Nikolai Albertovich Kun (1877–1940) is known to the world as the author of the famous "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece." However, he has other equally remarkable books, including "Tales of the Peoples of Africa," which first appeared in 1912 and has since been rarely reprinted. In the retellings of African legends and traditions by Nikolai Kun, powerful sorcerers and bloodthirsty cannibals, cunning jackals and strong kind-hearted elephants, fierce lions, greedy hyenas, malevolent snakes, resourceful hares, and other amazing creatures act. The stories, preserved for centuries by the Hottentots, Zulus, Bechuanas, Herero, Wanyamwezi, Baganda, Swahili, and other peoples of the black continent, reveal to us a wonderful and exotic world of ancient African culture.