Chapter XIII: Part 13

See 53.

NOTES

[1] depon here signifies “because of.”

[2] A kettle.

[3] Tall bush peas, one of the commonest and most prized of Jamaica crop.

[4] Anansi here claims the power of a sorcerer.

[5] Record was poor and could only be taken in part.

[6] See story 96.

[7] The misunderstood warning is inserted from another narrator.

[8] This means, “Eat, eat, eat”;—“Don’t want anything to eat.”

[9] Fire-flies are common in Jamaica.

[10] Pineapple.

[11] Anyone who has a knife can eat pineapple; anyone who has none cannot eat pineapple.

[12] A duppy is a ghost, spirit, or any supernatural apparition, but here probably refers to the Devil.

[13] Crow’s name in French stories.

[14] A machete is a broad heavy knife used to clear brush, cut cane, etc.

[15] So-so means “only.”

[16] Colloquial for “getting me into trouble.”

[17] “A lie, sir!”

[18] Yeye is Jamaican for “eyes”.

[19] “Dry-head is one of the same species, but he is a different man from them.” “Dry-head is a man always hide himself in the bush to eat up what Anansi or Tacoomah have,” Parkes says.—He figures as a kind of old man of the sea in the Anansi stories.

[20] Tack means a “trick”.

[21] A yellow yam, the favorite vegetable food of the negro is called “afoo yam”.

[22] Fawning means “feigning”.

[23] A cement platform for drying coffee or piment berries.

[24] A kind of plant with poisonous juice.

[25] By himself, alone.

[26] From this point the story follows a Lacovia version.

[27] Wild yam.

[28] “Go-long-go” corresponds with “Dry-head” in other versions. See note to 22.

[29] “You ate the meat and gave me none.”

[30] A pit in the ground near the sea-coast, into which the waves wash is called a “sea-ball.”

[31] “A very hasty temper.”

[32] Oonoo is Jamaican for “you.”

[33] “In your district.”

[34] Butterfly.

[35] A Jamaican food-basket, woven deep and square in shape.

[36] A soiled garment should never be left about lest it be used by the sorcerer to bewitch the owner. Burning such a garment produces a skin disease exactly like a burn, according to the common belief.

[37] A shallow flaring bowl.

[38] “I thought you were dead.”

[39] Assono is a large animal, unidentified. See story 75.

[40] The repetition is distributive and means “until to-day.”

[41] A local place-name.

[42] A wooden foot-path is laid above the level of high water at the side of a road likely to be flooded in high water. This is called a ‘water table’.

[43] The pot’s equilibrium was disturbed by the impact.

[44] This is a reference to the common saying, Cockroach never so drunk, no walk a fowl yard.

[45] A round tin cooking pot is called a “bonpon”. So is a high round hat.

[46] A trap.

[47] A cooking-pot.

[48] The song sung is the Koromanti Death Song, always used by the Maroons at a burial.

[49] Carencron.

[50] Sung by Mrs. Williams.

[51] An overseer on an estate.

[52] An estate devoted to cattle-raising.

[53] “Only.”

[54] The proverb is added from an old mammy of over a hundred years.

[55] Framboesia, popularly called “yaws” is a contagious though curable skin disease common among young negroes of the West Indies. It begins with a blister and spreads over the whole body. See Lewis, West Indies, p. 208.

[56] Thomas White’s version of this song is as follows:

Pon, pon, me dearie. Pon, pon, me dearie. Ah, me Nancy, me dear, dear.

Oh, oh, you, oh, oh, you, da me Nancy, da me Nancy, What a fine gal!

[57] Jamaica children compose a “secret song” which they amuse themselves with at play or sing when they are walking alone.

[58] In a Brownstown version of the same story, the song is as follows:—

Gashawnee, oh, Gashawnee, oh, Gashawnee, Look how little bit a Sammy call yo’ name, why.

[59] Pronounced “roon”.

