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.