PART I. ANNANCY STORIES.

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The Folk-Lore Society

FOR COLLECTING AND PRINTING

RELICS OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES, &c.

ESTABLISHED IN

THE YEAR MDCCCLXXVIII.

[Illustration: Alter et Idem.]

PUBLICATIONS

OF

THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY

LV.

[1904]

JAMAICAN SONG AND STORY:

_ANNANCY STORIES, DIGGING SINGS,

RING TUNES, AND DANCING TUNES_

COLLECTED AND EDITED BY

WALTER JEKYLL:

_WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY_

ALICE WERNER,

_AND APPENDICES ON_

TRACES OF AFRICAN MELODY IN JAMAICA

_BY_

C.S. MYERS,

_AND ON_

ENGLISH AIRS AND MOTIFS IN JAMAICA

_BY_

LUCY E. BROADWOOD.

"A few brief years have passed away

Since Britain drove her million slaves

Beneath the tropic's fiery ray:

God willed their freedom; and to-day

Life blooms above those island graves!"

_Whittier_

Published for the Folk-Lore Society by

DAVID NUTT, 57-59 LONG ACRE

LONDON

1907

CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION (ALICE WERNER), xxiii

AUTHOR'S PREFACE, liii

PART I.: ANNANCY STORIES, 1

1. Annancy and Brother Tiger, 7

2. Yung-Kyum-Pyung, 11

3. King Daniel, 14

4. Tomby, 16

5. How Monkey manage Annancy, 20

6. Blackbird and Woss-woss, 23

7. The Three Sisters, 26

8. William Tell, 29

9. Brother Annancy and Brother Death, 31

10. Mr. Bluebeard, 35

11. Annancy, Puss and Ratta, 38

12. Toad and Donkey, 39

13. Snake the Postman, 43

14. Doba, 46

15. Dry-Bone, 48

16. Annancy and the Old Lady's Field, 51

17. Man-Crow, 54

18. Saylan, 58

19. Annancy and Screech-Owl, 60

20. Annancy and Cow, 63

21. Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl, 65

22. Devil's Honey-Dram, 68

23. Annancy in Crab Country, 70

24. Gaulin, 73

25. Annancy, Monkey and Tiger, 77

26. The Three Pigs, 79

27. Dummy, 84

28. Annancy and Candlefly, 86

29. Parson Puss and Parson Dog, 91

30. Chicken-Hawk, 94

31. Pretty Poll, 96

32. Annancy and Hog, 98

33. Dry-River, 100

34. Yellow Snake, 102

35. Cow and Annancy, 104

36. Leah and Tiger, 108

37. Timmolimmo, 114

38. Calcutta Monkey and Annancy, 117

39. Open Sesame, 120

40. Sea-Mahmy, 123

41. Crab and his Corn-piece, 126

42. Dry-Grass and Fire, 129

43. John Crow, 132

44. Tiger's Death, 135

45. The Old Lady and the Jar, 137

46. John Crow and Fowl-Hawk, 140

47. Finger Quashy, 143

48. Annancy and his Fish-Pot, 145

49. Hog and Dog, 146

50. Devil and the Princess, 148

51. Wheeler, 152

PART II.: DIGGING SINGS, 157

52. Oh hurrah, boys! 159

53. Ho biddybye, 159

54. Tell Mr. Linky, 160

55. Tell Mr. Bell, 161

56. Bad homan oh! 162

57. Bell a ring a yard oh! 162

58. The one shirt I have, 164

59. Jessie cut him yoke, 164

60. T'ree acre of Cahffee, 165

61. Away, away, 166

62. Wednesday morning before day, 167

63. Oh Samuel oh! 168

64. Oh 'liza oh! 168

65. Aunty Mary oh! 169

66. Oh me yerry news! 170

67. Jes' so me barn, 170

68. Tell Mary say, 171

69. Me tell them gall, 171

70. Gold, amber gold, 172

71. Gee oh mother Mac, 173

72. Leah married a Tuesday, 173

73. Cheer me oh! 173

74. Me cock a crow, 174

75. Oh Selina! 174

76. Sambo Lady, 176

77. John Thomas, 177

78. Whe mumma de? 178

79. Toady, 179

80. Me know the man, 180

81. Minnie, 181

82. You want to yerry Duppy talk, 182

83. Me know Sarah, 183

84. Me donkey want water, 183

85. A Somerset me barn, 184

86. Timber lay down 'pon pit, 185

87. Me want go home, 187

88. War down a Monkland, 187

PART III.: RING TUNES, 190

89. Little Sally Water, 190

90. Poor Little Zeddy, 191

91. Whe me lover de? 192

92. Ring a diamond, 194

93. Carry Banana, 195

94. Pass the ball, 196

95. Me los' me gold ring, 197

96. Old mother Phoebe, 197

97. Deggy, 198

98. Me go da Galloway Road, 199

99. Rosybel, 200

100. Bull a pen ho! 201

101. Two man a road, 201

102. Adina Mona, 202

103. Palmer, 203

104. Mother Freeman, 204

105. Me have me goosey a me yard, 205

106. Drill him, Constab! 205

107. If you make him come out, 206

108. Oh me Toad oh! 207

109. There's a Black boy in a ring, 207

110. Johnny, 209

111. Me lover gone a Colon bay, 209

112. Good morning to you, mother, 210

113. Johnny Miller, 211

114. Bahlimbo, 212

115. Oh den Jacky, 214

116. Ha, ha, ha, ha! 214

PART IV.: DANCING TUNES, 216

117. When I go home, 217

118. Guava root a medicine, 218

119. Crahss-lookin' dog up'tairs, 218

120. Goatridge have some set a gal, 219

121. Me carry me akee a Linstead market, 219

122. Since Dora Logan, 220

123. Fire, Mr. Preston, Fire! 221

124. Tief cahffee, 222

125. Fan me, soldierman, 223

126. Manny Clark, 224

127. Bungo Moolatta, 225

128. Bahl, Ada, 225

129. Rise a roof in the morning, 226

130. Oh we went to the river, 227

131. Aunty Jane a call Minnie, 228

132. Marty, Marty, 228

133. What make you shave old Hall? 229

134. Run, Moses, run, 230

135. Whe you da do? 231

136. Mother William, hold back Leah, 232

137. Oh, General Jackson! 233

138. Soldier, da go 'way, 234

139. Don't cry too much, Jamaica gal, 234

140. Dip them, 235

141. Very well, very well, 235

142. Oh trial! 236

143. Father, I goin' to join the confirmation, 237

144. Obeah down de, 239

145. The other day me waistcoat cut, 240

146. All them gal a ride merry-go-round, 241

147. Merry-go-round a go fall down, 242

148. Try, dear, don't tell a lie, 243

149. Look how you mout', 244

150. Breezy say him no want Brown lady, 244

151. Isaac Park gone a Colon, 245

152. Matilda de 'pon dyin' bed, 246

153. Mas' Charley, 247

154. Me buggy a sell, 247

155. Oh 'zetta Ford, gal, 248

156. Birdyzeena, 249

157. Me an' Katie no 'gree, 249

158. Down-town gal, 249

159. Sal, you ought to been ashame, 250

160. Good morning, Mr. Harman, 250

161. Hullo me honey! 251

162. When mumma dere, 252

163. Oh Jilly oh! 253

164. James Brown, you mahmy call you, 253

165. When I go home, 254

166. Feather, feather, feather, 254

167. Quaco Sam, 256

168. Anch a bite me, 257

169. Me know one gal a Cross Road, 257

170. Moonshine baby, 258

171. I have a news, 259

172. Once I was a trav'ller, 260

173. Oh me wouldn' bawl at all, 261

174. You take junka 'tick, 262

175. Yellow fever come in, 262

176. Jimmy Rampy, 263

177. Susan, very well why oh! 264

178. Bahss, Bahss, you married you wife, 264

179. Blackbird a eat puppa corn, oh! 265

180. Me da Coolie sleep on Piazza, 265

181. Notty Shaw, 266

182. You worthless Becca Watson, 267

183. Since the waggonette come in, 267

184. Them Gar'n Town people, 268

185. Young gal in Jamaica, take warning, 270

186. Me no min de a concert, 270

187. Complain, complain, complain, 271

188. I can't walk on the bare road, 271

189. Come go da mountain, 272

190. Amanda Grant, 273

191. Last night I was lying on me number, 273

192. Me lassie, me dundooze, 274

193. Mister Davis bring somet'ing fe we all, 275

194. A whe the use, 275

195. Quattywort' of this! 276

196. Mahngoose a come, 276

APPENDIX:

_A._ Traces of African Melody in Jamaica--C.S. Myers, 278

_B._ English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica--L.E. Broadwood, 285

INTRODUCTION.

Mr. Jekyll's delightful collection of tales and songs from Jamaica

suggests many interesting problems. It presents to us a network of

interwoven strands of European and African origin, and when these have

been to some extent disentangled we are confronted with the further

question, to which of the peoples of the Dark Continent may the

African element be attributed?

