Chapter XI: Part 11

The story of “Brother Dead” is one of the best known of Jamaica stories. Trowbridge, 282, says Death is looked upon as Anansi’s brother. “Anansi fool ’em all; nobody can fool Anansi, only Bredder Dead,” old Forbes said at the end of a trick story. Every Jamaica collection includes a version. See Jekyll, 31–34; Milne-Home, 40–41; Trowbridge, JAFL 9: 286–287; Pamela Smith, 69–70; Wona, 73–77. For other references, compare Parsons, Andros Island, 117–119 and note 2, page 117.

The story turns upon Anansi’s stealing from Death’s provision field, as in 17b. All the versions except Wona’s version end with the episode of “refugees in the roof,” as in number 5c; an episode related to the fruit-dropping or dust-blinding incident as a means of getting rid of a strong enemy who is lying in wait for a weaker; as in numbers 13c, 23.

In Wona’s version, which has retained a European underworld coloring, Anansi passes fields of fat cattle and comes finally to the city of Death. He greases the hinges of the gate with the fat of the sheep he has killed out of Death’s flocks, and when he flees, the gate opens for him. Nevertheless, the shadow of death jumps upon his back. He asks various friends to take it off, and finally succeeds in throwing it to earth; later he picks and eats callalu (Jamaica greens) from the spot where it fell. This latter part of the story is the “Dry-head” episode of numbers 22 and 30.

In the ordinary Jamaica version, the comedy of getting the food, bringing the wife, attempting Death’s destruction, take the place of the underworld detail. Another Maroon version begins:

Anansi get a daughter he call Mat, an’ he go to a place where he was hunting an’ see a man sitting down all day sharpening pegs. Anansi go an’ say “Morning, Brar Dead!” Not a ’peak, only keep on work all a time. He go up on his lof’ have lots of dry meat, an’ he tek as much an’ carry it down an’ bile his food. Anansi don’ walk where rope is set against de water, walk a different pass.

After Anansi has left his daughter with Dead, the story runs:

Him daughter want water, say, “Brar Dead, want water.” Not a answer. Him follow de pass an’ go down to whe’ de water deh; an’ him drop in Brar Dead’s rope an’ he catch him. An’ Dead run down an’ tek him off de stick an’ lick him.—“Brar Dead, I’m yo’ wife! yo’ wife, Brar Dead! Don’ kill me! don’ kill me!” Don’ hear a word, not a word. Kill him an’ cut him up an’ carry him put him up in lof’, mek fire under him, dry him.

In Trowbridge, Death is a loquacious planter and the story runs like any thieving plot. In the Maroon version the figure of “Brother Dead” corresponds with that of the “Piercer of Souls” or the “fisherman” in American Indian stories of the trickster’s visit to the underworld, e.g. Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 106; Petitot, Traditions Indiennes des Déné Dinjé, p. 33. The American Indian fisherman is spearing or angling for fish; the Jamaica figure of Death is trapping game. Both tricksters make their way in by avoiding Death’s trap.

The incident of tying Death’s hair in order to burn him up corresponds to the hair-plaiting in Callaway, 29, and Theal, 110, where the trickster sets fire to the hut and burns up his host.

Version (b) shows a simpler handling of similar incidents.

28. BROTHER DEAD AND THE BRINDLE PUPPY.

The second story of “Brother Dead” is mixed up with obeah beliefs and it is hard to tell where the pattern ends and improvisation begins. Brother Dead, like the sorcerer, evidently sends a shadow in the shape of a brindled pup to pursue and catch Anansi. The song, meanwhile, plays a part in the conjuring. Words and tune are African. The old Maroon who gave me the trap-setting picture of “Brar Dead” quoted in the note to the last number, concluded as follows:

“When he (Dead) ketch to a cross-path, tek him lance an’ see one little maugre dog into a hole an’ dig him out an’ say to de puppy, ‘Ai! Brar, fo’ kitty a shall man bra!’ If he had caught Anansi, he would kill Anansi.”

I was unable to get an explanation of the sorcerer’s phrase.

Compare, for the guardian dog, the story of Sarah Wintun by Lewis, 291, and see number 72. Jamaica sorcerers send a helping spirit in animal form to work their revenge.

29. THE COWITCH AND MR. FOOLMAN.

The very popular Jamaica story of the “cowitch tree” is here combined with another equally popular story. (1) Anansi wins a bet to fell a tree in a cowitch property without scratching himself. (2) He loses the reward by being out-tricked by another fellow whom he has himself hoped to dupe and who pretends that the cow has sunk into the ground all but its tail.

The story occurs in Pamela Smith, 75–77; Milne-Home, 89–90; and a confused version in Jekyll, 29–30. Compare also number 52.

(1) The cowitch idea seems to be late Jamaican. In P. Smith, Anansi picks cocoa-nuts in spite of ants and wasps and gets a cow as reward. In Milne-Home, he cuts down the tree without brushing off ants, and gets the king’s daughter. In number 52, Toad succeeds in cutting down the tree the chips of which return magically to their place, and wins the king’s daughter. Generally outside Jamaica, the reward is the king’s daughter and the difficulty arises from stinging insects or from a useless weapon.

Compare Barker, 159–161; Tremearne FL 21: 353–354; Lenz, 31–32; Harris, Nights, 216–222 and note to 222; Jones, 17; Parsons, Sea Islands, 3.

In Barker, the king promises an elephant to the man who can cut down a tree with a wooden axe. Anansi conceals a steel axe and calls the watcher’s attention to various animals at a distance while he uses it.

In Harris, Wolf forbids his daughter to all wooers who slap at mosquitos. Rabbit wins her by describing where his grandfather was speckled.

In Jones, the king will give his daughter to Wolf or Rabbit, whichever will endure the sand-fly longest without slapping it. Rabbit wins by describing the colors on his father’s horse.

In Tremearne, the task is to remove a heap of manure without either taking food or spitting, and Spider conceals in his quiver the means to fulfil these needs unsuspected. The story ends as in number 44.

In Lenz, the tree is to be chopped down with a single stroke by the one who wants to marry the daughter.

The test theme of the tree-chopping is familiar to European story. In Grimm, 79, the boy has to hew down a tree with a blunt axe as one of the tasks set by the Water-nix; see Bolte u. Polívka 2: 140–146. In Grimm 193, the Drummer has to hew down the tree with an axe of lead and wedges and mallet of tin; see Bolte u. Polívka 3: 406–417. The idea of stinging insects or plants as a test of self-control seems to be African and may be suggested by such ceremonial initiations into manhood as are described by Hollis, The Nandi, 54.