[60] The song appears twice in the story, the first time only four measures; it was explained that the second time the song must stop as given because that is how the Anansi Story ends.

[61] The record is uncertain in places.

[62] It is my trade.

[63] The song was sung by Alfred Williams.

[64] The tune is that of the Devil in the Cock and Corn story, number 85.

[65] The dialogue is taken from a popular game.

[66] I asked, “Who is Jock?”—“Jock man dora.”

[67] The record was faulty.

[68] Part of the first of the song is missing; phonograph needle was put down too late.

[69] The narrator continued with the following which, she insisted, belongs with the song:

Tom drunk, but Tom no fool, Tom drunk, but Tom no fool,
Trala-la-la-la-la-la.

This last measure may be repeated at will, or the whole three about Tom. The oftener it is sung, the sweeter the song, in Mother Roden’s opinion and in that of many others.

This singer was most uncertain; in intonation, repetitions, etc. she varied exceedingly and agreed that any way the song was repeated to her by the transcriber was correct, no matter how it was sung. The transcriber, therefore, will not vouch for these three tunes. The old woman is a cripple and can neither read nor write. H. R.

[70] Jamaica negroes speak of the groom at a wedding as “the bride.”

[71] Two school-mistresses in Bethlehem, Santa Cruz Mountains, gave the following list of “born-day names” which belong to negro children in Jamaica according to the day of the week upon which they are born. See Jekyll, int. x (l.c.).

An old woman who was telling me of some obeah practises assured me that the obi-man (sorcerer) did not use a man’s common name when he wanted to bewitch him, but his “born-day” name.

BOYS GIRLS

Sunday Quashy Quashiba
Monday Quaco Juba
Tuesday Cubena Cuba
Wednesday Cudjo Bennie
Thursday Quaw Abba
Friday Cuffy Pheba
Saturday Quamin Benneba.

[72] The music was recorded by a colored boy who was organist in the church at Bethlehem. The dance (also called “calimbe”) is performed at wakes, two men holding a couple of sticks parallel while a third dances upon them to the strains of the song.

[73] A ring-shaped pack made of banana leaves to protect the head when carrying burdens.

[74] “Rolling Calf” is a duppy with fiery eyes and flames issuing from its nostrils. It drags a chain about its neck, the rattle of which strikes terror to night travellers.

[75] Cf. No. 140, p. 199.

[76] Cf. No. 142, p. 199.

[77] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

85. There is a buried thing; who can tell the sort of banana, to him will I give an amulet.

—Woman with child.

[78] Cf. No. 114, p. 196.

[79] Cf. No. 113, p. 196.

[80] Cf. No. 64, p. 190. English: Riddles (Boston):

What thing is that which is lengthened by being cut at both ends?

—A ditch.

[81] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

288. Una arquita muy chiquita, blanquita como la sal; todo el mundo la sabe abrir, pero nadie la sabe cerrar.

[82] Cf. West Highlands (Campbell):

A little clear (?) house and its two doors shut.

Suaheli (Velten):

4. My house has no door.

Suahili (Steere):

1. My house is large; it has no door.

Eastern Bantu (Seidel):

9. There is a house without a door.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

291. Una casa sin ventanas sin puerta ni brujeria, que tiene un galán adentro, por dónde se metería?

Canadian: Ontario, JAFL 31:68:

A little house full of meat,
No door to go in and eat.

—A nut

[83] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

24. A Grandmother sits on the stool and weeps there.

—Cooking-pot.

[84] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell):

CXLVIII. Thirty white horses on a red hill, Now they tramp, now they champ, now they stand still.

[85] Cf. Holme riddles:

(125) Four and twenty white Bulls sate upon a stall, forth came the red Bull & licked them all.

Yorkshire riddles (Notes & Queries, 3rd series, VIII):

Four-&-twenty white beasts,
And t’ red one licks them all.