The exact relationship between the "Negro" and Bantu races,--which of

them is the original and which the adulterated stock (in other words,

whether the adulteration was an improvement or the reverse),--is a

subject quite beyond my competence to discuss. It seems certain that

the Negro languages (as yet only tentatively classified) are as

distinct from the singularly homogeneous and well-defined Bantu

family, as Aryan from Semitic. Ibo, at one end of the area, has

possible Bantu affinities, which await fuller investigation; the same

thing has been conjectured of Bullom and Temne at the other end

(Sierra Leone); but these are so slight and as yet so doubtful that

they scarcely affect the above estimate.

The difference in West Coast and Bantu folk-tales is not so marked as

that between the languages; yet here, too, along with a great deal

which the two have in common, we can pick out some features peculiar

to each. And Mr. Jekyll's tales, so far as they can be supposed to

come from Africa at all, are not Bantu. The name of "Annancy" alone is

enough to tell us that.

_Annancy_, or _Anansi_ is the Tshi (Ashanti)[1] word for "spider"; and

the Spider figures largely in the folk-tales of the West Coast (by

which we mean, roughly, the coast between Cape Verde and Kamerun),

while, with some curious exceptions to be noted later on, he seems to

be absent from Bantu folk-lore. His place is there taken by the Hare

(Brer Rabbit), and, in some of his aspects, by the Tortoise.

[Footnote 1: Fanti is a dialect of this language, which is variously

called Twi, Chwi, Otyi, and Ochi.]

We find the "Brer Rabbit" stories (best known through _Uncle Remus_)

in the Middle and Southern States of America, where a large

proportion, at any rate, of the negro slaves were imported from Lower

Guinea. Some personal names and other words preserved among them

(_e.g._ "goober" = _nguba_, the ground-nut, or "pea-nut") can be

traced to the Fiote, or Lower Congo language; and some songs of which

I have seen the words,[2] _look_ as if they might be Bantu, but

corrupted apparently beyond recognition.

[Footnote 2: One is given by Mr. G.W. Cable in the _Century Magazine_,

xxx. 820, as a Louisiana Voodoo song:

Heron mande, tigui li papa, Heron mande, dose dan godo.

Another by Mr. W.E. Burghart Du Bois in _The Souls of Black Folk_, p.

254--apparently a lullaby:

Doba na coba gene me, gene me!

Ben d' nu li, nu li, nu li, nu li, bend'le.

I can make nothing of these. In the latter case, uncertainty as to the

phonetic system adopted complicates the puzzle. One might be tempted

to connect the last two words with Zulu _endhle_ or _pandhle_ =

outside,--but I can find nothing else to support this resemblance, and

such stray guesses are unprofitable work.]

But the British West Indies would seem to have been chiefly supplied

from Upper Guinea, or the "West Coast" proper (it really faces south,

while Loango, Congo, etc., are the "South-West Coast"--a point which

is sometimes puzzling to the uninitiated). Among the tribes to be

found in Jamaica, Mr. Jekyll tells me are the Ibo (Lower Niger),

Coromantin (Gold Coast), Hausa, Mandingo, Moko (inland from Calabar),

Nago (Yoruba), and Sobo (Lower Niger).

Mr. Jekyll furnishes a bit of confirmatory evidence in the list of

names (p. 156) given to children according to the day of the week on

which they are born. These are immediately recognizable as Tshi. As

given in Christaller's _Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language

called Tshi_ (1881), the boys' names are identical or nearly so

(allowing for the different systems of spelling) with those in Mr.

Jekyll's list. They are: Kwasi, Kwadwo, Kwabena, Kwaku, Kwaw (or

Yaw), Kofi, Kwame. (Mr. George Macdonald, in _The Gold Coast Past and

Present_, gives Kwamina, instead of Kwame, probably owing to a

difference of dialect.) The girls' names are less easily recognizable,

but a careful scrutiny reveals the interesting fact that in some cases

an older form seems to have been preserved in Jamaica. Moreover, the

sound written _w_ by Christaller approaches that of _b_, which seems

to be convertible with it under certain conditions, all the girls'

names being formed by means of the suffix _ba_ = a child. Conversely,

_ekpo_ in the mouth of a West Coast native sounds to a casual ear like

_ekwo_.

Akosuwa [= Akwasiba] = Quashiba.

Adwowa = Jubba. (Cf. dw = dj in "Cudjo").

Abeua = Cubba.

Akuwa = Memba.

Ya [= Yawa] = Abba.

Afuwa = Fibba.

Amma [= Amenenewa] = Beniba.

The boys' names have "Kwa" (= _akoa_, a man, slave) prefixed to that

of the day, or, more correctly speaking, of its presiding genius.

These latter are: Ayisi, Adwo, Bena, Wuku, Yaw, Afi, Amin. The names

of the days appear to be formed from them by the omission of the

initial A (where it exists), and the addition of the suffix _da_, with

some irregularities, which no doubt a fuller knowledge of the language

would explain: Kwasida, Dwoda, Benada, Wukuda, Yawda, Fida, Memeneda

(Meminda). The week of seven days does not seem to be known elsewhere

in Africa, except as a result of Moslem or Christian influence. The

Congo week of four days is puzzling, till one remembers that it, too,

rests on a division of the lunar month: 7 x 4 instead of 4 x 7.[3]

[Footnote 3: R.E. Dennett, _Folklore of the Fjort_, p. 8.]

The Tshi, Ewe and Yoruba languages are genderless, like the Bantu.

(The word _ba_ has come to mean "a daughter" when appropriated as a

suffix to feminine names; but, properly, it seems to mean "a child" of

either sex.) This fact explains the appearance of such personages as

"Brother Cow" (see also Mr. Jekyll's note on p. 107), and the wild

confusion of pronouns sometimes observed: "Annancy really want that

gal fe marry, but he couldn' catch him."--"When the gal go, him go

meet Brother Death,"--etc.

The few words given as "African" by Mr. Jekyll seem to be traceable to

Tshi. "Massoo" (pp. 12, 13) is _ma so_ = to lift. _Afu_ ("hafoo,"

"afoo," p. 18) is not in Christaller's _Dictionary_, except as

equivalent to "grass," or "herbs"; _fufu_ is a food made from yams or

plantains boiled and pounded; perhaps there is some slight confusion.

_Nyam_ is not "to eat," but _enam_ is Tshi for "meat," as _nyama_ (in

some form or other) is in every Bantu language. The nonsense-words in

the songs may be corrupted from Tshi or some cognate language, but a

fuller knowledge of these than I possess would be necessary in order

to determine the point.

Transplanted African folk-lore has a peculiar interest of its own, and

one is very glad to find Mr. Jekyll doing for Jamaica what Mr.

Chandler Harris, _e.g._ has done for Georgia. But the African element

in the stories before us is far less evident than in "Uncle Remus,"

and is in many cases overlaid and inextricably mixed up with matter of

European origin. At least eleven out of the fifty-one stories before

us can be set down as imported, directly or indirectly, from Europe. I

say directly or indirectly, because an examination of Chatelain's

_Folk-tales of Angola_ and Junod's _Chants et Contes des Baronga_

shows that some tales, at any rate, have passed from Portugal to

Africa. Such are _La fille du Roi_ (Ronga), which is identical with

Grimm's _The Shoes that were danced to pieces_, and with the

Slovak-gypsy story of _The Three Girls_ (Groome, _Gypsy Folk-tales_,

p. 141). But in the absence of more detailed and direct evidence than

we yet possess, it would be rash to assume that they have passed to

America by way of Africa, rather than that they have been

independently transmitted.

The eleven stories above referred to are: II. Yung-kyum-pyung, III.

King Daniel, VI. Blackbird and Woss-woss, X. Mr. Bluebeard, XVII.

Man-crow, XVIII. Saylan, XXI. Tacoma and the Old-witch Girl, XXVI. The

Three Pigs, XXXI. Pretty Poll (another version of III.), XXXIX. Open

Sesame (variant of VI.), VII. The Three Sisters. But some of these, as

I hope to show presently, also have genuine African prototypes, and it

is a question how far these fading traditions have been amalgamated

with fairy-tales told to the slaves by the children of their European

masters. The last named is one of a small group of tales (VII., XXIV.,

XXXIV., L.) which I cannot help referring to a common African

original.

By far the greater number of the stories in this book, whether,

strictly speaking, "Annancy stories" or not, come under the heading of

animal-stories, and are of the same type as "Uncle Remus," Junod's

"Roman du Lievre," and numerous examples from various parts of Africa.