In Jamaica, the reward of self-control is not a wife but a cow. This the winner desires to eat entirely by himself. The “whole cow” theme so popular in Jamaica, occurs in 19, 22, 30, and in 6, 7, 11, 21, 23, 24, 25, 34, 39, 132 of this collection, the story turns upon a trick to secure the whole of a common food-supply.

The Foolman episode is told by Milne-Home, 109–113, of Anansi’s wife and “Quanqua.”

In P. Smith, the very popular “Dry-head” episode accounts for the loss of the cow, as in numbers 22 and 30.

In Barker, Anansi intends to get the cow to himself, but he loses it by the trick of stealing the tied animal. See Parsons, FL 28: 411–413.

For the trick of tails in the ground, compare Harris, Nights, 234–236; 247–258; Uncle Remus, 101–103; Christensen, 89–90; JAFL 26: (Hitchiti Indians) 215–216; (General) 30: 228; (Cape Verde) 230; 31: (Guatemala) 474; 32: (Virginia) 368; (Georgia) 403.

30. DRY-HEAD AND ANANSI.

The “Dry-head” episode is very popular in Jamaica. From Jekyll’s version, 48–49, I have corrected my version 30c as Johnson gave it and made Dry-head, not Anansi, the victim of the bag trick. Johnson was not a reliable informant. Other Jamaica versions occur in Pamela Smith, 75–76, as the conclusion to the “cowitch” story, and in Wona, 44–50.

The story falls into three parts. (1) Anansi pretends that he is about to die unless he has the whole of a fat barrow to himself. (2) He carries it away into the woods to eat and inadvertently picks up Dry-head, who devours the whole. (3) He invents an expedient to get rid of Dry-head.

Compare Surinam, JAFL 30: 244–246; Madagascar, Renel 2: 1–2; 57–59; Kaffir, Theal, 158–162; Upper Congo, Weeks FL 12: 82–83; West African, Tremearne, FL 22: 61–63; Barker, 66; Cronise and Ward, 287–290; Rattray, 2: 106–122.

(1) Rattray’s Hausa version is identical with the Jamaican. The Surinam story lacks the Dry-head ending. In the Madagascar and Congo stories, the trick turns upon pretending that a spirit warns the wife against poison if she partakes of her husband’s food. In Theal, Kenkebe visits his father-in-law in time of famine, is feasted on an ox and given bags of corn, which he conceals. Compare numbers 21 c, 23, 24, 25, and 29.

(2) A Masai story (Hollis, 15) tells of two brothers who are given a bullock to slaughter. They carry it to “a place where there was no man or animal, or bird, or insect, or anything living,” and a devil puts them to much inconvenience. The pursuit of Anansi by the shadow of Death, in the Wona version of 27, has already been referred to in the Dry-head episode. In Barker, 81–84, the stolen flour-producing stone which Anansi is carrying off, sticks to his head and grinds him to pieces, as referred to in the note to number 22.

In Theal, Kenkebe’s wife and son hide themselves behind the rock which conceals his secret store, and push over a stone which pursues him as far as his own house.

In Barker, 66, the king gives to the greedy man a box so enchanted that it can never be put down.

In Sac and Fox Indian tales, JAFL 15: 177, the monster-killing twins bring home a rock which sticks upon their backs until they carry it to its place again.

In the Ojibway Nanabushu cycle, Jones, Pub. Eth. Soc. 1: 117–127, Nanabushu is cooking a deer. The branches of the tree creak and he gets up to grease them and is caught and hung there. Meanwhile, the wolves come and eat up the deer. He finally escapes, discovers that the brains of the deer are still left in the deer-skull, transforms himself into a snake and crawls into the head. Turning too quickly back into human shape, he gets caught with the skull fast to his head and has to carry it about with him until he manages to break it against a rock.

(3) The regular Jamaica conclusion of the Dry-head episode seems to be the Aesopic one in which a bird carries him in air and drops him, not against a rock but, in Jekyll, “in the deepest part of the woods;” in version (c), “in a sea-ball.” In another version not printed here, Anansi takes in an old man because he has some food with him; but when the food gives out, the man “become a Dry-head on him,” and Anansi puts him off on Tacoomah, who leaves him by the sea so that a wave comes up and drowns him. In version (a) Anansi burns him up. Version (b) is a witticism in the same class as “Dry-head and the Barber” in this collection.

In Pamela Smith’s version, Anansi shoots the bird who is doing him the favor of carrying off Dry-head. See note to number 70 and compare P. Smith, 59–64, in which Tiger, pursued by the “Nyams,” begs one animal after another to hide him, but always lets his presence be known. Finally, when Goat kills the “Nyams,” he eats Goat with the “Nyams.”

In Dorsey, The Pawnee, 126, and Traditions of the Arikara, 146–148, Coyote, pursued by a Rolling Stone, takes refuge with the Bull-bats and is defended by them. In the Pawnee version, he later insults his rescuers.

31. THE YAM-HILLS.

The yam-hill story is very common in Jamaica. Parkes learned it in Kingston. Pamela Smith tells it, page 59 and JAFL 9: 278. Sometimes a song accompanies the story. The number of Yam-hills varies.

Compare Cronise and Ward, 167–171; Parsons, Andros Island, 109.

The story depends upon the idea that it is unlucky to reveal to others a marvel one has seen oneself, or to repeat certain taboo words. A lad in the Santa Cruz mountains explained the taboo by saying that Anansi had “six” legs. Another said that Anansi’s mother’s name was “Six.” So in Pamela Smith (JAFL 9: 278), the Queen’s name is “Five.” Compare Rivière, 177; Krug, JAFL 25: 120; Schwab, JAFL 32: 437, and the next two numbers in this collection.

32. THE LAW AGAINST BACK-BITING.

Parkes learned this story on board ship coming from Africa. It is common in Jamaica, and the wit by which the revenge is effected seems to be an individual invention, as it varies from story to story. In Junod’s Ba-ronga version (156–158), Piti, the fool, amuses himself by the roadside instead of going to herd cattle. Everyone who reproaches him falls dead. Later he restores his victims to life by means of fire.

