Salt, Sauce,And Spice,Onion Leaves, Pepper And Drippings.

Begin by reading a collection of fairy tales by Angela Carter. You see a fairy tale titled African and Hausa. You read the title and it holds you captive because it’s salt, sauce, spice and onion leaves, pepper and drippings. You trace the story to African folktales by Roger D. Abrahams published in 1983.

This story is about Salt and Sauce and Spice, and Onion leaves and Pepper and Drippings heard a report of a certain youth who was very handsome, but the son of the evil spirit. They all rose up, turned in to beautiful maidens and then they set off.

As they were going along, Drippings lagged behind the others, who drove her still further off, telling her that she stank. But she crouched down and hid until they had gone on, and then she kept following them. When they had reached a certain stream, where they came across an old woman who was bathing, Drippings   thought they would rub down her back for her if she asked, but one said,

‘May Allah save me that I should lift my hand to touch an old woman’s back.’ The old woman did not say anything more, and the five passed on.

Soon Drippings came along, encountered the old woman washing, and greeted her. She answered, and said ‘Maiden, where are you going?’ Drippings replied, ‘I am going to find a certain youth.’ And the old woman asked her, too, to rub her back, but unlike the others, Drippings agreed. After she rubbed her back well for her, the old woman said, ‘May Allah bless you.’ And she said, too, ‘This young man to whom you are all going, do you know his name?’ Drippings said, ‘No, we do not know his name.’ Then the old woman told her, ‘He is my son, his name is Daskandarini, but you must not tell the others,’ then she fell silent.

Drippings continued to follow far behind the others till they got to the place where the young man dwelled. They were about to go in when he called out to them, ‘Go back, and enter one at a time which they did.

Salt came forward and was about to enter, when the voice asked, ‘Who is there?’  ‘It is I,’ she replied, ‘I, Salt, who make the soup tasty. He said, ‘What is my name? ‘She said, ‘I do not know your name, little boy, I do not know your name.’  Then he told her,   ‘Go back, young lady, go back,’ and she did.

The same thing happened with the others except Sauce  made the soup sweet, Spice makes the soup savoury,Onion leaves made the soup smell nicely and pepper made the soup hot.

When it was drippings turn she made the soup smell and she told him his name Daskandarini. And he said enter. A rug was spread for her; clothes were given to her, and slippers of gold. And then Salt, Sauce, Spice, Onion leaves and pepper became her handmaidens. 

 Then you read the same story in Hausa folklore by Maalam shaihua in 1913. You are startled to see ground nut added to the spices. You wonder at why this word was added. You start thinking about the birth of the story and at its retelling. What was the storyteller thinking of and how they related to the story? You notice that in Abraham’s version there is no Groundnut but Drippings thought they would help the old woman rub down her back if she asked. The other spices tell her to enter and meet the youth because they wanted her to fail.

You wonder at the differences of the stories, how did a word get included. Who changed the word and whose opinion are you reading.

Then you hear an oral retelling of the story and the handsome son of a woman and an evil spirit has turned in to a human prince and the spices were names of beautiful maidens.

You go in search of traditional Hausa names and you discovered that it’s plausible for girls to be named after spices before 1901.

You wonder why everybody in the story were handsome and beautiful.

Then the fact that the only two important details the girls had to learn was the name of the handsome youth ‘Daskinadari’, his character was not important .and that the nicest girl Drippings should win the prize.

The spices/beautiful youth had to state at least one function; pepper said she was the one who makes the soup hot. The handsome half evil spirit/ human prince did not need to tell what he was good for but at the end he gave drippings a rug, slippers of gold and new clothes.

You conclude that the story is not just a Dummling [simpleton] story nor is it about the premise of a name. It is about acquiring something without knowing anything about it and giving up after failing. The other maidens could have travelled back home and gone in search of other handsome youths.