The Story of Little Black Mingo

by Helen Bannerman

This is a children's book from 1901. It is the follow up to Helen Bannerman's The Story of Little Black Sambo, which became rather controversial due to the fact that the term "Sambo" has come to be derogatory.

The setting of Mingo, though not specifically mentioned, is probably south India or Tamil, where the author lived.

Black Mingo, an orphan, lives with the mean Black Noggy (again, this is 1901, people), who one day sends her off to get water from the river. When she gets there, she comes upon a mugger (a crocodile) and drops the chatty on her head out of fright and runs back home. But she gets scolded and sent right back with an even bigger chatty to carry.

There, she gets snapped up by the mugger, which swims off to an island where all the animal's eggs are collected. Mingo is destined to be fed to the little muggers to be born the next day. She is left alone and can't escape because she doesn't know how to swim. Along comes a mongoose, about to drown near the shore. Mingo comes in save the animal, which repays the favor by starting to crack open the eggs and eat what's inside.

When the big mugger returns and finds the mountain of eggs diminshed it wraps around the remaining ones to protect them, but when it falls asleep the mongoose comes back to eat some more. To save the last few eggs, the mugger retrieves the big chatty to hide the eggs under. Mingo and the mongoose now use the chatty as a boat to return to Mingo's home, with the mugger chasing after them.

The fugitives lock themselves into the hut, and when Black Noggy returns from the market with kerosene and matches, she gets swallowed whole by the mugger. Unaware of what happened she lights a match to explore her surroundings. The kerosene tin has been punctured by the animal's teeth and

BANG!

explodes, mugger, Black Noggy and all. This is cause for celebration for Mingo and the mongoose.

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