It will be remembered that, in most of these, the difference between

animals and human beings is not very clearly kept in view by the

narrators. As M. Junod says, "Toutes les betes qui passent et

repassent dans ces curieux recits representent des etres humains, cela

va sans dire. Ils sont personnalises par un procede linguistique qui

consiste a mettre devant le nom de l'animal un prefixe de la classe

des hommes." (This is a point we must come back to later on.) "Ainsi

_mpfoundla_, le lievre ordinaire, devient dans le contes

Noua-mpfoundla.... La Rainette, c'est Noua-chinana, l'Elephant,

Noua-ndlopfou.... Leurs caracteres physiques particuliers sont

presents devant l'imagination du conteur pour autant qu'ils donnent du

pittoresque au recit. Mais on les oublie tout aussi aisement des

qu'ils ne sont plus essentiels a la narration." This feature

constantly meets one in Bantu folk-lore: the hare and the elephant

hire themselves out to hoe a man's garden; the swallow invites the

cock to dinner and his wife prepares the food, in the usual native hut

with the fireplace in the middle and the _nsanja_ staging over it; the

hare's wife goes to the river to draw water, and is caught by a

crocodile; the tortoise carries his complaint to the village elders

assembled in the smithy, and so on. M. Junod seems to me to overrate

the conscious artistic purpose in the narrators of these tales: the

native mind is quite ready to assume that animals think and act in

much the same way as human beings, and this attitude makes it easy to

forget the outward distinctions when they appear as actors in a story.

No doubt this haziness of view is increased by the popular conception

of metamorphosis as a possible occurrence in everyday life. When, as

has more than once been the case, we find men firmly believing, not

only that they can, under certain circumstances, turn into animals,

but that they actually have done so, we may expect them to think it

quite easy for animals to turn into men.

The prefix given by the Baronga to animals, when they are, so to

speak, personified in tales, may seem a slight point, but it is not

without interest. The Yaos in like manner give them the prefix _Che_

(_Che Sungula_, the Rabbit, _Che Likoswe_, the Rat, etc.), which,

though usually translated "Mr.," is of common gender and used quite as

often in addressing women as men. In Chatelain's Angola stories the

animals sometimes (not always) have the honorific prefix _Na_ or

_Ngana_, "Mr."; the latter is sometimes translated "Lord." In Luganda

folk-lore the elephant (_enjovu_) is called Wa Njovu. In Zulu,

Ucakijana (to whom we shall come back presently) is the diminutive

form of _i-cakide_, the Weasel, put into the personal class. I do not

recall anything similar in Nyanja tales, but cannot help connecting

with the above the fact that animals, whatever class their names may

belong to, are usually treated as persons in the tales. Not to be

unduly technical, I would briefly explain that _njobvu_ (elephant) and

_ng'ona_ (crocodile) would naturally take the pronoun _i_, but in the

stories (and, I think, sometimes in other cases) they take _a_, which

belongs to the first, or personal class. Now, the reader will notice

how often the animals in the stories before us are distinguished as

"Mr." or "Bro'er" (cf. pp. 20, 23, 31, 86, etc.), though the Jamaica

people seem to be less uniformly polite in this respect than Uncle

Remus. "Brer Rabbit" is so familiar as to be taken for granted, as a

rule, without further question; but, years before he had become a

household word in this country, we find a writer in _Lippincott's

Magazine_[4] remarking, "The dramatis personae are honoured with the

title _Buh_, which is generally supposed to be an abbreviation of the

word 'brother,' but it probably is a title of respect equal to our

'Mr.'" The "but" seems hardly called for, since both assertions are

seemingly true. We might also compare the Zulu _u Cakijana_ (1st

class), who is human or quasi-human, while _i-cakide_ (2nd class) is

the name for the Weasel.

[Footnote 4: December, 1877, p. 751. The article is one on "Negro

Folk-lore," by W. Owens, and contains several stories, some of these

independent versions of "Uncle Remus" tales, while others are not to

be found in that collection.]

Annancy, then, is the Spider, and as such he is conceived throughout

the folk-lore of West Africa. If he seems, as he continually does, to

take on a human character, going to Freetown to buy a gun and powder

(_Cunnie Rabbit_, p. 282), or applying to a "Mory man" for amulets

(_ib._ p. 139), he only behaves like all other animals, as explained

above. A Temne authority (_ib._ p. 93) maintains that "Spider was a

person" in old times, and did not look the same as he does in these

days, "he done turn odder kind of thing now." But this looks like an

attempt at rationalising the situation, possibly in response to

European inquiries. The change of shape alluded to at the end of the

Temne Tar-baby episode is comparatively a minor matter: he was

formerly "round lek pusson," but became flattened out through the

beating he received while attached to the Wax Girl. In the Gold Coast

stories, too, Anansi is quite as much a spider as Brer Rabbit is a

rabbit; but in Jamaica, though he still retains traces of his origin,

they are somewhat obscured--so much so that Mr. Jekyll speaks (pp.

4-5) of the "metamorphic shape, that of the Spider," which he assumes,

as though the human were his real form, the other only an occasional

disguise. In "Annancy and Brother Tiger" we find that he has to "run

up a house-top" to escape the revenge of the monkeys, which accounts

for some of his habits to this day. In "Yung-kyum-pyung" (a version of

_Rumpelstilzchen_, or _Tom Tit Tot_), the only hint of his spider

character is contained in a mere allusion (quite external to the

story) to his "running 'pon him rope." In "Brother Death," Annancy and

all his family cling to the rafters, hoping to escape from Death; but

it scarcely seems in character that they should be incapable of

holding on long. They drop, one after another, Annancy last (p. 33).

He is always in danger from Cows (p. 107): "Anywhere Cow see him, he

reach him down with his mouth"; and he lives in a banana branch (p.

119) for fear of Calcutta Monkey and his whip. His moral character is

consistently bad all through; he is a "clever thief"--greedy,

treacherous, and cruel, but intellectually he does not uniformly

shine. He has to call in the help of a wizard in his love affairs;

"Monkey was too clever for him" on more than one occasion; he has to

be extricated from the slaughter-house (p. 23) by Blackbird and his

army of Wasps, and in "Man-crow" he is signally discomfited. In other

cases his roguery is successful, and he is described as the greatest

musician and "the biggest rascal in the world" (p. 62). Much the same

is the character given to Mr. Spider in "Cunnie Rabbit." Not one

amiable trait is recorded of him.

A Gold Coast story,[5] however, shows him arbitrating between a Rat

and a Panther in very much the same way as the Yao Che Sungula settles

the difficulty between the Man and the Crocodile,[6] making the latter

go back into the trap whence he had too confidingly been released, in

order to show how it was done. Once having got the ungrateful Panther

back into the trap, the Spider advises the Rat to leave him there.

[Footnote 5: J.C. Christaller, in Buettner's _Zeitschr. fuer Afr.

Sprachen_. M. Rene Basset says of a similar story included in Col.

Monteil's _Contes Soudanais_: "L'Enfant et le caiman est le sujet bien

connu de l'ingratitude punie que l'on retrouve dans tous les pays de

l'ancien monde, et dont M. Kenneth Mackenzie vient d'etudier les

diverses variantes." The idea is one so likely to occur independently

that we must not in all cases resort to the hypothesis of borrowing.]

[Footnote 6: Duff Macdonald, _Africana_, ii. 346.]

As there is a Gold Coast tradition which affirms the human race to be

descended from the Spider,[7] it might be expected that he should

sometimes appear in a more favourable light, and also that those

peoples who had lost this myth, or never possessed it, should

concentrate their attention on the darker side of his character. At

the same time, even in what may be called his own home, he does not

appear as infallible. A very curious story, given by Zimmermann in his

_Grammatical Sketch of the Akra or Ga Language_, shows us the Spider

and his son in the character of the two sisters who usually figure in

tales of the "Holle" type,[8] and, strangely enough, it is the father

who, by his wilfulness and indiscretion, forfeits the advantages which

the son has gained. During a time of famine the young spider crawls

into a rat-hole in search of a nut which has rolled into it, and

there meets with three unkempt and unwashed spirits, who desire him to

peel some yams and cook the peelings. He does so, and they are changed

into large yams. They give him a large basket of yams to carry home,

and teach him a spell which is not to be imparted to any one else. He

repeatedly obtains supplies from the same source, but at last is

followed by his father, who insists on going in his stead. He derides

and disobeys the spirits, loses his yams, and is flogged into the

bargain.

[Footnote 7: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_.]

[Footnote 8: No. 16 in the _Handbook of Folklore_ (p. 122). It might

also be referred to the "Golden Goose" type (51). Stories of this kind

are the Ronga "Route du Ciel," and "The Three Women" in Duff

Macdonald's _Africana_. But perhaps the tale referred to in the text

comes nearer to "The Two Hunchbacks."]

