Is the tale of the frog and the scorpion not one of Aesop's? It ought to be if it isn't... It has the quality of the wry, even amusing moral fable characteristic of African tales about the creatures that surround country dwellers. At all events I suspect it has wide, folkloric currency outside cinema, and that Neil Jordan would not have needed to go to Mr Arkadin to have picked it up. John Izod Film & Media Studies University of Stirling