THREE AFRICAN TALES

Three more African tales, with little individual distinction and no identity as a group, presented in a horizontal format and accompanied by the kind of stylized, moody gray-toned watercolors that are virtually interchangeable from book to book. The first, which has the most intriguing plot, concerns the rivalry between a hunter and a trapper and turns on a fine point of justice: was Zoongu more at fault for stealing a goat from Teelay's trap or was Teelay more at fault for setting it so close to Zoongu's footpath? There are also some tense moments when Teelay's dogs have Zoongu treed. The second story is the comical one: can Kelala the great clown make beautiful, silent Wambuna speak? She does, but though he's the cause, she speaks to his two friends too--shall a woman for the first time have three husbands? This one's longer than need be in getting to the point, and the last seems to take forever to work out its single, simple problem, the dispatching of tyrannical King Tonkolli by his nephew and oracle-chosen heir Durosimi. In an overcrowded field, expendable.