Canadian: Ontario, JAFL 31:67

Zulu:

3. I puzzle you with a goat-ram which grazes, and white goats; it moves about much, but they eat in one place.

Catalan:

XVIII. Un convent de monjas blancas, dintre hi ha un frare vermell que ’ls hi repica las ancas.

[86] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

LX. What is it goes through thicke & thin
And draws his guts after him?

Holme riddles:

(59) Wha is that as goes throw the heye and leves his gutes after it.

Welsh-Gypsy:

33. What goes through the hedge and leaves its guts behind?

Canadian: Ontario, JAFL 31:69.

[87] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

41. All my children have on turbans.

—Mushrooms.

46. My children all wear clothes and a cap on the side of the head; who has no garment and no cap, he is not my child.

—Fingers. (?)

54. I have seen twenty children in a row with bright frocks on.

—Crows.

Suahili (Steere):

6. My children have turbans; he who has no turban is no child of mine.

—A kind of fruit.

[88] Cf. No. 116, p. 196.

[89] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

77. My half cocoanut spreads over the whole town.

—Moon.

Filipino (Starr):

78. A single grain of rice filled the whole house.

—Lamp.

[90] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

72a. I laid down meal in the evening and in the morning nothing was there.

b. I spread out my strips of matting at night; next morning I went out and found nothing there.

Eastern Bantu (Seidel):

12. I spread my bananas on a rock; the next morning all had been stolen.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

225. Allá arriba hay un plato lieno de aceitunas;
de día se recogen, y de noche se riegan.

[91] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

28. I have built me a great house; it stands upon one post.

Hausa (Rattray) 153:

I built a hut with only one post to prop up the roof.

[92] Cf. No. 22, p. 185.

Welsh-Gypsy: Gypsy Lore 5:241:

29. What grows bigger the more you cut away from it?

[93] Cf. No. 185 p. 203.

[94] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

57. One is father of a hundred.

[95] Cf. Holme riddles:

12. In thickest woods j hunt whith eagles 10 after the chase which when (?) j doe descry j dispossesse me of not usefull then & what j take not only that keep j.

—A man scratching his head with both his hands.

[96] Cf. Irish Folk-Lore Riddles, 67:

Riddle me, riddle me, Randy Row,
My father gave me some seed to sow;
The seeds were black, the ground was white,
Riddle me that against Saturday night.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

151. Sábana blanca está tendida, semilla negra se va por encima, tres que la riegan y dos que la miran.

Catalán (and see note):

XXV. Lo camp es blanch,
la llavó es negra,
cinch son los bous
que menan la rella.

[97] Cf. No. 97, p. 194.

[98] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell):

CLIV. When I went up sandy-hill,
I met a sandy boy;
I cut his throat, I sucked his blood,
And left his skin a hanging-o.

Welsh-Gypsy Folk-riddles:

24. I was going over a bridge; I saw a yellow man. I lifted him up.
I drank his blood, and I threw him down.

Lincolnshire riddles (Notes and Queries 3rd series, VIII):

As I was going over London Brig,
I spies a little red thing;
I pick it up, I suck it blood,
And leaves it skin to dry.

Canadian; Ontario:

As I went over London bridge, I met my sister Mary; I cut off her head and drank her blood and left her body standing.

—Whiskey in a bottle.

[99] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

IX. What is that, that hath a beard of flesh, a mouth of horn, and feet like a griffon?

Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers):

Page 109. Mouth o’ horn, and beard o’ leather;
Ye’ll no guess that though ye were hanged in a tether.

Catalan:

Page 217. Hi ha un home que porta un vestit fet de pedassos, du la barba de carn y de la cara d’os.

[100] Tremearne, 58:

I have two roads open, though I follow the wrong one I am not lost.

[101] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

XXX. What is it that goes to the water on the head?

Welsh-Gypsy, page 251:

35. What goes to the village head downwards?

Irish Folk-Lore Riddles:

I go round the land and round the land
And sleep at night on my head.

—Nail in a brogue.

Canadian; Ontario, JAFL 31:68.