We have mentioned the comparative absence of the Spider from Bantu

folk-lore. I have been able to discover only two references to him in

East Africa, both to be found in Duff Macdonald's _Africana_. The

first is in a creation-myth of the Yaos (i. 297), which informs us

that when _Mulungu_ was driven from earth by the conduct of mankind,

who had set the bush on fire, he went, being unable to climb a tree as

the Chameleon had done, to call the Spider. "The spider went on high

and returned again, and said, 'I have gone on high nicely,' and he

said, 'You now, Mulungu, go on high.' Mulungu then went with the

spider on high. And he said, 'When they die, let them come on high

here.'" The other is in the story of "The Dead Chief and his Younger

Brother" (ii. 322)--also Yao. The dead chief gives his brother four

bags to enable him to overcome the obstacles which his enemies put in

his way; he opens the first on coming to a large tree in his path--a

wood-moth comes out and gnaws a way through. From the second bag comes

out a manis (scaly ant-eater), which digs a way under a rock, and from

the third (which he opens when he comes to the bank of a river) a

spider, which "went to the other side," and, presumably (though this

is not expressly stated), made a bridge with its web for him to

cross.[9]

[Footnote 9: In Mr. Dudley Kidd's _Savage Childhood_ (published since

the above was written), I find that Zulu (or Pondo?) boys draw certain

omens from spiders, in connection with dreams (p. 105), and that in

Gazaland the rainbow is called "the spider's bow" (p. 153).]

Mr. R.E. Dennett (_Folklore of the Fjort_, p. 74) gives a Lower Congo

story, telling how the Spider brought fire down from Nzambi Mpungu in

heaven, and won the daughter of Nzambi (Mother Earth) by so doing. In

an Angola story (Heli Chatelain, p. 131) the Spider is mentioned as

affording a means of communication between heaven and earth, by which

the Sun's maidservants go down to draw water, and his daughter is

ultimately let down to be married to the son of Kimanaueze. But the

Spider only comes in incidentally; it is the Frog whose

resourcefulness makes the marriage possible. The notion of the

spider's web as a ladder to heaven is one that might occur

independently in any part of the world, and there is no need to

suppose these tales to be derivatives of the Hausa one given by

Schoen.[10]

[Footnote 10: _Magana Hausa_, 63.]

So far, the appearances of the Spider in Bantu folk-tales are so

infrequent as to be almost a negligible quantity. We find him,

however, playing a tolerably conspicuous part in the folk-lore of the

Duala. These, living in the German territory of the Kamerun, may be

considered the north-western outpost of the Bantu race, and their

language, unmistakable in its general character, has departed, perhaps

more widely than any other, from the normal Bantu standard. Herr

Wilhelm Lederbogen, formerly of the Government School, Kamerun, has

collected a large number of stories, some of which are published in

the _Transactions_ of the Berlin Oriental Seminary (see _Afrikanische

Studien_ for 1901-1903). These comprise 67 "_Tierfabeln_" and 18 tales

of the ordinary _maerchen_ type. The latter (some of them recognizable

as variants of tales current in Bantu Africa) introduce animals along

with human beings, and the incident of the Spider being consulted as a

soothsayer repeatedly occurs. "_Die Spinne tritt immer als Wahrsagerin

auf_" says the collector in a note. But the malignant aspect of Anansi

seems to be absent.

The late W.H.J. Bleek, who supposed the animal-stories which he had

collected from Hottentots and Bushmen to be characteristic of and

peculiar to these races, had built up a somewhat elaborate theory,

scarcely borne out by the facts as known to us to-day, in connection

with this point. Briefly, it amounted to this: that a fundamental

limitation in the Bantu race, which had prevented, and always would

prevent, their advancing beyond a certain point, was denoted by the

absence of grammatical gender in their languages, their supposed

incapacity for personifying nature, and their worship of ancestors, as

opposed to the alleged moon-worship of the Hottentots.[11] The Zulus,

he says, believe that the spirits of the dead appear to them in

dreams, and also show themselves to the waking eye in the shape of

animals, usually serpents. "No personification of the animal takes

place, however, such as we find, for instance, in the mythical world

of our earliest [Teutonic] literature. The imagination of the

ancestor-worshipper does not even, as a rule, show us the animal as

possessing the gift of human speech; it is only supposed to perform

acts well within its capacity as an animal, though such acts are

considered, in the case of individual animals supposed to be possessed

by the spirits of deceased persons, as emanating from the spirits."

Thus, a serpent, known by various tokens to be an _idhlozi_, may enter

a hut and consume the meat left for it, or it may engage in combat

with other snakes which must be supposed to represent the enemies of

the deceased. Animals thus revered by ancestor-worshippers always have

the distinguishing characteristic that they have once been human

beings; and spirits, unless they appear as animals, are always

invisible. "A personification of the animal world (such as we find in

our own fables), or even of other things (as in the mythologies of

Europe), is utterly absent from this primitive, prosaic way of looking

at things." The poetic impulse implied in such personification can

only arise, in Bleek's view, among the speakers of a sex-denoting

language. The linguistic argument I cannot here reproduce in detail;

its tendency is sufficiently shown by the following quotation, which

bears directly on our subject:

"The form of a sex-denoting language, by exciting sympathy even for

creatures not connected with us by human fellowship, leads in the

first instance to the humanization of animals, and thus especially

gives rise to the creation of fables. Even on the lowest stage of

national development, we find the Hottentot language accompanied by a

literature of fables, for which we may vainly seek a parallel in the

literatures of the prefix-pronominal languages."

[Footnote 11: See _Ursprung der Sprache_ (Weimar, 1868), pp. xix,

xxiii (Introduction).]

The validity of Bleek's theory was seriously doubted by the late Dr.

C.G. Buettner, in 1886, and the masses of fresh material which have

come to light during the last forty years, have completely altered

the aspect of the question. The Hottentot myth of the Hare and the

Moon, to take but one example, which appears among the Zulus as the

tale of Unkulunkulu and the Chameleon, is told by the Anyanja (of the

Shire Highlands and Lake Nyasa) of the Chameleon. The Duala have the

same Chameleon story; and there is a Gold Coast version, in which the

two messengers are the Sheep, who linger on the way to graze, and the

Goat, who arrives first with the tidings that man shall not return

after death. The Kr[=u]men of the Ivory Coast say that _Nemla_ (a

small antelope probably representing, if not identical with, the

"Cunnie Rabbit" of Sierra Leone), maliciously, not accidentally,

rendered inoperative the remedy against death provided by the fetich

Blenyiba. Who is responsible for the original version it is perhaps

impossible to settle. But there can be no question of _recent_

borrowing; and supposing that the Bantu did derive the myth from their

predecessors (now represented by the remnant of the Bushmen, and

perhaps the Pygmies), this would surely prove them at least capable of

assimilating fresh ideas and thus advancing beyond the line so

inexorably traced for them from the beginning. It may be remarked in

passing that there seems some probability of the Bantu Anyanja in the

Shire district having largely absorbed, instead of exterminating as

was elsewhere the case, a smaller-sized race who previously occupied

the country. In the same way, the Abatembu of the Cape Colony are the

descendants of a Bantu clan amalgamated with the Bushman tribe of the

'Tambuka, and traces of similar fusion could no doubt be discovered

elsewhere. But we doubt its being _necessary_ to the introduction of

animal-stories into folk-lore,--or, in general, of ideas connected

with the personification of nature.

The Zulu tales which Bleek had before him present a character very

different from that of the Hottentot beast-fables. But a comparative

study of Bantu folk-lore suggests at least the possibility that they

may have been developed out of animal-stories. Hlakanyana is conceived

of as certainly human, and reminds us of Tom Thumb; but some of his

adventures are identical with those of the Hare, the Jackal, or Brer

Rabbit. Cakijana shows still clearer traces of animal origin. The

episode of Hlakanyana's demanding a digging-stick in exchange for the

birds he accuses his companion of having eaten, and the sequence of

exchanges which culminates in his acquiring a cow,[12] is in

substance the same as the story told by the Anyanja about the Hare

(_kalulu_) which was given in _Folk-Lore_ for Sept. 29th, 1904. This

again reminds us of "The Man who Lived by Overreaching Others" (Dr.

Elmslie in _Folk-Lore_, vol. iii.), and of a Sukuma story given by

Herrmann,[13] in which a boy gives his grandmother some honey to keep

for him, and, coming back after a time, and finding she has eaten it,

makes her give him some corn in exchange. The corn is then exchanged

for an egg, the egg for sticks, the sticks for a knife, and the knife

for a cow's tail, for which, by the same trick as in Dr. Elmslie's

story, he obtains a cow. There is no suggestion of trickery in the

Nyanja story, whereas it is brought out very strongly both in

Hlakanyana and the Sukuma example.

[Footnote 12: McCall Theal, _Kaffir Folk-Tales_, pp. 96-98.]

[Footnote 13: "Afrikanische Studien," 1898 (_Transactions_ of the

Berlin Oriental Seminary, vol. i.) p. 194.]

We shall have occasion to refer, later on, to more than one instance

where a story is found in two forms, one having animals, the other

human beings, as its characters.