33. FLING-A-MILE.

Jekyll, 152–155, has a good version of this very popular Jamaica story.

Compare the Bulu tales, Schwab, JAFL 27: 284–285; 32: 434.

In JAFL 27, Turtle sets a trap and by pretending to teach other animals who come along one by one how to use it, he catches one victim after another until he is himself caught.

In JAFL 32, Pangolin offers to initiate the animals one by one and makes them climb a tree and jump upon a concealed rock, which kills them. Turtle finally circumvents the trick.

In a Jamaica version collected in Mandeville, Anansi holds a butchering at a place where there is a tree which seizes any person who leans against it and flings him upon a lance which Anansi has set up.

34. BUT-BUT AND ANANSI.

The very popular story of Butterfly’s revenge is a somewhat obscured version of an old theme—the Jataka story of The Quail’s Friends, Francis and Thomas, 247–250. Compare Steel-Temple, Wide Awake Stories, 184; Gerber, Great Russian Animal Tales, Pub. Mod. Lang. Asso. of Am. 6: No. 2: 19–20; Grimm 58, The Dog and the Sparrow, discussed in Bolte u. Polívka 1: 515–519.

Though common to-day, the story seems to be of comparatively late introduction. Old Edwards, over eighty, heard it when he was “ripe.” Compare Tremearne, 231.

35. TUMBLE-BUG AND ANANSI.

The story of Tumble-bug’s revenge is even more common than the last number. In Wona, 51–55, Tumble-bug is carrying butter and Anansi only lard. Anansi proposes that they put their loads together, sees that Tumble-bug’s is at the bottom, and makes the ruling in order that he may get the butter and Tumble-bug the lard. Compare number 46 and the opening episode of the last number.

The revenge story is recent. In Wona, Tumble-bug suffers further at Anansi’s hands.

In Tremearne, FL 21: 213–214, Tortoise and Spider have a bull in common; Tortoise eats the liver and Spider claims in compensation the whole bull. Tortoise pretends dead and frightens Spider, who thinks it is a spirit and gives him everything.

36. HORSE AND ANANSI.

For the trick of sending after fire in order to enjoy the whole of a common store compare Koelle, 166–167; Tremearne, 255, 263; Hartt, 34; Harris, Friends, 79–80; Nights, 282–284; Christensen, 89; Georgia, JAFL 32: 403.

For the trick of leaving the knife or the spoon behind, see number 11 in this collection.

For the fire-test see 21a and note to number 9.

It is clear, from the picture drawn of Horse as he starts for the Fire, that the story-teller thinks of the actors in the story as animals, even when he shows them behaving like human beings.

37. ANANSI IN MONKEY COUNTRY.

Mrs. W. E. Wilson (Wona) thinks that the second version of the story, told by Jekyll, 70–72, is not a true negro form, because of the great respect in which Jamaica negroes hold the rites of the established church.

Compare Cronise and Ward, 133–145; Fortier, 24–27.

As a device for getting victims cooked and eaten, the story is related to numbers 16 and 38 in this collection.

38. CURING THE SICK.

In Parkes’s version, the substitution of the human for the fish victim not only spoils the wit of the story but obscures its relation to the story of Anansi’s visit to fish-country as it appears in number 39. The identity of the two is proved by the structure of the story, which falls into two parts. (1) Anansi, pretending to cure a sick relative, eats her instead. (2) The mule offers to avenge her and plays dead outside Anansi’s door; when he attempts to make use of her for food, she drags him into the water and drowns him, as in number 6.

For (1) compare Cronise and Ward, 226–230, where Rabbit pretends to cure Leopard’s children and eats them up; Nassau, 125–126, where Tortoise pretends to bring children out of Crocodile’s hundred eggs, and eats them all.

(2) In Parsons’s Portuguese negro story, JAFL 30: 231–235, Lob escapes from the island where the indignant birds have abandoned him, by bribing Horse-fish to carry him across. He promises to pay her well, but abandons the horse-fish as soon as he touches shore. She remains weeping on the shore. Lob thinks her dead and starts to cut her up. She drags him into the sea and drowns him. There are small touches in the story which prove its identity with the Jamaica version. When Lob’s wife weeps, Lob says, “She is just playing with me, she is not going to do anything.” In Parkes’s story, Anansi says to the mule who is dragging him into the sea, “A little fun me mak wid you, no mean i’.” In both Jamaica versions, Mule turns Anansi over to the vengeance of the fishes; in the Portuguese, he is drowned.

In Jekyll, 135–137, an old lady meddles with a jar she has been told not to touch and which, as soon as she gets her hand in, drags her to the sea and drowns her.

In Jekyll, 125, “Cousin Sea-mahmy” makes his son Tarpon carry Anansi to shore, and Anansi gets him into the pot by the trick of taking turns weighing each other, as in number 16.

In Pamela Smith, 44–46, Anansi eats the sick mother under pretence of cure, and bribes Dog to carry him across the river, but there is no vengeance; Dog himself is swallowed by Crocodile.

39. ANANSI, WHITE-BELLY AND FISH.

Jekyll, 129–131, and Milne-Home, 35–39, have excellent versions of this very popular Jamaica story, which, in its full form, is made up of four episodes. (1) The birds take Anansi across the water to their feeding-place where, because of his bad behavior, they abandon him. (2) Anansi visits Fish and claims relationship. Fish tests him with a cup of hot pop, which he cools in the sun under pretence of heating it hotter. (3) He is lodged for the night with a box of eggs, all of which he eats but one; and when called upon to count the eggs, brings Fish the same one every time, after wiping off the mark. (4) Fish sends her children to row him home. He fools them out of heeding her call when she discovers the loss of the eggs. Once on shore, he fries and eats the children.

Compare Tremearne, 265–266; Head-hunters, 324–326; Rattray, 2: 88–104; Parsons, Portuguese negroes, JAFL 30: 231–235; Andros Island, 2–3.

(1) The episode of the birds’ feeding-place is to be compared with that of Fire-fly and the egg-hunt, number 7, and with the visit “inside the cow,” number 22. In the Portuguese version, the birds take Lob to a dance and he sings insulting songs because there is no feast.

(2) The test of relationship occurs in Jekyll and in Tremearne, Head-hunters. It belongs to the same class of boasts as those of the Clever Tailor in Grimm 20 and 183.

