ABSTRACT
It is important for an understanding of the social and psychological development of children in Silwa, to examine the tales, fables, and other stories transmitted to them from time immemorial. 1 Before embarking on this, however, a few introductory remarks should be made in connection with folk literature in general in this community. Such literature is relatively meagre in both quantity and quality compared with some other non-literate communities. In Silwa at present there are no myths, indigenous legends, and hardly any economic lore as in some primitive communities, all of which attempt to explain the nature of the universe, the history and origin of the people, or transmit traditional knowledge as applied to the solution of economic problems. 2 There is no doubt that, before the advent of Islam, and of Christianity before that, the Ancient Egyptian myths and folk literature must have been the oral code guiding the beliefs and values of folk people in Ancient Egypt. The survival of these is still evident, in spite of Islamic doctrines, in beliefs and ideas about jinn, invisible counterpart (Karina), saints, sacrifice, the evil eye, and so forth. 3 The changes in religious and social attitudes of the people, through becoming part of the Moslem society, have obscured the previously existing system of oral tradition. Perhaps some of its elements still persist in a modified form in the folk tales and children’s stories found at present in rural Egypt.