The animals figuring in folk-tales must necessarily vary with the

locality of the tale, and in cases where a story has travelled (or

possibly where the same idea has arisen independently in different

places) it is interesting to note the changes in its _dramatis

personae_. Thus, the incident of the race between the swift creature

and the slow seems to be found in the folk-lore of every country. In

Africa the winner is always, so far as I know, the Tortoise, as Brer

Terrapin is in "Uncle Remus." The Jamaica version in the volume before

us substitutes the Toad, while the defeated party is the Donkey. In a

Konde (North Nyasa) variant, the protagonists are the Elephant and the

Tortoise, in a Duala one, the _Ngolon_ (a large kind of Antelope) and

the Tortoise. Another version of the Duala story, contained in

_Maerchen aus Kamerun_, by the late Frau Elli Meinhof, has the Hare and

the Tortoise, but with the explanation that by "hare" is meant "eine

kleine Antilopenart, _eseru_ genannt." The curious thing is that Njo

Dibone, the native authority for the tales, himself suggested the name

of "hare," but added "Hase ist nicht wie hier,[14] sondern hat kleine

Hoerner." It is not stated whether he had himself seen the European

hare, but apparently he thought the two animals so far similar that

_Hase_ would be the nearest available rendering for _eseru_. This may

throw some light on the question why the _Dorcatherium_ gazelle, or

possibly the Royal Antelope, _Neotragus_, is called "Cunnie Rabbit" in

Sierra Leone English.

[Footnote 14: He had been brought to Europe by a German naval officer

in 1885, and remained for some time an inmate of Professor Meinhof's

family.]

The Tortoise plays a conspicuous part in the folk-lore both of Bantu

and West African Negroes. In Yoruba tradition he takes the place of

the Spider with the Fantis, all mankind being descended from him.

Perhaps this is not strange, when we consider how much there is about

him which would appeal to the primitive mind as uncanny and

mysterious. A recent writer in the _West African Mail_[15] says on

this subject: "The original conception of the tortoise culminated in a

belief concerning its attributes that, in the eyes of these [Niger]

Delta natives, elevated it to the sovereignty of the beasts of the

forest.... Absolutely harmless and inoffensive in himself, the

tortoise does not prey on even the smallest of insects, but subsists

entirely on the fallen fruits of the forest"--or, in some cases, on

fungi. "In the gloomy forests of the Delta there are only two enemies

capable of doing him any serious harm. The one is man, who is able to

lift him up and carry him bodily away, which, however, he does not do,

except in those instances in which the animal is regarded as sacred,

and required in connection with certain religious ceremonies. His

other and most dangerous enemy is the python, who having first of all

crushed him by means of the enormous power of constriction which it

can apply, swallows him alive, shell and all. But pythons large enough

to do this, unless the tortoise happens to be very young and small,

are very scarce, so that he has not much to apprehend in that quarter.

To the elephant--herbivorous, like himself--he is too insignificant,

for unlike the mosquito or the sand-fly, he has no sting; and although

they meet in fable, in real life the hippopotamus and himself are not

much thrown together. From the leopard or the bush-cat, he has nothing

to fear, for their teeth cannot penetrate his shell, nor can [their]

claws do him any damage. Thus it is that ... the tortoise has been

practically immune from attack and therefore destruction--a fact that

in a great measure explains his longevity."

[Footnote 15: May 25, 1906, p. 202.]

If we add to this his power of living for a long time without food,

his silence, the extreme slowness and caution of his movements, his

instinct of keeping out of sight, and the peculiar air of dogged

determination with which he sets about overcoming or circumventing

obstacles, it is "easy to understand how in process of time the word

which stood for tortoise became a synonym for cunning and craft, and a

man of exceptional intelligence was in this way known among the Ibo as

'Mbai,' and among the Ibani as 'Ekake,' meaning a tortoise. For

although he of the shell-back was slow, he was sure, as the old Greek

Aesop tells us.... This sureness, in the native mind, implied

doggedness and a fixed determination, while silence and secrecy

implied mystery and a veiled purpose behind which it is impossible to

get."

The tortoise of African folk-lore is sometimes, in fact usually, the

land-tortoise (as implied in the above extracts), of which there are

several species, living either in forest-country or in deserts like

the Kalahari. In Angola, the story of "Man and Turtle" (Chatelain, p.

153--identical with "Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarrypin" in "Uncle

Remus") refers to a kind which, if not aquatic, is evidently

amphibious. We find tortoise stories all over Negro and Bantu Africa;

we have Temne, Bullom, and Yoruba examples, besides Duala, Konde

(Nyasa), Yao, Nyanja, Herero, Bemba, Congo (Upoto), Angola and Sesuto

ones. This does not exhaust the list I have made out, and further

research would no doubt bring to light many more. One of these is the

well-known "tug-of-war" story, which in "Uncle Remus" has the title

"Mr. Terrapin shows his strength." We have two versions of this

(agreeing in their main points) from the Kamerun, one told by the

Duala, the other by the Yabakalaki-Bakoko tribe. Here it is the

Elephant and the Hippopotamus whom the Tortoise induces to pull

against each other. The American Negro substitutes the Bear for one of

these competitors, and then, apparently at a loss for a wild animal

strong enough to take the place of the other, makes "Brer Tarrypin"

tie "Miss Meadows's bed-cord" to a root in the bed of the stream. But

it is interesting to find two native African versions in which other

animals are substituted for the Tortoise. The Temne (_Cunnie Rabbit_,

p. 117) gives his part to the Spider, while the Bemba people

(North-eastern Rhodesia) make the Hare the hero of the adventure. Col.

Monteil gives a Mandingo variant, introducing a different motive for

the contest: the Hare has borrowed a slave apiece from the Elephant

and the Hippopotamus, and when pressed for payment hands each of his

competitors in turn the end of a rope, with the words, "Tu n'as qu'a

tirer sur cette corde, le captif est au bout."[16]

[Footnote 16: _Contes Soudanais_, p. 49.]

Another Temne story collected by Miss Cronise, "Mr. Turtle makes a

riding-horse of Mr. Leopard," is paralleled by an Angola one

(Chatelain, p. 203) in which it is Mr. Frog who plays the trick on Mr.

Elephant. In the New World, it will be remembered that Brer Rabbit has

usurped the part.

In M. Rene Basset's _Anthology of African Folk-tales_[17] is included

a tale about a monkey and a tortoise from Baissac's _Folklore de l'Ile

Maurice_ which recalls a Nyanja one obtained by me at Blantyre and

printed in the _Contemporary Review_ for September, 1896. In the

latter it is the iguana, not the monkey who robs the Tortoise; but in

both, the Tortoise exacts retribution with a cold-blooded

relentlessness suggestive of Shylock. A Brazilian negro story is also

given, which looks like a variant of one told in Calabar to account

for the fact that the Tortoise's shell is composed of separate plates,

as though it had been broken to pieces and put together again.

[Footnote 17: P. 425. Another Mauritius negro tale from the same

source is identical with the Yao one of the Elephant and the Hare

(Duff Macdonald, ii. 353)--also found elsewhere in East Africa.]

But we look in vain for the tortoise in these stories of Mr. Jekyll's.

Even in the race-story, as we have seen, the part which in Africa is

so peculiarly his own, is taken by the Toad. Probably this is because

the land-tortoise is not found in Jamaica, and the great turtle of the

seas is not a creature whose ways would come under the daily

observation of the peasantry. In the same way familiar animals have

been substituted for unfamiliar ones in a great many cases, though not

in all. Mr. Jekyll thinks "Tiger" is a substitute for "Lion," but it

seems equally possible that "Leopard" is meant. All over South Africa,

leopards are called "tigers" by Dutch, English, and Germans, just as

hyenas are called "wolves," and bustards "peacocks" (_paauw_). "Tiger"

is used in the same sense in German Kamerun, and probably elsewhere in

West Africa. Lion and elephant are known--perhaps by genuine

tradition--to Uncle Remus; but they seem to have faded from the

recollection of the Jamaica negroes; indeed, the lion is not found in

their original homes, being absent from the whole West Coast as far as

Sierra Leone.

"Brer Rabbit," so characteristic a figure of Bantu folk-lore that his

adventures are related from one side of Africa to the other (though in

the west he is less frequently met with north of Angola), only appears

in two of Mr. Jekyll's stories, in none of which we can recognize

anything of his traditional character. In "Annancy and his Fish-pot,"

he is unscrupulously victimised by Annancy, and subsequently dies of

fright and worry; in "Snake the Postman," he escapes from Annancy's

machinations, but there is no indication that he could ever be

considered a match for "that cravin' fellah." In "John Crow and

Fowl-hawk" he is merely alluded to (p. 142, "This company was

Rabbit"). In "Dry Bone," he is induced by Guinea-pig to carry the

unwelcome load, but succeeds in passing it on, for the time being, to

Annancy. Finally, in "Gaulin," he cuts a poor figure as the

unsuccessful suitor. A Bantu story by no means complimentary to the

Hare's intelligence is given by M. Junod,[18] and seems to have

reached Louisiana[19] as "Compair Lapin et Michie Dinde," where the

Rabbit gets his head cut off under the belief that the Turkey has

removed his when he puts it under his wing to sleep. M. Junod thinks

this must refer to a second species of Hare, a by-word for stupidity,

as the other is for cuteness; but it is at least worth noting that the

same story is told by the Basumbwa (south of Lake Victoria) of the Hen

and the Tiger-cat.

