This fragmentary story belongs, with the Man-crow story of number 90,
to a much longer African story which relates the adventures of a
child-hero whose father, dying, leaves instructions that the child’s
will shall never be crossed. Incidents succeed one another of inhuman
ingratitude and of intrepid heroism, based on the possession of magical
powers, until the boy finally kills a bird-monster and performs other
remarkable exploits.
Compare Tremearne, How Auta killed Dodo, 408–412; Zeltner, Histoire de
Kama, 47–62.
“Harry” in this story is the counterpart of the older sister who acts
as Kama’s mentor in Zeltner’s version, and of “Barra” in Tremearne. The
four episodes are common to this and the Kama story,—the stolen
breakfast, the insult to the sheltering old woman, and the two episodes
of the breaking of the rescuing eagle’s wing, followed immediately by
the abuse of the friendly tortoise. In Zeltner, the tortoise has
restored the children to life. The common-place incidents of the
Jamaica version are in curious contrast with the rich and varied
phantasmagoria of the Senegambian tale.
The flight which brings disaster to the kindly shelterers occurs in the
story of Tiger’s pursuit by the “Nyams,” told by Pamela Smith, 59–65.
Compare Tremearne, 344–346.
In Europe, the story of the Bear’s son in folk-tale and of Robert the
Devil in romance have points in common with this story. See Grimm 90;
Bolte u. Polívka 2: 285–297; as also Grimm’s Thumbling stories, numbers
37 and 45, and note (3) to number 30.