(3) In Milne-Home, the scorpion trick is employed to guard the eggs, as in number 7, and Anansi complains of “fleas” biting him. The episode is lacking in Jekyll.

In Tremearne, Head-hunters, when Spider breaks the egg-shells, the children cry out to know what is the matter and Spider says he is hiccoughing.

The egg-counting trick generally occurs in a different connection. The trickster visits Tiger’s house, eats all the cubs but one, and counts that one many times. Compare Callaway, 24–27; MacDonald 1: 55–56; Theal 111; Jacottet, 40–45; Rattray, Chinyanje, 137–138; Harris, Nights, 346–348.

(4) In Jekyll, Anansi visits “Sea-mahmy,” who is a mermaid, and her son, “Trapong,” or tarpon, takes him home. In Milne-Home, “Alligator” is host; a “boatman” the ferryman. Lob gets “aunt” sea-horse to carry him to shore. In my Jamaica versions, the sons are the ferrymen and are generally cooked and eaten at the other end. The misinterpreted call occurs in all Jamaica versions and in Tremearne, Head-hunters. In the Lob story, Lob mutters an insult; when asked to repeat his words, he declares that he has merely praised the sea-horse’s swimming; compare Parsons, Sea Islands, 54–56. For the fate of the ferryman, see also note to number 38 and compare Anansi’s treatment of Rat in the note to number 7.

40. GOAT’S ESCAPE.

The story of Goat’s Escape is a favorite in Jamaica. See Milne-Home, 58–60; 65–66. It falls into two parts. (1) Goat and Dog are pursued and Dog escapes over a river which Goat cannot cross. (2) Goat transforms himself into a stone, which the pursuer himself throws across the river. The introduction to the flight varies but (2) remains constant.

Compare: Jacottet, note page 262; Parsons, Andros Island, 103 and note; Jones, 121–123; 133–136.

Version (a). Compare Jones, and Milne-Home, 58–60.

Version (b). In Jekyll, 46–47, Puss gives the rats a ball and only those members of the family escape who attend to little Rat’s warning, for he has heard the cat’s song. Compare Chatelain, 189–191, and see note to number 86, where the little brother or sister discovers by the words of a song a treacherous intention.

41. TURTLE’S ESCAPE.

See number 58, part (3).

42. FIRE AND ANANSI.

A less witty version of this popular Jamaica story occurs in Jekyll, 129–131.

In Dayrell, 64–65, Sun and Water are great friends. Sun visits Water, but Water never visits Sun. At length, Sun invites Water and builds a great compound to receive him and his friends. All come, take possession, and crowd Sun and his wife, Moon, out into the sky.

43. QUIT-QUIT AND ANANSI.

A story which turns upon teaching the wrong song to a dull-witted rival, never fails to raise a laugh in Jamaica. See numbers 4, 106 in this collection.

44. SPIDER MARRIES MONKEY’S DAUGHTER.

Compare Tremearne FL 21: 353–354 and number 92 of this collection.

45. THE CHAIN OF VICTIMS

Common as is the story of the “chain of victims” in Africa, Falconer gave me the only version I heard in Jamaica.

Compare Koelle, 158–161; Dayrell, 6–10; Nassau, 245–247; Tremearne, 373–374; FL 21: 211–212; Lenz, 39–40; Boas, JAFL 25: 207–209; Rattray, 2: 58–72.

46. WHY TUMBLE-BUG ROLLS IN THE DUNG.

Compare Tremearne, 261; FL 21: 498–499; Christensen, 96–98; and note to number 35 in this collection. [173]

47. WHY JOHN-CROW HAS A BALD HEAD.

The explanatory story of “John-crow peel-head” is very popular in Jamaica. See Pamela Smith, 25–26, and number 17d.

48. WHY DOG IS ALWAYS LOOKING.

In Milne-Home, 121, “Jack Spaniard” (a wasp-like fly) laughs at Mosquito’s boast till “he broke his waist in two.”

In Jones, 22, Sparrow makes the boast about his father’s crop of potatoes. [174]

49. WHY ROCKS AT THE RIVER ARE COVERED WITH MOSS.

See Milne-Home, 94–95; Jekyll, 52.

Compare Parsons, Andros Island, 119–121 and note for references; Bundy, JAFL 32: 412–413, and see note to number 138.

For a discussion of Grimm 110, The Jew among Thorns, see Bolte u. Polívka 2: 490–503.

50. WHY GROUND-DOVE COMPLAINS.

See number 21.

51. WHY HOG IS ALWAYS GRUNTING.

See number 10. In Pamela Smith’s “Dry-head” story, Anansi’s nose turns long, and he goes about persuading other people to screw on snouts.

52. WHY TOAD CROAKS.

See note to number 29.

53. WHY WOODPECKER BORES WOOD.

In Barker, 123, three sons wish to do honor to their mother and the first declares that he will make her a “sepulchre of stone.”

54. WHY CRAB IS AFRAID AFTER DARK.

The story represents a very wide-spread folk motive—that of a weak being who appeals to some deity for more power, but whose request is proved to be either needless or disastrous.

In Tremearne, FL 21: 360, an old woman is to teach Spider cunning. She sends him for a bottle of lion’s tears, an elephant’s tusk, a dog’s skin. Spider secures them all, and escapes her when she tries to kill him. She says, “If I taught you more cunning, you would destroy everybody.” This story is popular in Sea Islands, according to Dr. Parsons, JAFL 32: 404, and Sea Islands, 14–19. Compare Bundy, JAFL 32: 416–417, and note, page 416.

In Tremearne, 270–271, Snake promises Scorpion a poison that will kill a man at once. Scorpion accidentally bites Snake, and she refuses the poison lest he kill everybody.

In Fortier, 13–19, the Devil gives the little Earthworm his wish: “I want to become big big and beat everybody who will come to trouble and bother me. Give me only that and I shall be satisfied.” The consequences are disastrous for the earth-worm.

In Folk-tales of the Malagasy, FLJ 1: 238–239, “the little Round Boy” smokes out God’s children and so wins his desire.

In Ralston, 1–20, Sukra grants all an ambitious king’s wishes until he finally wishes to push Sukra himself off his seat. See Grimm, 19, The Fisherman’s Wife, Bolte u. Polívka 1: 138–148.

Compare the Panchatantra story quoted by Ralston, introduction to Tibetan Tales, Liii, of the weaver who asks for two pairs of arms and two heads in order to work faster, but is pelted by his terrified neighbors for his pains.

