Emile Zola - "L'Assommoir"

Ian Maclaren - "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush"

Various - "Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3"

Various - "Short Stories of Various Types"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3)

J >> James Athearn Jones >> Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 (of 3)




"On another occasion, Tatankanaje acquired great reputation in
consequence of a prediction that he would lead a war party; that, on
the day which he appointed, and at a particular spot which he
described, he would fall in with a camp of fifteen Assiniboin lodges;
that he would attack and defeat them, kill a certain number of the
enemy, and make a stated amount of prisoners: he predicted, in like
manner, the loss of lives which would attend this victory. The event
justified, as it is said, the prediction; not only as to the general
results, but even as to the circumstances of time, place, number of
killed and wounded on both sides, and amount of prisoners taken from
the enemy. Of course, so valuable a prophet was constantly resorted to
for the recovery of stolen property, or of goods that were lost, for a
knowledge of the fate of persons that were travelling, for the cure of
diseases, and for all such other important points, upon which the
credulity both of civilized and savage man induces them to lend a
willing ear to the impositions of knaves. Of his talent in recovering
property, we regret that we can only mention a circumstance in which
the object at stake was very trifling. Some one had ventured to steal
away the prophet's bridle; it was concealed in a lodge that formed one
in a camp of one hundred lodges. The prophet took a mirror in his
hand, and walked round the village, until, as he said, he saw the lost
bridle reflected in his mirror: he entered the adjoining lodge, and
recovered his property.

"Not only do they prophesy, but they perform tricks of legerdemain,
all which they ascribe to the success of their incantations. We are
indebted to Mr. Charles Hess, a French trader, with whom Mr. Say had
several conferences at Fort St. Anthony, for the account of a trick
performed by an Assiniboin. The magician asserted, in Mr. Hess's
presence, as well as in that of many Indians, that he could cause
water to flow into an empty keg, though he might at that time be upon
a dry prairie, and at a distance from any spring or stream. Mr. Hess
having told him that he did not believe him, but that, if he
succeeded, he would give him a keg of whiskey, the Indian offered to
repeat the trick. He exhibited to them his keg, which they examined,
and all judged to be empty. The bung was removed, the cask turned
over, and no liquid issued from it. The Indian then commenced his
incantations, raising his keg towards the heavens, dancing and
performing many unmeaning gestures; after which he presented it to the
Indian chief that was present, bidding him to drink of the water which
it contained; the latter drank of it, found it very good, and passed
it to his neighbour; the cask was circulated, to the great
satisfaction of all the Indians, who drank of its contents, and even
Mr. Hess was convinced that the keg really held pure water."

(2) _Tattooed Warrior._--p. 316.

This expression may be hardly used of the tribes to which the tale
relates. Tattooing, in the sense in which it is commonly spoken of,
was never, as far as I have learnt, in use among the Indians,
occupying the tract of country which is now called New England.

Among those tribes with whom the practice is in use, the process of
tattooing is performed by persons who make it a business of profit.
Their instrument consists of three or four needles, tied to a
truncated and flattened end of a stick, in such an arrangement, that
the points may form a straight line; the figure desired is traced upon
the skin, and some dissolved gunpowder, or pulverised charcoal, is
pricked in with the instrument, agreeably to the figure. It is said
not to be painful, but it is sometimes accompanied by inflammation and
fever, and has been known to terminate fatally.

(3) _Disgraced Woman._--p. 319.

Not to have borne children is one of the deepest and most indelible
disgraces that can be endured by an Indian wife. She becomes a
standing theme of ridicule to those of her own sex who are blest with
children. The pride and honour of parents among them depend upon the
number of their family. Another reason why barrenness is disgraceful,
is, that it is considered to be brought on by incontinence or wilful
abortions.



END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.


LONDON:
F. SHOBERL, JUN., LAZENBY COURT, LONG ACRE.

Copyright (c) 2007. topboookz.com. All rights reserved.