Pennsylvania German JAFL 19:116:

Was ist das? Fern armer Drop muss die Steg uf und ab geh uf em Kop?

[102] Cf. No. 138, p. 199.

West African (Seidel), page 176:

6. Two things early and late together yet never touch.

—Parallel roads.

7. Three children all alike who are constantly together yet never touch each other.

Catalan (and see notes):

CCVII. Quatre germanas corren agualmènt qui part estan posades y agual trebal sostenan y una vol a conseguir l’altra y no s’alcansen.

[103] Cf. No. 72, p. 191.

[104] Cf. Jones, 4; Harris, Nights, 363; Tremearne, 269–270.

[105] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

47. There is an old man; he himself stays within but his beard is outside.

[106] Cf. No. 257, p. 216.

[107] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

113 b. Blanco fué mi nacimiento, amarilla mi vejez; y negro me estoy poniendo cuando me voy a morir.

[108] Cf. No. 20, p. 185.

Nandi (Hollis), 138:

There lives by the river a woman who has many garments. What is she?

—The wild banana plant.

[109] Cf. No. 13, p. 184.

[110] Cf. No. 51, p. 188.

[111] Cf. Nandi (Hollis), page 135:

I have a child who is known to steal.

—Rat.

[112] Spanish Mexican, JAFL 30:230:

A little black one above, and red Juan below.

—Baking plate on fire.

[113] Cf. Nandi (Hollis), 141:

I slaughtered two oxen, one red and the other white, and their hides were alike.

—Earth and sky.

[114] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

49a. I send a man to call some one; he comes before the messenger returns.

49b. The messenger sent is not yet returned; the one sent for arrives.

49c. I am sent to call my friend; the friend is come, I am not returned.

Porta Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

174. Mandé un muchacho a un mandado; primero vino el mandado que el muchacho.

[115] Cf. Irish Folk-lore Riddles:

Irish: As I looked out of my parlour window
I saw the dead carrying the live;
Wasn’t that a wonderful thing?

—Train full of people.

Gaelic: As I was at my window,
I looked through my gold ring;
I saw the dead carrying the living,
Wasn’t that a wondrous thing?

—Ship.

Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), 110:

As I lookit owre my window at ten o’clock at night,
I saw the dead carrying living.

Welsh-Gypsy: 27: The dead carries the living.

[116] Cf. No. 93, p. 194.

[117] Cf. No. 3, p. 183.

[118] Cf. No. 5, p. 183.

[119] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

44. When the lion roars it is heard everywhere.

Nandi (Hollis), p. 145:

A tree fell in Lumbwa and its branches reached Nandi.

—A great gun.

[120] Cf. Yorkshire Riddles (Notes and Queries 3rd series, 8:325):

A house full, a hoile (coal-hole) full,
Ya’ canna’ fetch a bowl full.

Canadian: Ontario, JAFL 31:71.

Welsh-Gypsy, 247:

6. A roadful, a barnful; thou canst not catch a pipeful.

—Wind.

[121] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa) 301 b, New Mexican Spanish 328:

Pelú por fuera
pelú por dentro;
abre el agujero
y ensartalo adentro.

[122] Cf. Suaheli (Velten):

97. Lift up, let it fall: kiba kipandika, kiba kipandua.

[123] Cf. West Highlands (Campbell), II, 420:

Red below, black in the middle, white above.

—Fire, griddle and oatcake.

[124] Cf. Irish Folk-lore Riddles: 75:

Gaelic: As white as flour, and it is not flour; as green as grass and it is not grass, as red as blood and it is not blood; as black as ink and it is not ink.

—Blackberries.

[125] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

IV. What is that that is rough within and red without
And bristled like a hare’s snout;
There is never a lady on the land
But will be content to take it in her hand.

—Eglantine.

[126] Cf. Harris, Nights, 75.

[127] Cf. Holme riddles:

36. Flink flank under a bank 10 about 4.

—Woman milking a cow.