55. WHY MICE ARE NO BIGGER.

Compare Parsons, Sea Islands, 19–22.

56. RAT’S WEDDING.

This story is told in Milne-Home, 63–64. [175]

57. COCKROACH STORIES.

For version (a) compare number 6.

For version (b) compare Tremearne, 314; Parsons, Andros Island, 90–91 and note.

58. HUNTER, GUINEA-HEN AND FISH.

The story as Williams tells it is made up of three parts. (1) Bird and Hunter set up the same home without either knowing of the other. (2) Bird supplies Fish with wings and brings him to the feeding-patch, then takes the wings and flies away when Hunter comes in pursuit. (3) Fish is captured as the thief, but escapes by song and dance into the sea.

(1) See Grimm 27, Bremen Town Musicians, Bolte u. Polívka, 1: 237–239. Compare Barker, 141–143; Tremearne, FL 21: 495; Renel 2: 12–13; Parsons, Andros Island, 135; Rattray, 2: 34.

(2) The episode is identical with Anansi and the Birds in number 39, but motivated differently. See numbers 2b, 5b, 21b. In Bates’s Jamaica version, JAFL 9: 122–124, Mudfish is left in the Watchman’s hands without the preliminary episode of the common dwelling, and the escape is effected in the same manner.

(3) See number 41 and compare Renel 2: 165; Parsons, Andros Island, 135–137 and references note 2, page 137.

59. RABBIT STORIES.

These three and number 17b are the only Rabbit stories I heard in Jamaica. A woman named Ellen told the stories to the lads from whom I heard them, but she refused to be interviewed. See numbers 21a, 12, 23.

60. THE ANIMAL RACE.

The wit of the animal race turns upon the fact that a slow animal, contrary to all expectation, wins over a swift. The story takes three forms. (1) The swift animal is so sure of winning that it delays and “slow but sure wins the race.” (2) The little animal wins by hanging on behind while the other runs, and thus slipping in ahead at the end. (3) The slow animal arranges a relay by placing one of its kind along the road and taking its own position in hiding near the goal. See Dähnhardt 4: 46–96.

(1) The classic Aesopic moral appears in Parsons, Andros Island, 102–103; and in JAFL 30: 214.

(2) Compare Barker, 155–157; Madagascar, FLJ 2: 166–168; Natchez Indians, Swanton, JAFL 26: 203; Saurière, 104; Lenz, Estudios, 185, 187.

In Grimm 20 (Bolte u. Polívka 1: 148–165), while the giant bears the trunk of the tree on his shoulders, the valiant tailor rides home from the forest in the branches and pretends that he has been carrying the heavier load of the two.

(3) The Jamaica stories always follow the form of the relay race, as in Jekyll, 39–43. Compare Basset 1: 15; Bleek, 32; Frobenius 3: 15; Rattray, Chinyanje 131; Renel 2: 150–152; Schwab, JAFL 27: 277; Hartt, 7–15; Smith, 543; Christensen, 5–9; Jones, 5–6; Edwards, 69; Harris, Uncle Remus, 87–91; Boas, JAFL 25: 214–215; Parsons, Sea Islands, 79; JAFL 30: 174; 32: 394; and references to American Indian stories in Boas, JAFL 25: 249; Ponape, Hambruch, Südsee-Märchen, p. 196; note, p. 347.

The story is told in Grimm 187, discussed by Bolte u. Polívka 3: 339–355.

For the flying-trial for a bride, compare Parsons, Andros Island, 101.

61. THE FASTING TRIAL.

See number 149, where the bird in the tree starves and Hopping Dick on the ground picks up worms and wins the match. In this story, though incomplete, it is intimated that the bird in the tree wins.

Compare Dayrell, 153–155; Harris, Nights, 370–373; Fortier, 34–37; Parsons, Andros Island, 97—99.

In Dayrell, the birds propose to starve seven days to see which will be king. One leaves a hole out of which he creeps unobserved to feed.

In Harris, as in this Jamaica version, the winning bird takes up his station in the tree; the “fool bud” stays down by the creek.

In Parsons, one bird chooses a fruit tree, the other a “dry” tree. The song sung by the winning bird runs,—

“This day Monday mornin’
Tama tama tam!”

and so on for the remaining days of the week.

In Fortier, the lady-love brings food to her favorite bird. The cooing song in the Jamaica versions suggests this connection.

62. MAN IS STRONGER.

Compare Koelle 177–179; Harris, Nights, 33–38; 330–333; Radin, JAFL 28: 397–398, and see Grimm 72, discussed by Bolte u. Polívka 2: 96–100, and Sebillot, Le Folk-lore de France, 3: 63.

63. THE PEA THAT MADE A FORTUNE.

Compare: Bleek, 90–94; Callaway, 37–40; Theal, 102–105; Renel 2: 60–63; Rivière, 95–97; Tremearne, 237–242; FL 21: 213–214; Barker, 177–180; Cronise and Ward, 313; Torrend, 169–172; Elmslie, FL 3: 92–95; Krug, JAFL 25: 113–114; Harris, Friends, 182–186, and see Grimm 83, Hans in Luck; Bolte u. Polívka 2: 201–203.

64. SETTLING THE FATHER’S DEBT.

For similar “enigmatic phrase” stories compare Basset 2: 147–148; Rivière, 160–162; Renel 2: 82–84; 89–90; 164–165. The version, however, resembles the drolls from the Wye valley recorded in FL 16:178, 352.

65. MR. LENAMAN’S CORN-FIELD.

Parkes gave me the only version I got of this good story in Jamaica; he heard it in the parish of St. Ann. Barker, 181–184, tells the same for “Farmer Mybrow,” but only to the harvesting. In Cronise and Ward, 152–159, a man tries to harvest rice in Devil’s Town. The Devil does all the work, but eventually the pot of rice runs back to the Devil.

66. SIMON TOOTOOS. [176]

I heard this story more than once in Jamaica.

Compare Renel 2: 167–168; 283–286; Bundy, JAFL 32: 420; Parsons, Andros Island, 62–65 and 62, note 1, for references.

