons who might actually be cubs... When a child made of wax follows his curiosity outside into the heat of daylight and melts, his siblings shape him into a bird with feathers made of leaves that enable him to fly into the light.... Talking hyenas, milk-giving birds, clever cannibals who nonetheless get their comeuppance, and mysterious forces that reside in the landscape—these wonderful fables bring us the wealth, the variety, and the particular magic of traditional African lore. Letter from Mma Ramotswe—Guinea fowl child—Bad way to treat friends—Girl who lived in a cave—Hare fools the baboons—Pumpkin—Sister of bones—Milk bird—Beware of friends you cannot trust—Children of wax—Brave hunter—Stone Hare—Tree to sing to—Blind man catches a bird—Hare fools Lion, again—Strange animal—Bad uncles—Why Elephant and Hyena live far from people—Wife who could not work—Bad blood—Sad story of Tortoise and Snail—Old man who saved some ungrateful people—Lazy baboons—Great snake—Girl who married a lion—Two bad friends—How a strange creature took the place of a girl, and then fell into a hole—Greater than Lion—Head tree—Grandmother who was kind to a smelly girl—Baboons who went this way and that—Two friends who met for dinner—Thathana moratho tree—Tremendously clever tricks are played, but to limited effect