Welsh-Gypsy, 248:

14. In a field I saw 10 pulling 4.

—Girl’s fingers milking.

Canadian, Ontario: JAFL 31:67:

Ink, ank you bank,
Ten drawing four.

[128] Cf. West Highlands (Campbell), 412:

Four shaking and four running,
Two finding the way and one roaring.

Catalan (and see notes):

CXLVI. Dos puntxets,
dos ullets,
quatre massas
y una escombra.

Filipino (Starr):

a) Four posts, one whip, two fans and two bolos.

b) Four earth-posts, two air-posts and whip.

c) One pointing, two moving, four changing.

[129] Cf. No. 65, p. 190.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles, 68:

Chip, chip cherry and all the men in Derry,
Wouldn’t climb the walls of chip, chip cherry.

[130] Cf. Holme riddles, 225:

(44) what is that that goes round about the house and stands behind the door.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles:

I go round the house upstairs and downstairs and sleep at night in a corner.

[131] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

179. Debajo de un come, come estaba un dorme, dorme; cayó el come, come, y despertó el dorme, dorme; se levantó el dorme, dorme y se comió al come, come.

—El coco y el que se lo come.

New-Mexican Spanish, 336:

Durmilis Durmilis está durmiendo,
Martiris Martiris está llegando
Si no fuera por Cominis Cominis
Durmilis Durmilis estuviera muerto.

[132] Cf. Irish Folk-lore Riddles:

As I went out a hazeum-gazeum
I saw a shrinkum-pinkum
Carrying away kum-painy.

—A fox stole a goose at night.

Holme riddles, 233:

(108) As j went through my houter touter houter perly j saw one Mr. higamgige com over the hill of parley but if j had my tarly berly, tarly berly berly j would have bine met with Mr. Higamgige come over the hill of parley.

—A man going ou’ a hill a flee flew over his head.

(237) As j went over Hottery Tottery, etc.

Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), 113:

Ha! master above a master, etc.

Catalan:

XXX. En Penjim Penjoy penjava, etc.

[133] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

XV. Yonder side sea, there is a bote,
The king’s daughter of England there she sate;
An if you tell her name no man it wot
What is the maid’s name that sate in the boate.

—Her name is Anne; for in the fourth line it saith An if ye tell me her name; but this riddle is not to be seene on the booke, but to be put without the booke, or else it will be soone understood.

[134] Cf. Holme riddles, 234;

(111) As j went by the way j met with a boy
j took him my friend for to bee
he took of his hat an drew of his gloves
and so saluted mee.

Lincolnshire riddles (Notes and Queries 3rd series, VIII), 503:

As I was going over Westminster Brig,
I met a Westminster scholar, etc.

[135] Cf. Dorsetshire (Notes and Queries 3rd series IX), 50:

A body met a body
In a narrow lane,
Says the body to a body,
Where hast thou a-ben?

I’ve ben in my wood
A-hunting me some roe.
Then lend me thy little dog
That I may do so.

Then take it unto thee.
Tell me its name;
For twice in the riddle,
I’ve told you the same.

Holme riddles, 237:

(137) There was a king met a king, etc.

—The men’s names were King and the dog’s name was Bin.

[136] Cf. Catalan (and see notes):

CI. Dotze frares d’un convent
dotze nespras per tots tenen,
cada qual se’n menja una
y encar quedan onze nespras.

New Mexican Spanish: 152, 153.

[137] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

XLIV. I came to a tree where were apples; I eat no apples, I gave away no apples, nor I left no apples behinde me; and yet I eat, gave away, and left behind me.

—Three apples. I eat, give away, and leave one apple.

Holme riddles, 237, [135].

Popular Tales of the West Highlands (Campbell), II, 419:

A man went eyeless to a tree where there were apples. He didn’t leave apples on it, and he didn’t take apples off.

—There were two and he took one.

[138] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 958:

As I was going to St. Ives, etc.

Lancashire (Notes and Queries, 3rd series 9:86).

Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:71.

[139] Cf. Catalan (and see notes):

CCLIX. Un cassador surt a cassar. A dalt de un arbre hi ha quatre aucells. Etgega un tret. Ne mata dos. Quants aucells quedan dalt del arbre?

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

741. En un árbol había cien pájaros. Un cazador tiró y cayó uno muerto al suelo. Cuántos quedaron arriba?

Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:72.

[140] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

726. El zapatero y su hija,
el sastre con su mujer,
comieron de nueve huevos
y les tocaron a tres.

—La hija del zapatero era la mujer del sastre.

[141] Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

734 (a). Pasaba un grupo de palomas por donde estaba un gavilán y el gavilán les dijo:

—Adios mis cien palomas. Ellas le contestaron diciéndole:

—Nosotras, la mitad de nosotras, una cuarta parte de nosotras otras tantas como nosotras y usted, señor gavilán, hecemos el ciento cabal. Cuántas palomas irían volando?

Arabian Nights Tales [Burton, Burton Club, 5:236].

[142] Cf. Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31:63.

Argyleshire, 181:

Man, wife and sons to be ferried across.

Ibid.

Fox, goose and bag of corn.

West Highlands (Campbell), 408:

Three jealous soldiers and their wives in a boat that holds two.

Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell), 72:

Lamb, wolf and ‘bottle of hay.’

The Riddler (New Haven, 1835), 5:

Wolf, goat and cabbages.

Attributed to Alcuin, in Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria, London, 1842, 1:74.

[143] Cf. Grimm, 94, The Peasant’s Wise Daughter:

“Then said the king, ‘Come to me not clothed, not naked, not riding, not walking, not in the road, not out of the road, and if thou canst do that I will marry thee.’ So she went away, put off everything she had on, and then she was not clothed, and took a great fishing net, and seated herself in it and wrapped it entirely round and round her, and then she was not naked, and she hired an ass and tied the fisherman’s net to its tail, so that it was forced to drag her along, and that was neither riding nor walking. The ass had also to drag her in the ruts, so that she only touched the ground with her great toe, and that was neither being in the road nor out of the road.”

[144] Cf. “Flores” of Pseudo-Bede (III) Mod. Phil. 2:562:

Sedeo super equum non natum, cujus matrem in manu teneo.

Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

XL. On greene grass I go
And on oaken beames I stand,
I ride on a mule that was never folde,
And I holde the damme in my hand.

Solution: It is a fole ridden on, cut out of the dammes belly, and a bridle made of her skinne.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

769. Ando en quien no fué nacido,
ni esperanza de nacer;
su madre traigo en los brazos.
Adivina lo que puede ser.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles, 70:

O’er the gravel I do travel,
On the oak I do stand,
I ride a mare that never was foaled,
And hold the bridle in my hand.

—A sailor on board ship.

See Story No. 26, p. 33.

[145] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 93.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles, 68.

Holme riddles, 223:

(27) j have a little boy in a white cote the bigger he is the lesser he goes.

[146] Cf. West Highlands (Campbell), 2:419:

Totaman, Totaman, little black man,
Three feet under and bonnet of wood.

Welsh-Gypsy:

Black within and black without,
Four legs an’ a iron cap.

Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII), page 503, etc.

[147] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), page 92.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles: 68.

Hitly, Hatly etc.

[148] Cf. Holme riddles, 230: 232:

(82) What is that that is round as a cup yet all my lord oxen cannot draw it up.

—A well.

Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31: 67:

Round as a well, deep as a bowl, long handle, little hole.

—A frying-pan.

Yorkshire (Notes and Queries 3rd series, 8: 325).

[149] Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 96:

CLV. Highty, tighty, paradighty clothed in green,
The king could not read it, no more could the queen;
They sent for a wise man out of the east,
Who said it had horns but wasn’t a beast.

—Holly tree.

Lancashire (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, IX), 86:

Itum Paraditum all clothed in green, etc.

—Parrot.