In a manuscript story shown me by Mrs. W. E. Wilson (Wona) which she took down from her old nurse, the same song is adapted to another story of a disobedient boy. In this tale, the boy insists upon going out late at night. He is at last captured by an ogre named “Time-an’-tootoos” who carries him off to devour. Father, mother and sister refuse his cry for help, but the brother finally hears him and comes just in time to his rescue. The song runs:

Me muma, oh, me muma, oh,
Time-an’-tootoo, oh, lennan boy!
Me muma, oh, me muma, oh,
Time-an’-tootoo, oh, lennan boy!
Carry him go ’long, carry him go long,
Hard ears baby, oh, lennan boy!

For the story, compare Parson’s Andros Island, “Disobedient Boy,” 155–156, and see Jacobs’s tale of Mr. Miacca, English Fairy Tales, third edition, revised, 171; Grimm, 42, The Godfather, Bolte u. Polívka 1: 375–377. This is the only case in which I found the same song adapted to the dialogue of two different stories.

67. THE TREE-WIFE.

Compare Torrend, 40–44. For the answering spittle, compare Tremearne, 210; answering tufts of hair, Theal, 131; see note to number 15 and Bolte u. Polívka 1: 499; 2: 526–527. For beliefs about tracing something lost by means of spittle, see JAFL 2: 51, 52.

68. SAMMY THE COMFEREE.

This curious story seems to be a cross between the Potiphar’s wife episode with which the ballad of “Young Seidal” opens, and the African tale of the lard girl who melts if exposed to the sun.

Compare Dayrell, 1–2; Tremearne, 192; Parsons, Andros Island, 125 and note 2 for references.

69. GRANDY DO-AN’-DO.

In a Jamaica version by P. Smith, the story takes the form of the transformed mistress (numbers 84, 87). Toad betrays the witch to her suitor and teaches him the name by pronouncing which he discovers her true nature. In another Jamaica story (P. Smith, 38–40), the monster does not harm the woman who knows his name.

The story belongs to the group of fatal-name stories so popular in Jamaica. See numbers 14, 17, 23, 31, 44, 75, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93. All turn upon name customs and superstitions such as are touched upon in Tremearne, 178–182; Renel, 2: 39–40; Theal 2: 214; and discussed in Clodd’s Magic in Names, New York, 1921; Frazer’s Golden Bough (1911) 3: 318–418. See also Bolte u. Polívka 1: 490–498, on Grimm 55.

Compare Junod, 309–313; Tremearne, 274–278; 349–350; Dayrell, 79–80; Parsons, Andros Island, 114–115; Sea Islands, 22–23.

In this story, (1) a servant, refused food unless she tells the name of her mistress, learns the secret from a friendly animal; (2) the mistress discovers the traitor and avenges herself upon him or is herself vanquished.

(1) In some African versions, girls come to wed a desirable suitor, who kills them if they cannot tell his name. One girl is polite to an old woman, who tells her the secret.

(2) In some African versions, as in number 93, the name is fatal. In Jamaica, its possession wins a reward, and the interest is likely to turn upon an explanatory ending. For the incident of singing the name, see Musgrave, FLR 3: 1: 53–54. For the bull-fight, see number 88, and compare Cronise and Ward, 55–65.

70. JACK AND HARRY.

This fragmentary story belongs, with the Man-crow story of number 90, to a much longer African story which relates the adventures of a child-hero whose father, dying, leaves instructions that the child’s will shall never be crossed. Incidents succeed one another of inhuman ingratitude and of intrepid heroism, based on the possession of magical powers, until the boy finally kills a bird-monster and performs other remarkable exploits.

Compare Tremearne, How Auta killed Dodo, 408–412; Zeltner, Histoire de Kama, 47–62.

“Harry” in this story is the counterpart of the older sister who acts as Kama’s mentor in Zeltner’s version, and of “Barra” in Tremearne. The four episodes are common to this and the Kama story,—the stolen breakfast, the insult to the sheltering old woman, and the two episodes of the breaking of the rescuing eagle’s wing, followed immediately by the abuse of the friendly tortoise. In Zeltner, the tortoise has restored the children to life. The common-place incidents of the Jamaica version are in curious contrast with the rich and varied phantasmagoria of the Senegambian tale.

The flight which brings disaster to the kindly shelterers occurs in the story of Tiger’s pursuit by the “Nyams,” told by Pamela Smith, 59–65. Compare Tremearne, 344–346.

In Europe, the story of the Bear’s son in folk-tale and of Robert the Devil in romance have points in common with this story. See Grimm 90; Bolte u. Polívka 2: 285–297; as also Grimm’s Thumbling stories, numbers 37 and 45, and note (3) to number 30.

71. PEA-FOWL AS MESSENGER.

Jekyll, 84–85, connects the animal competitors with the story of making the dumb girl speak, as in numbers 95, 96. In Milne-Home, 73–77, the animals compete to sing at the king’s dance. In African parallels, some peril is involved of which a bird is to bear warning. But in all my versions and in those given by Mrs. Parsons from Andros Island, 112–113, the birds summon the father of a new-born child. The song of one of my versions from Maroon-town runs,

Mr. Canoe-lo, Mr. Canoe-lo,
I want de key of de hall door,
Mistress Canoe hard labour.

Mrs. Parsons says that the negroes of Andros Island agreed that this was the most popular story on the island.

Compare Torrend, 87–88; Junod, 140–141; Dennett, 103–104; Jacottet, 108; Theal, 63–66; Renel 1: 32–34; 279–281, 282–287; Parsons, Andros Island, 112–113; Sea Islands, 106.

Peafowl’s reward gives an explanatory turn to the end of the story. In Hendricks version from Mandeville, Peafowl sings,

Mister Conna Levrin, Mister Conna Levrin,
When she’s going to die, ah-h!

The husband reaches home in haste. The lady gives Pea-fowl the promised reward, and “he took the bag of gold and the silver, and in his joy he threw it right over his head, over his entire body, never remembered his two feet. That’s the reason why Pea-fowl’s so handsome all over—has such beautiful feathers and such ugly feet.”

72. THE BARKING PUPPY.

On the whole, the bird is a friendly spirit, the dog an unfriendly in African story. Here, as in number 28, the dog takes the place of the warning bird. The idea seems to be here that the dog, by calling his master’s name, invokes his spirit.

Compare Junod, 93; Parsons, Andros Island, 165; and “The Hobyahs” in Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, 127.

In Junod, Dove warns Hippopotamus against Rabbit; Rabbit kills Dove. The feathers give warning; Rabbit burns all the feathers but one and mixes them with dirt; then the one feather gives warning.