[Footnote 18: _Chants et Contes_, p. 135, see also the preceding

story, and some remarks on p. 86, footnote 2.]

[Footnote 19: Alcee Fortier, _Louisiana Folklore_, p. 24.]

Besides Annancy himself, and the "Tiger" already mentioned, we have,

in these stories, either domestic or quasi-domestic animals: Cow, Hog,

Dog, Puss, "Ratta," etc., or creatures indigenous to Jamaica, such as

John-Crow, Chicken-Hawk, Sea-Gaulin, Candle-Fly, Crab and Tarpon. Some

stories, for which I fail to recall any exact parallel, either in

Africa or Europe, may be of purely local origin; this is most likely

to be true of those which profess to explain some elementary fact in

natural history, such as the inability of two bulls to agree in one

pasture ("Timmolimmo"), or the hostility between dogs and cats. Even

were this not so, the amount of local colour introduced (as always

where tales are transmitted orally) could change them almost beyond

recognition. This often has a very quaint effect, as in "Parson Puss

and Parson Dog," who are evidently conceived as ministers of some

rival Methodist denominations, and in the references to weddings,

funerals, and dances possibly ending up with a free fight, as in

"Gaulin," "How Monkey manage Annancy," "Doba," etc. Annancy's inviting

the animals to his father's funeral and slaughtering them (with the

exception of Monkey, who is too clever for him) reminds us of the

Temne "Mr. Leopard fools the other animals,"[20] but in this, Leopard

himself pretends to die. Cunnie Rabbit's test, "Die pusson nebber

blow," is less ingenious than that applied by Brer Rabbit in "Uncle

Remus:"[21] "When a man go to see dead folks, dead folks allers raises

up der behime leg en hollers _wahoo_!" (In Mr. Owen's version, they

"grin and whistle.") In the Sesuto story[22] the Monkey suspects a

trick and escapes, when the Hare persuades the Lion to entrap the

other animals by shamming death. Perhaps the baptism of the crabs

("Annancy in Crab Country") may be connected with "Mr. Spider

initiates the fowls,"[23] where the Temne Spider, assuming for the

nonce a quasi-religious character, gathers his victims together to

celebrate the Bundo mysteries, and massacres them wholesale.

[Footnote 20: _Cunnie Rabbit_, p. 219.]

[Footnote 21: "Mr. Wolf makes a failure."]

[Footnote 22: Jacottet, p. 19.]

[Footnote 23: _Cunnie Rabbit_, p. 133.]

"Annancy and Hog" (XXXII.) is a fragmentary story, not very easy to

understand as we have it, but something has evidently dropped out. The

sentence "An' when Hog think him done up Annancy him done up him own

mother" may point to some original similar to the Fiote story given by

Mr. Dennett, in which the Leopard's wife is induced to eat her

husband's head.[24] But in that case it is difficult to understand the

connection with the opening incidents.

[Footnote 24: _Folklore of the Fjort_, pp. 82-84.]

In "John-Crow and Fowl-hawk" (XLVI.) we _may_ have a reminiscence of

the class of stories represented by the Yao "Kalikalanje," in which an

unborn child is promised by the mother in return for a service

rendered her by some person or animal. The resemblance, however, is

not very marked, and the incident is quite lost sight of in the later

part of the story.

"Annancy and Death" is curious, and, as it stands, not very

intelligible. Death, as a person, is introduced into several African

stories,[25] and even (in one from the Ivory Coast) together with the

Spider, but none of these have anything parallel with the one before

us. The last part, however, where Annancy and his children are

clinging to the rafters, and Death waiting for them below, recalls the

story to be found on pp. 224-226 of _Cunnie Rabbit_. The Spider and

his family take refuge in the roof when pursued by the Leopard, and he

sits on the ground and catches them as they drop one by one. Last of

all, the wife, Nahker, "he say he done tire, en Spider say: 'Yo' wey

(= who) big so? Fa' down now, yo' go get de trouble.' Nahker fa' down,

Lepped yeat um. Spider he one lef' hang." He escapes, however.

[Footnote 25: _Kalunga_ in Angola, _Ko_ by the Ne Kru-men. Some

curious episodes connected with the latter are given by M. Georges

Thomann in his _Essai de Manuel de la langue neonla_ (Paris: E.

Leroux).]

In "Dummy," Annancy wins a bet and the hand of the King's daughter by

inducing "Peafowl" to make the dumb man talk. This "Peafowl" does by

the sweetness of his song; but in a Duala story given by Lederbogen as

"Der Tausendfuss und das stumme Kind," the means adopted more nearly

resemble the time-honoured recipes for detecting changelings in this

country. The Mouse advised the dumb child's parents to consult the

Spider, who told them to hang up a centipede over the fireplace, set

on a pot of water just underneath it, and leave the child sitting

beside the fire. They did so, and went out. As soon as the steam rose

from the water, the centipede, feeling the heat, began to struggle,

and the dumb child watching it cried out in his excitement, "Father!

there is a centipede going to fall into the pot."

"William Tell" is puzzling. There is no single point of contact

between the owner of the witch-tree and the mythical archer of Europe.

It is most probable that the name (a likely one to remain in the

memory) had been picked up by some negro story-teller who did not know

the tale belonging to it and simply attached it to the first

character that came handy. The "sings" by means of which Annancy fells

the tree occur frequently in native African stories; we need only

mention the incident (found not only in the Xosa "Bird that made

Milk," but in a Duala tale, and elsewhere) of the song which made the

hoed garden return to grass and weeds, and that of Simbubukwana's

sister[26] who sang "Have legs, have arms," and the boy who was

without those members immediately grew them. The notion of spells to

be sung, however, does not seem to be confined to any country or race.

[Footnote 26: McCall Theal, p. 68.]

I do not remember any exact parallel to "Dry River" (XXXIII.), but the

incident of the river rising is found in Africa with several different

sequels. In a Nyanja story which I have in MS., some children go out

into the bush to gather wild fruit, and are cut off on their return by

the rising of the river. They are helped across by "a big bird, with

one wing, one eye and one leg" (one of the "half-beings"[27] whose

place in Bantu folk-lore has not yet been fully worked out), and

charged not to tell who took them over. One boy tells his mother, and

is drowned on the next expedition, his companions getting across in

safety. In "The Village Maiden and the Cannibal" (Mrs. Martin's

_Basutoland, its Legends and Customs_), the girls cannot cross the

swollen stream till they have thrown a large root into the water, and

complied with the directions. The last girl, who is reluctant to obey,

but finally gives in, is not drowned, but she and her sister have an

adventure with cannibals of a not uncommon kind, which may be referred

to Mr. Jacobs's "Flight from Witchcraft" type. Two other stories, a

Kinga (North-east Nyasa) and a Machame (Kilimanjaro) one, have the

same opening incident (in the one case, however, it is a rock and not

a river which enlarges itself and blocks the way), but continue in

quite a different way--the girls are helped by an animal (in one case

a jackal, in another a hyena) who subsequently insists on marrying one

of them. The Machame tale, to which we shall have to return presently,

as it belongs to the group to which we refer "Yellow Snake" and some

others, goes on to relate how the girl escaped from the hyena's

village; the Kinga one takes an entirely different course.

[Footnote 27: See Junod, _Chants et Contes des Baronga_, p. 197; also

a note in Chatelain, _Folk-tales of Angola_, p. 254, and Callaway,

_Zulu Tales_, p. 199.]

"Leah and Tiger" is one of the stories which can be most

unhesitatingly identified as African; and, as it happens, the examples

at present known to me are nearly all Bantu. Perhaps the closest

parallel is the Suto "Tselane" (Jacottet, p. 69),[28] where, however,

the girl, instead of being secluded by her father to avoid the trouble

which her refusal to marry threatens to bring upon him, herself

insists on staying in the house her parents are leaving. As in the

Jamaica version, they bring her food every day, and sing to let her

know of their approach. The cannibal on the prowl (represented in

Jamaica by the "tiger") imitates the mother's voice, but fails; after

swallowing a red-hot hoe, he succeeds at the first trial. He does not

eat Tselane, however, and so end the story with a warning against

obstinacy; he puts her into a bag to carry her home, and rests on his

way at a hut, which proves to be her uncle's. While he is resting

inside the hut, leaving his bag outside, the family discover the girl

and let her out, substituting a dog and some biting ants. In other

versions it is bees and wasps, or snakes and toads; but the result is

always the same--the death of the cannibal. The incident of swallowing

red-hot iron to soften the voice is found also in "Demane and

Demazana" (Theal) and elsewhere. In a curious Masai story, "The Old

Man and his Knee" (Hollis, _The Masai: Language and Folklore_, p.

