The popular story of the bone-hole is better in action than on paper. A
lad in Ballard’s Valley gave me a similar story of John-Crow’s
bone-hole, ending with the dash of boiling water which has rendered
John-Crow permanently bald (see number 47). After dictating the story
he said, “Now I will tell it so as to make it funny”, and he proceeded
to retell the tale in rapid dialogue, changing his voice to imitate the
speakers and representing in pantomime the action of eating and
throwing the bones, of ducking to escape them, and of playing the
fiddle. As in this case, the dictated stories often only approximately
render the style of actual oral delivery.
Compare Cronise and Ward, 214–218. For negro ideas about the
“bone-heap” see Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, 275–283.