In Chatelain, 129, a dog warns of a murder. See note to number 73.

In Callaway, 52, a witch’s flesh is ground to powder and thrown into the water in order that it may not come back to life.

73. THE SINGING BIRD.

In Jekyll, 14–16, the incident of the warning bird is employed in the story of the two sisters, number 74. Version b is a poor rendering of Jekyll, 96–97.

In Theal, 217–220, the younger of two brothers secures a magic gift of cattle. The elder lets him down into a water-hole to drink and, leaving him there, goes home with the cattle. A warning bird leads rescuers to the place. See, for the same story, Jacottet, 60–62 and note; Folk-Lore Jour. of. So. Af. 1: 139–147.

For the incident of the warning bird compare Torrend, 17; note 24–26; 166–167; Theal, 219; Renel 1: 30–31; Dayrell, 110–114; FLJ (SA) 1: 75–79. The motive is common in ballads; e.g. JAFL 20: 253. In the Cinderella story, it is a bird who gives warning of the false bride; e.g. Callaway, 130–135. Not all birds, only certain species, are looked upon as “prophet birds.” See Cronise and Ward, 175; Dennett, 8. That these birds may be regarded in some cases as the actual soul of the murdered person is evident from Renel’s story.

In Parsons, Andros Island, 129–132, a tree sings of a murder. See Grimm 47, The Juniper Tree, and Bolte u. Polívka 1: 412–423 on Grimm 28, The Singing Bones.

74. TWO SISTERS.

Jamaica versions of this popular story appear in Milne-Home, 70–72; Jekyll, 14–16; Trowbridge, JAFL 9: 283–284. Parsons Andros Island, 150–152, has equivalent versions.

The False Bride motive is very common in African story. Compare Callaway, 105–130; 303–316; Theal, 56–66; 144–147; 151–154; Jacottet, 90–99; Torrend, 66–68; Dayrell, 126.

In number 101, the true bride comes at night and sings and is detected through the words of her song. In this story, she comes at night to suckle her child; see the Child ballad version noted by Parsons, and Bolte u. Polívka 1: 76–96, on Grimm 11, Brother and Sister. In Theal, 55–66, the drowned woman comes at night to suckle her child, is watched, and a net set to catch her. In Theal, 144–147, the snare and the milk are set for the false instead of for the true bride as a test of her witch nature because no witch’s tail can escape the attraction of milk. This is like the old fable of the cat who became a lady, but betrayed her origin when a mouse ran across the floor.

75. ASSONAH.

This story has some elements in common with number 90. It falls into two parts. (1) A huge beast comes daily to the house and is finally shot. (2) A boy who must discover the name of the beast learns it by chance from an old woman and wins the reward.

(1) Compare Backus, JAFL 13: 27, where the animal is a bear.

(2) The connection between the first and the last part of this story, which seems to belong to the fatal name series, is lost. For the old woman as informant, compare references to number 69. For the audience, the point of the story evidently lay in the comic way in which Brown held up the imaginary monster’s skin between thumb and fore-finger and said, “No (is it not?) Assonah ’kin?” Assonah is generally supposed to be an elephant.

76. THE GREEDY CHILD.

The idea of a water spirit who allows no one to cross a river without an offering of food, seems to be common in West Africa; e.g. Dayrell, 107–114. Jekyll, 100–101, Dry River, has a Jamaica version of this story. Compare also Tremearne, 209–210, 307–314.

77. ALIMOTY AND ALIMINTY.

For the exchange of colors see Bolte u. Polívka 1: 124–126. For place-changing and killing of the wrong victim see the same, 499–501. Compare Parsons, Sea Islands, 128.

The incident is common in African story, e.g. Tremearne, 430; Dennett, 47; Torrend, 33; Junod, 163. The setting of the story is often similar to number 23 where a parent calls upon outside aid to get rid of a troublesome child.

78. THE FISH LOVER.

This story is very common in Jamaica. See Milne-Home, 91–93, and compare Renel 1: 203–204; 206–208 (origin of water-beings); Renel 2: 268–269; Parsons, Andros Island, 61, and note for references; Sea Islands, 137.

In Smith, 573–584, a young man changes into a fish in order to escape the attentions of the ladies. He comes out when his mother calls him. He is finally lured out and caught in the meshes of his lover’s hair.

In Grimm 8, Bolte u. Polívka 1: 69–70, a little girl is forced by her brothers to go out and cut peat with a dull knife. Her elf-lover stretches out a sharp knife to her from the hill where he lives and tells her to call him by striking on the stone. The brothers wonder how she can cut the peat, and spy upon her. They strike the stone, take the knife and cut off the elf’s hand, who thereafter disappears.

79. JUGGIN STRAW BLUE.

The story is confused in the telling. It has three parts. (1) A water-being helps a girl who is abused by her aunt and sent to fetch water with too heavy a jug. (2) The water-being pursues and carries off the girl, though she is locked in an iron chest. (3) The girl’s lover comes to her rescue and defeats the monster. See the next number and perhaps 99.

80. THE WITCH AND THE GRAIN OF PEAS.

There are two parts to this story. (1) The witch step-mother discovers that the girl has eaten food in her house and threatens to drown her. (2) The lover comes to rescue her and fights the step-mother.

(1) Compare Jacottet, 166–175, and Lewis, 253–255.

(2) For the fight, compare numbers 69, 79, 88, 89, 90. For the fight with eggs see number 79 and compare Fortier, 11–13. Eggs are used as propitiatory offerings to a water monster, as in Dayrell, 130, and are among the most useful objects employed for conjuring. In Zeltner, 1–6, eggs are used for magical purposes in the fight with a witch, but arrows serve as the actual weapons.

81. THE WITCH AT BOSEN CORNER.

This nursery tale was commonly recited to me by women, and a great many versions differed only in trifling respects from the pattern employed in the oldest Jamaica version on record, Lewis, 255–259.

Here the girl breaks a jug and is sent to get a new one. Three old women appear to her one after another, the last of them headless, to test her courtesy. The cat appears, the rice is cooking. The eggs to be selected are the “silent” ones out of a number of fine large ones that cry “take me.” Out of the first egg comes the jug after which she has been sent; the other two make her fortune.

