According to Mrs. Parson’s analysis in Andros Island, 2–10, the story
of the lost pass takes four forms: (1) across water, (2) inside a tree,
(3) to the sky, (4) inside the cow. To all these passages, a magic pass
is attached, and either a violated prohibition or a forgotten pass-word
traps the intruder until the master of the place appears.
In Jamaica, the story is very popular. (1) occurs in numbers 7, 39, 58,
out of which, however, the pass-word has dropped; (2) is wanting; (3)
is found in number 17; (4) appears in numbers 6 and 38 and in a number
of current versions which contain the episode of cutting meat from
inside the cow, but lack the other elements of the story.
For the pattern of Parkes’s story, which falls into five parts,
compare: Tremearne, 257–260; Ellis, Yoruba, 271; Barker, 81–84; Cronise
and Ward, 231–238; Nassau, 35–37; 202–207; Fortier, 31; 111; Harris,
Uncle Remus, 166–168; Christensen, 108; Edwards, 77; Parsons, Andros
Island, 2–10; Rattray, 2: 88.
(1) The trickster discovers food in a neighbor’s possession in
Tremearne, Nassau, 203, Fortier, 31, Harris, Christensen, Edwards,
Parsons, 3, 4, 27.
(2) His impatience leads him to create a “mock sunrise.” In Tremearne,
he burns the roof; in Christensen, he sets a tree on fire; in Ellis, he
simulates the cock-crowing; in Barker, he makes the children rattle
their spoons and sweep the floor.
In Parkes’s version, Anansi wakens at the cow-boy’s bell, and the
reference to the “river-side” connects the story with the crossing
water variant. As in Cronise and Ward, after learning the trick from
his friend, he goes off alone for a supply without calling his
neighbor.
In Jones, 11–14, and Harris, Friends, 6–11, the Sun promises to find
food for the hungry Hawk if he can ever catch him in bed. When Rooster
finally wakes Hawk in time to catch the Sun, the angry lord gives Hawk
permission to catch chickens.
(3) In cutting the meat from inside the cow, in spite of warning he
cuts a vital organ in Nassau, Cronise and Ward, Harris, Fortier,
Parsons, 9; and numbers 17c and 17d of this collection.
In Fortier, 31 (see number 7), instead of taking one egg from each nest
as bidden, he takes all. In Ellis, he forgets the pass-word.
(4) When the owner of the dead cow comes to cut it up, the trickster
hides in some organ, which the owner’s daughter takes to the brook to
wash. He jumps out, pretends that he was in the brook bathing,
complains of the insult and gets the cow as damages. So Cronise and
Ward, Nassau, Edwards. In Tremearne, he gets a whole elephant for
himself.
(5) He carries the cow away into a lonely place in order to enjoy the
whole, and Dry-head gets it away from him; see numbers 29, 30. The
episode does not occur in other versions. In Cronise and Ward, he gets
three cows by means of the tail in the ground trick. In Harris, he is
given his companion’s head, who gets shut up with him and upon whom he
has laid the blame of killing the cow.