Took about two hours to read it. Kinda cute. Some stories better than others. Included are explanations for how the leopard got his spots, how crabs came to have pincers and lose their shells, how the first letter came to be written, and how the first letters came into existence (Taffimai Bopsulai), how a Queen subdued the other wives by getting the King to acquiesce to a butterfly, how the elephant got its trunk, and so on.
One thing that really stuck in my mind was the gratuitous use of the term 'nigger' in the story of the leopard and his spots. It's not that I'm a prude or anything, but that particular usage made my skin crawl -- kinda like the references Longfellow makes to Jews in his poem about the village smithy, or about the superiority of christianity to native american beliefs in "Hiawatha." It serves no purpose and just detracts from the rest of an otherwise excellent story.
The language is a little strange for a child to understand, I think, and it would probably be best read to a child by a parent who is capable of acting it out. It's very pleasant to read his references to his own daughter as his 'Best Beloved.' Also, I think I know where the phrase 'to shed crocodile tears' comes from.
What's more is I think I detect a stage in the evolution of a particular literary tradition, although I'm too ignorant of literature to clearly articulate its genesis. For example, my own story, On Common Sense and Wisdom (In three parts) is written in a similar style (This story is on my site under my writings). One might even argue, I suppose, that the Bible (particularly its creation myth, but many other parts, as well) is a collection of Just So Stories.