P. Smith’s version, 31–34, has more direct Frau Holle incidents. The good girl fulfils as she advances the requests of the grass, ping-wing and bramble, the fruit-tree and the cow. When the old woman sends her to draw water with a basket, Turtle tells her to put a plantain-leaf inside. She selects a little ugly calabash. When she is pursued by “axe-men” (as in number 82), the things she has been kind to befriend her, as in Wona’s version of Brother Dead.

In a manuscript version in the collection of Mrs. W. E. Wilson (Wona), Yuckie and Jubba are the two daughters. Yuckie has a present of a string of amber beads. She puts them about her neck and says “bad dey behind you, good dey before you,” but this only in dream. She loses the beads in the river and is turned out of the house. On her way, she sees and greets kindly a foot and a hand, and scratches the back of an ugly old woman, without complaining of the insects which sting her. The pot of rice, the cat, and the eggs are as above. The fine eggs say “Tek me no,” the dirty ones, “No tek me.” Compare FLJ (SA) 1; 111–116, where the girls pretend to throw their beads into the water and thus deceive one girl into doing so, who has then to go down to the home of the water monster to get them back.

The variants from Andros Island, Parsons, 17–26, show no such uniformity. They are sometimes confused with the pumpkin story of Parsons, 26–27, and Milne-Home, 84–88, in which the choice of pumpkins is like that of the eggs in this story.

The theme is very common in African collections. Compare MacDonald 1:298–301; Junod, 191–192; 237–242; Torrend, 75–80; Tremearne, 307–314; 401–407; Barker, 89–94; Nassau, 213; Renel 1:50–64; Bundy, JAFL 32:406; and Parsons, Andros Island, note 1, page 17 for further references. See Grimm 24, Frau Holle; Bolte u. Polívka 2:207–227.

82. THE WITCH AND THE THREE DOGS.

This is one of the longest stories I heard in Jamaica. The leading Maroon story-teller recited it to me in full audience, and I heard it repeated by another Maroon in much less detail. Numbers 83, 84 and 89 have points of likeness to it.

It has five parts. (1) Two brothers are out penning cattle and one, going for fire, surprises a witch in the act of feeding her family, which she carries about in her own body. (2) The witch, bent on revenge, follows them home and proposes, as a test for a husband, knocking a calabash from her head with a missile; the boy throws a frail missile and succeeds. (3) At night, the witch sharpens her razor to kill him, but each time she approaches, one of his dogs warns him. (4) The boy departs with his bride, leaving his dogs chained, but he places a pot in the middle of the floor and warns his mother when the liquid in the pot begins to boil to loosen the dogs to his rescue. (5) He climbs a tree to escape the witch. She produces axes and axe-men by tapping her body and proceeds to chop the tree, which he restores magically until his dogs rush in and tear up the witch.

Compare Barker, 123–128; Callaway, 51–54; Chatelain, 103–110; Jacottet, 58; Renel 1:86–93; Theal, 46; Tremearne, 432–441; Zeltner, 61; FLJ (SA) 1:13–17; 21–25; Lenz, 15–17; Edwards, 72; Harris, Friends, 91–100; Parsons, Andros Island, 66–70; Sea Islands, 80–88; JAFL 30:189–190; JAFL 25:259; 32:399–400.

(1) “Possessing the fire” is a sign of magic power, according to Junod, 157, note. In Edwards, “De big worrum” has fire. A father sends two sons in turn to fetch it, but as they reach after the fire the worm swallows them. The father goes with a lance that glistens, is swallowed, cuts open the worm and rescues all the people the worm has swallowed. In Renel, 88, the pursuing monster swallows people alive. Compare Tremearne, and Parsons, Andros Island, 67, 68.

In Tremearne, a hunter sees a witch knocking herself and feeding monsters all over her body. In Jacottet, an axe chops out of the body of the witch the cows which are the cause of the two brothers’ quarrel.

(2) In Barker, the episode of the calabash is attached to the story of the hunter, told in number 84. The elephant whose tail he has cut off turns into a lady and goes to find her mutilator. She proposes a test similar to the test in this story. In Tremearne, the witch proposes the test, as in this story, because the hunter has seen more than he should.

(3) For this episode see note to number 83 and references. In Tremearne, the boy’s father insists upon the son’s taking a horse, a sword, and gourds. When the witch sharpens her teeth to eat the boy, the horse wakens him. In Parsons, Andros Island, 68, the boy escapes the witch’s razor by turning into a bucket of water.

(4) It is not clear how this episode of the life token got attached to the story. I do not find it in African versions. That it is fairly constant is shown in Parsons, 66, 67, 69. In the more common form of the story of the Two Brothers, with which this story has some elements in common, the life-token often takes the form of a knife stuck in a tree; see number 104. In Tremearne, 298, the treed husband has carried his flute, with which he warns his wife to loosen his dogs very much in the manner of Roland at Roncevalle. In Jekyll, 35, the water in a white saucer set in the sun turns to blood, but this is a Blue-beard story.

(5) Climbing a tree to escape an enemy is one of the commonest episodes in African flight stories. See number 89. Here it occurs combined with the axe-chopping contest and the rescue by dogs, who rush in at the end and tear the pursuer to pieces. In Tremearne, the woman transforms herself in various ways before the dogs succeed in killing her. They then devour every drop of her blood. In number 104, the dogs are restrained from taking part in the fight with the witch by being chained by the witch’s hair. This episode is also of frequent occurrence in American Indian lore. See Parsons, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 54:1–29 (1922).

In some cases, e.g. in Theal, Zeltner, Harris, 85–90, and in FLJ (SA), the tree-cutting episode occurs independently of the rescuing dogs.

83. ANDREW AND HIS SISTERS.

The story appears in Milne-Home, 114–120.

Compare Chatelain, 145–151; 103–111; Renel 1:77–81; 2:261–265; 265–267; Ferrand, 119–122; Torrend, 159–163; Tremearne, 432–441; Callaway, 53; Theal, 124–126; Cronise and Ward, 178–186; Dennett, 52; Barker, 97–101; Junod, 144–148; Edwards, 92–93; Parsons, Andros Island, 44.

See numbers 82 and 86. It is the imitative “Sharpen me razor” song which makes the story successful with an audience.

84. THE HUNTER.

The story is popular in Jamaica and is told interchangeably of man or woman wooer.

Compare Barker, 123–128; Cronise and Ward, 261–262; Tremearne, 292–293; FL 22:457–458; Harris, Friends, 91–100; Parsons, Andros Island, 65 and reference note 3.