153), the "enemies" (not said to be cannibals) carry off the old man's

two children by means of the same stratagem. After failing in the

first attempt they consult a medicine-man to find out how they can

"make their voices resemble an old man's." He tells them merely to go

back, and eat nothing on the road. They eat a lizard and an ant, and

their voices do not produce the desired effect. On trying again, and

this time complying exactly with the doctor's directions, they deceive

the children and get the door opened. This incident is preserved in

"Leah," and, like the Masai "enemies," Tiger thinks that such a trifle

as the guava and "duckanoo" cannot possibly do any harm. The Masai

story concludes with the killing of the old man by making him swallow

a hot stone--an incident which crops up in various connections in the

Hare stories, but seems out of its place in this one. On the whole

(though I do not like to hazard a conjecture) it seems more probable

that the Masai had picked up this tale from some of their Bantu

neighbours than that the Bantu should have adopted it from them.

[Footnote 28: This story is also given by Arbousset.]

As regards the imported stories, it seems reasonably clear that

"Yung-Kyum-Pyung" is a "Rumpelstiltzchen" story which has accidentally

become associated with Annancy. Though the superstition on which these

stories are based exists in Africa as well as in other parts of the

world, and is one of the factors in the custom of _hlonipa_, I do not

remember any tale embodying it in this form, though there are numerous

examples of those which turn a _tabu_ of some sort.

"King Daniel" is the story of the jealous sister, best known, perhaps,

in the ballad of "Binnorie." But it has African prototypes as well,

though the resemblance to these is not so close, in which the crime is

discovered by the song of a bird--sometimes the metamorphosed heart of

the victim. In "Masilo and Masilonyane" and the Kinga "Die

Reiherfeder,"[29] one brother (or companion) kills the other; in

"Unyengebule" (Callaway) the husband kills the wife, and here it is

her feather head-dress which turns into a bird. "Pretty Poll" (XXXI.)

is a variant of this story.

[Footnote 29: R. Wolff, "Grammatik der Kingasprachen" (_Archiv fuer das

Studium deutschen Kolonialsprachen_, iii.), p. 135.]

Another pair of variants, apparently, are "Blackbird and Woss-woss"

and "Open Sesame." But the former of these, it seems to me,

corresponds much more closely with a Nago story of the Lizard and the

Tortoise, given by M. Basset (_Contes populaires d'Afrique_, p. 217);

and it should be remembered that the Nagos of Yoruba are one of the

tribes represented among the Jamaica negroes. The lizard finds a rock

containing a store of yams, and overhearing the words used by the

owner "_Stone, open!_" obtains food for himself in time of famine. He

imparts the secret to the tortoise, and they go together, but the

tortoise lingers behind to load himself with all he can carry, and not

knowing the word fails to get out, and is killed when the owner

returns. He revives, however, and gets the cockroach to stick his

shell together, thus presenting a point of contact with other

aetiological myths about the Tortoise. The rescue by the army of wasps

I have been unable to match.

"Man-crow" is the story, which exists in so many variants, where the

hero is robbed of the fruit of his achievement by an impostor stepping

in at the last minute. The nearest parallel which occurs to me is

"Rombao" (probably obtained from a Portuguese source by the Quilimane

natives who related it to Mr. Duff Macdonald), where the hero kills

the whale and cuts out its tongue; the captain who finds it dead

claims his reward, but is discomfited by Rombao's appearance with the

tongue.

"The Three Pigs" will be readily recognized as the familiar English

story, and corresponds pretty closely to the version in Mr. Jacobs's

_English Fairy Tales_. A version current among the negroes of the

Southern States is given by Mr. Owens in the paper in _Lippincott's

Magazine_ already referred to. This version, entitled "Tiny Pig,"

omits the two incidents of the apple-tree and the butter-churn; but

curiously enough these appear as "Buh Rabbit" episodes in another part

of the same paper, the apple-tree having become a pear-tree, and the

churn a tin mug which Buh Rabbit puts over his head, while he hangs

various articles of tinware about his person.

"Sea-Mahmy" introduces several different elements. The mermaid herself

is probably of European extraction,[30] and the device by which

Blackbird brings Annancy to the feeding-tree _might_ be a far-off echo

of the Daedalus and Icarus myth. But Annancy's trick for conveying

Trapong to his house and eating him recalls one of the stock incidents

of Bantu folk-lore--the one where Hlakanyana, or the Hare, or some

other creature, induces his dupe to get burnt or boiled by pretending

to undergo the process himself and to escape with impunity. The Suto

Hare[31] commends this as a device for attaining immortality--in which

there is a faint suggestion of Medea's caldron. I was at first

disposed to refer this episode to the "Big Klaas and Little Klaas" (or

the "Getting-to-Heaven-in-a-Sack") group; but the inducement to enter

the sack, which is so great a point in these, is here wanting. It is

found in a Zanzibar story ("Abu Nuwasi na waziri na Sultani") in Dr.

Velten's collection,[32] where Abu Nuwas is sewn up into a sack to be

thrown into the sea, and induces another man to take his place by

saying that he is to be drowned for refusing to marry the Sultan's

daughter. This is evidently an Arab tale, though I do not remember it

in the _Arabian Nights_.

[Footnote 30: One kind of duppy is a mermaid--but I can find no

indication that she came from Africa.]

[Footnote 31: Jacottet, p. 15.]

[Footnote 32: _Suaheli Maerchen_, p. 154 (p. 241 in the German

translation).]

The exotic tales to be found in Bantu Africa come mainly from two

sources--Arab and Portuguese. The former is exemplified at Zanzibar

and all down the Mozambique coast; the latter in Angola and

Mozambique. We have already referred to an example obtained at Delagoa

Bay by M. Junod; but "Bonaouaci" (_Chants et Contes_, p. 292), though

the names are Portuguese, and the local colouring goes so far as to

introduce the Governor of Mozambique in person, is in substance

identical with one of the "Abu Nuwas" stories given by Dr. Velten, the

incident of the egg-production being nearly the same in both, as well

as the two other impossible tasks set the hero--sewing a stone and

building a house in the air. I fancy the same is the case with

"Djiwao," though the incidents have been a good deal remodelled, and

the concluding episode--the boiling of the chief Gwanazi in the pot he

had intended for Djiwao, is the purely Bantu one alluded to in the

last paragraph--in a somewhat unusual setting. "Les trois

vaisseaux,"[33] again, is an _Arabian Nights_ story, of which a

curious version has been obtained at Domasi, probably brought from the

coast by some member of a Yao trading caravan. Mr. Dennett's No. III.,

"How the wives restored their husband to life," looks like a much

altered and localized form of this. If so it might have reached the

Congo through the Portuguese. We also find it on the Ivory Coast[34]

where it might have come from an Arab source through Mandingoes or

Hausas.

[Footnote 33: _Ib._ p. 304.]

[Footnote 34: See Thomann, _op. cit._, "Trois maris pour une femme."]

The stories of "Fenda Maria" and "Fenda Maria and her elder brother

Nga Nzua"[35] ("The Three Citrons" and "Cinderella"), are good

examples of transplanted stories invested with local colour by

successive generations of narrators, till, as Mr. Chatelain says,

"the fundamental idea of exotic origin has been so perfectly covered

with Angola foliage and blossoms, that science alone can detect the

imported elements, and no native would believe that [these tales] are

not entirely Angolan."

[Footnote 35: Chatelain, No. I. and No. II.]

A curious stage in the migration of stories is exemplified by the

"Taal" (or Cape Dutch) versions of Oriental stories imported into

South Africa by the Malays, and existing in a purely traditional form

among the coloured people. One of these was printed by Mr. H.N. Mueller

in _De Gids_ for Jan., 1900, but I think hardly any attempt has been

made to collect them. And here I may mention that Herr Seidel's

_Lieder und Geschichten der Afrikaner_[36] contains a Nama version of

the Lear story, taken down and translated by Herr Olpp, of the Rhenish

Mission, who seems quite unaware of its real origin, in spite of the

very obvious parallel in Grimm's _Hausmaerchen_. He says in a note:

"Diese Begebenheit kann sich nur in der Kap-Kolonie ereignet haben zu

einer Zeit in welcher Kolonisten sich schon angesiedelt hatten und

unter den Eingeborenen wohnten. Der Name der Tochter spricht dafuer und

enstammt dem Hollaendischen." Now the youngest daughter's name is

"Katje Leiro"--surely, all things considered, not such a very far cry

from Cordelia.

[Footnote 36: P. 135, "Liebe bis zum Salz."]