[150] Canadian, Ontario, JAFL 31: 68.

Brown I am and much admired;
Many horses have I tired;
Tire a horse and worry a man;
Tell me this riddle if you can.

[151] Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII), 503:

Hickamore, ’ackamore
Sits over th’ kitchen-door,
Nothing so long, and nothing so strong
As Hickamore, ’ackamore,
Sits over th’ kitchen-door.

—A cloud.

[152] Cf. Lincolnshire Riddles (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, VIII), 503.

Canadian, Ontario, 68.

[153] Cf. Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), III.

English: New Collection, 14.

Riddler, 18, etc.

[154] Cf. Popular Rhymes of Scotland (Chambers), 108.

[155] Ascribed to Charles James Fox (1749–1806) in Modern Sphinx 17.

Cf. Nursery Rhymes of England (Halliwell), 91.

Canadian, Ontario, 70.

[156] Cf. Canadian, Ontario, 69:

English: Fashionable Puzzler, 58:

In marble walls as white as milk,
Lined with a skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal clear,
A golden apple doth appear.
No doors there are to this strong hold,
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.

[157] Cf. English: Puniana, 34, etc.

[158] Cf. English: New Collection, 13:

XXI. Three-fourth of a cross and a circle complete,
Two semi-circles and a perpendicular meet,
A triangle standing on two feet,
Two semi-circles and circle complete.

English: Fashionable Puzzler, 241, etc.

[159] Cf. English: Puzzles Old and New, 320:

From a number that’s odd cut off its head,
It then will even be,
Its tail, I pray, next take away,
Your mother then you’ll see.

English: Puniana, 99, etc.

[160] Cf. English: Riddler, 12.

English: Puniana, 217, etc.

[161] Cf. English: Puniana, 217.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

342. Una en un minuto, dos en un momento, y ninguna en un siglo.

[162] Cf. Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (Halliwell), 143:

10. What God never sees,
What the King seldom sees,
What we see every day,—
Read my riddle, I pray.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles:

(Gaelic) I sought for it and found it, ’twas easy its finding,
The thing that God never found and never can find.

Welsh-Gypsy, 247:

What is it God does not see, etc.

Catalan, 80:

CVI. Qu’es aixó?
Lo pastò’ ho veu á la montanya
y no ’u veu lo rey de Espanya.

Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa); 300.

[163] Cf. Booke of Merry Riddles (Halliwell):

LXIII. What is that no man would have and yet when he hath it will not forgoe it?

—A broken head.

Irish Folk-lore Riddles: 74:

I have it and I don’t think much of it; but if I had it not, there would be great grief on me.

[164] Cf. No. 106, p. 195.

English: New Collection, 180:

There is a thing was three weeks old
When Adam was no more;
This thing it was but four weeks old
When Adam was four-score.

Irish and Anglo-Irish: Folk-lore Riddles, 76.

Canadian, Ontario, 70.

[165] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

389. Qué es lo que el muerto come, que si el vivo lo come se muere también?

[166] Cf. Porto Rican (Mason and Espinosa):

90 (Cf. 17) En el mundo no lo hubo,
en la tierra no se halló;
Dios, con ser Dios no lo tuyo,
y un hombre a Dios se lo dió.

New-Mexican Spanish, 321:

Se que en el cielo no lo hubo,
siendo Dios quien lo inventó;
y si el mismo Dios lo tuvo,
fué un hombre quien se lo dió.

[167] Numbers enclosed within parentheses belong to the last group and are not strictly Jamaica folk riddles.

[168] Journal of American Folk-Lore. (New York.)

[169] Folk-Lore. (London.)

[170] Folk-Lore Record. (London.)

[171] Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society. (New York.)

[172] Publication of the Folk-Lore Society. (London.)

[173] See supplementary note, p. 289.

[174] See supplementary note, p. 290.

[175] See supplementary note, p. 290.

[176] See supplementary note, p. 290.

[177] See supplementary note, p. 290.