Moses Hendricks, Mandeville.
Anansi, Tacoomah and Tiger made a dance; Anansi was the fiddler,
Tacoomah the drummer and Tiger the tambourine man. They travel on till
they get to a country where all the people were naked—no clothing
except the head-man, who wore a long shirt; he had a wooden leg. So
they invite up all these people to come to the dance. Mr. Ram-goat was
in the lot. So they start playing and the people start dancing, dance
until they get so tired everybody fell asleep; and Anansi stole the
head-man’s shirt—good shirt!—and put his own old one upon him while he
was sleeping.
The man got awake, miss his shirt. Now this shirt could talk. The man
call out, “Long-shirt, whe’ you deh?” Longshirt answer, “Brar Nansi
have me on-o!” They start up, now. Anansi got so frightened! He met
Brar Ram-goat. He said, “Brar Ram-goat, I swap me shirt, gi’ you one
new one fe you ol’ one!” Ram-goat readily make the exchange. The
head-man call out, “Long-shirt, whe’ you deh?” Long-shirt call out,
“Bra’ Ram-goat have me on now-o!”
Ram-goat run until he was exhausted, couldn’t go any further. He dug a
hole an’ bury himself into the hole leaving one horn outside and didn’t
know that horn was projecting outside. The man with the wooden leg
couldn’t go as fast as the rest. All the rest ran past Ram-goat; the
head-man came along, buck the wooden leg upon the horn and he fell
down. When he got up, he thought it was a stump, so he got out his
knife to cut off that stump to prevent it throwing him down again. He
cut an’ cut an’ cut till he saw blood. He call out to the rest, “Look!
come now-o, dirtee have blood!” All the rest come around say, “Dig him
out! dig him out! dig him out!” After they dug him out, they took off
head-man long shirt, put on his own old one, and they wet him with all
the dirty slops—they drench poor Ram-goat.
They thought he was dead and they leave him an’ go away. After they was
gone, Ram-goat got up. He wring the dirty clothes, he wring with all
the slop they throw on him; he never remember to wring his beard. Jack
man dora! That’s the reason the goat have such an offensive smell until
this day, he didn’t remember to wring his beard!