Once upon a time there was a young crocodile in Sudan. He lived in the jungle by a huge river, with thousands of other crocodiles. He wasn’t very smart, but you don’t have to be when everything is afraid of you. The young crocodile had just been married, so he had a new wife. After he got married, he found out that his wife was sick; she had malaria. The medicine that that wife needed to cure her of her illness was a Wan’s heart.
The young crocodile’s new wife told him that he had to go out and find one to save her life. So the young crocodile set out on a journey up the huge river to find a Wan’s heart. He had been out on the river for over two days now, and hadn’t seen a thing. He was getting really tired, so he decided to take a little nap. When he woke up, he couldn’t believe his eyes. There was a wan drinking from the river right next to him. The young crocodile jumped up and grabbed the wan. He put the wan in his mouth and closed it tightly, so that it wouldn’t die. He wanted to keep the wan alive so that his wife would see how much power he had.
The wan asked many questions on the way back home. "Where are we going? What are you going to do with me?" the wan said. But the crocodile kept his mouth shut and didn’t say a word. It only took half a day to get back home because he was going down stream and not up. He took the wan right to his wife, and she was very pleased with him. The young crocodile then told the wan that he needed its heart to save his new wife. The wan wasn’t very smart, just like the crocodile, but he didn’t want to die. So he told the young crocodile that if he spared his life, he would show him where a group of wans were that he could use.
The young crocodile thought about it for a little while and then decided that that would be ok if he still got a wan’s heart. The wan lead the crocodile deep into the forest, and the crocodile was getting a little suspicious if the wan was telling the truth. The crocodile asked the wan if there was really a group of wans, when suddenly he saw the group of wans through a bush. The wan told the crocodile to sneak behind the bush and jump out and grab one. So of course the young crocodile did what he said and got behind the bush. He waited for the right moment and jumped out and grabbed a wan. The crocodile killed the wan immediately.
The crocodile looked backed and saw that the wan that showed him here had run away, but he didn’t care because he had what he came for. The crocodile hurried back home to his wife and showed her that he had gotten a wan’s heart for her. He took out the heart and gave it to his wife. She ate it and at once she was cured from her illness. She got up and made a huge meal for her husband because he hadn’t eaten in days. After eating, the young crocodile went out on the porch with his wife and sat on a bench with her, watching the sunset. The two newly weds lived a long and prosperous life together and the young crocodile found comfort in knowing he would never have to catch another wan again.
H:\Soph. Comp\Projects\Sudan folktale_files\Sudan folktale.htm