It is interesting to trace the African elements in these imported

tales as distinct from those which are merely derived from West Indian

surroundings. Thus Mr. Bluebeard's three-legged horse (compare also

the three-legged horse in "Devil and the Princess") is, as explained

in the footnote, a "duppy"; and the duppy, whatever the derivation of

his name, seems to be West African in origin. Duppies are the souls of

the dead, "capable of assuming various forms of men and other

animals."[37] Some of these forms are monstrous, as the "three-foot

horse" already alluded to, the "long-bubby Susan," and the "rolling

calf." The informant who is responsible for these statements also says

that "the duppy in human form generally moves along by spinning or

walking backwards." Perhaps this may explain the mysterious "Wheeler"

(LI.) who has his habitation in a hollow tree, and seizes the hand of

any unwary person who puts it into the hole. What he would have done

if not requested to "Wheel me mile an' distant," remains obscure; but

apparently the persons making the request are whirled through the air

and then dropped at the place where Annancy (who has previously passed

through the experience unscathed) has prepared a trap for them. The

story suggests--though the resemblance is not very close--the episode

of "The Stone that wore a Beard" in _Cunnie Rabbit_ (p. 167), where

the Spider, having had a narrow escape from the magic powers of the

bearded stone (a transformed "devil") utilises them for the

destruction of his acquaintances. Those who remark on the peculiarity

of the stone are struck down unconscious, and Spider exercises all his

ingenuity in inducing his victims to say, "Dah stone get plenty

bear'-bear'!" Cunnie Rabbit will not say the words till Spider has

himself done so, and has suffered the consequences; both are

afterwards rescued by Trorkey (Tortoise). Somewhat similar to

"Wheeler" is the magic jar in XLV.--which might, however, be due to a

distorted reminiscence of "Bluebeard." Spirits are often believed on

the Gold Coast to take up their abode in trees, as well as to assume

the form of animals. The usual Tshi name for them appears to be

_bonsum_ or _bossum_: the word "duppy" I have been unable to trace.

[Footnote 37: See _Folk-Lore_, March, 1904, p. 90.]

The method of divination in "Mr. Bluebeard" is one I do not remember

to have met with, though it may be akin to the "magic mirror of ink."

The magic drum by which Calcutta Monkey (XXXVIII.) finds out Annancy's

whereabouts is African. I do not recall any parallel story, but drums

are much used by witch-doctors and in ceremonial dances, and in some

cases auguries are drawn from their sound. But Monkey first discovers

Annancy to be the thief by cutting the cards, which of course is

European.

Two stories, "Annancy and the Old Lady's Field" (XVI.) and "Devil's

Honeydram," introduce the incident of a woman compelled to dance

against her will--in one case to dance herself to death. In both cases

the music seems to be the compelling power; but it is not clear

whether, in "Devil's Honeydram," the knowledge (and use in the song)

of the woman's name has anything to do with the spell. If so, the idea

is so universal that one can scarcely refer to it as specially

African. It is interesting, though perhaps scarcely pertinent to the

matter in hand, to note that the Akikuyu believe their images (of

which Mr. Scoresby Routledge has brought home specimens) to have the

power, if held up before people, of compelling them to dance.

The folk-lore of Jamaica, as given in the interesting papers published

in _Folk-Lore_, 1904-5, is decidedly of a composite character. The

negroes have, as there pointed out (1904, p. 87), "adopted many of the

most trivial of English superstitions," while at the same time

preserving some reminiscences of their African beliefs. These are

especially seen in the notions respecting "duppies," which again are

perceptibly influenced by Christian ideas, cf. the efficacy of the

name of Christ (p. 90) and the statement that the "rolling calf" is

the spirit of a person not good enough for heaven or bad enough for

hell, or the recipe of "sitting on a Bible" to get rid of a duppy. The

directions for "killing a thief" (p. 92) belong to the system

(universal throughout Negro and Bantu Africa) of guarding crops by

means of "medicine," or "fetish," or whatever one likes to call it:

the technical name in Chinyanja is _chiwindo_. I do not remember any

of the particular forms of _chiwindo_ here enumerated; and the silver

threepence to be planted with the "guinea yam" is a civilized

addition, but the principle is the same. The methods of "finding out

the thief," on the other hand, which follow on p. 93, are certainly

English--the Bible and key, and the gold ring, hair and tumbler of

water. There is a third alternative:--"A curious kind of smoke, which,

when it rises, goes to the house of the thief, etc."--but it is too

vaguely stated to enable us to pronounce upon it.

Among funeral customs we find the following (p. 88): "If a person dies

where there are little children, after the body is put into the

coffin, they will lift up each little child, and calling him by name,

pass him over the dead body." According to a Sierra Leone paper this

custom is observed there; but it is not stated by which of the tribes

who make up the extremely mixed population. It may even be found on

investigation that some of the freed slaves brought the notion back

from the New World. The same authority states that it is considered

unlucky to whistle, and adds the rationalizing explanation that

whistling attracts snakes, lizards, and other undesirable creatures

into the house. In Jamaica, you must not "whistle in the nights, for

duppies will catch your voice."

The proportion of native and acquired, or African and European ideas

in these superstitions can only be determined by a much more detailed

examination than I can make here, and one based on fuller materials

than are yet accessible.

In conclusion, I would briefly glance at five stories which I have

grouped together as derived from a common African original, and which

present several features of interest, though I am unable to examine

them as much in detail as I should like to do. These are "The Three

Sisters" (VII.), "Gaulin" (XXIV.), "Yellow Snake" (XXXIV.), "John

Crow" (XLIII.), and "Devil and the Princess" (LI.). The type to which

these may be referred resembles the one registered by Mr. Jacobs as

the "Robber-Bridegroom"; but the African prototypes are certainly

indigenous, and it might seem as if the stories Mr. Jacobs had in view

were late and comparatively civilized versions of the corresponding

European and Asiatic ones, the Robber being the equivalent of an

earlier wizard or devil, who, in the primitive form of the story, was

simply an animal assuming human shape. The main incidents of the

type-story are as follows:

(1) A girl obstinately refuses all suitors.

(2) She is wooed by an animal in human form, and at once

accepts him.

(3) She is warned (usually by a brother) and disregards the

warning.

(4) She is about to be killed and eaten, but is saved by the

brother whose advice was disregarded.

A Nyanja variant of this story, where the bridegroom is a hyena,

corresponds very closely with the Temne "Marry the devil, there's the

devil to pay" (_Cunnie Rabbit_, p. 178)--even to the little brother

who follows the newly-wedded couple, against the wishes of the bride,

and who is afflicted--in the one case with "craw-craw," in the other

with sore eyes. A translation of the Nyanja story may be found in the

_Contemporary Review_ for September, 1896. In Mrs. Dewar's

_Chinamwanga Stories_ (p. 41) there is a variant,--"Ngoza,"--where the

husband is a lion. In the Machame story, previously alluded to, the

hyena, having befriended a girl, marries her, and she escapes with

some difficulty from being eaten by his relations. Yet another variant

is "Ngomba's Balloon" in Mr. Dennett's _Folklore of the Fjort_. Here

the husband is a _Mpunia_ (translated "murderer")--apparently a mere

human bad character, and Ngomba escapes by her own ingenuity.

In the Jamaican stories it strikes one that the idea of transformation

is somewhat obscured. We are told how "Gaulin" (Egret) and "John Crow"

provide themselves with clothes and equipages--the latter a carriage

and pair, the former the humbler local buggy;--and this seems to

constitute the extent of their disguise. Yellow Snake is said to

"change and fix up himself"--but the expression is vague. Gaulin,

however, can only be deprived of his clothes (and so made to appear in

his true shape) by means of a magic song. The "old-witch" brother, who

has overheard the song, plays its tune at the wedding and thus exposes

the bridegroom, who flies out at the door. "John-Crow" is detected by

a Cinderella-like device of keeping him till daylight, and his hurried

flight through the window (in which he scraped the feathers off his

head on the broken glass) explains a characteristic feature of these

useful but unattractive birds.

In neither of these is the bride in any danger: but in "Yellow Snake"

her brothers save her when already more than half swallowed; in "Devil

and the Princess," she escapes by the aid of the Devil's cook, who

feeds the watchful cock on corn soaked in rum. In this story, too, it

is not the girl's brother, but the "old-witch" servant-boy, who warns

her; and, as he is cast into prison for his pains, he has no hand in

the release. In two cases ("Gaulin" and "John Crow") Annancy is one of

the unsuccessful suitors, and, in the former, "Rabbit" is another.

(He, apparently, takes no steps to change his shape, being rejected on

the ground that he is "only but a meat," _i.e._, an animal.) In the

Nyanja story, Leopard and Hare are mentioned as meeting with refusals,

before the Hyena arrives on the scene. "The Three Sisters," while

keeping one or two points of the original story, is much altered, and

seems to have introduced some rather unintelligible fragments of an

English ballad (as to which see Appendix, p. 286). The Snake is never

accepted; and the youngest of the sisters, who answers him on behalf

of all, would seem to represent the "old-witch" brother who detects

his true character. His "turning into a devil" is another alien

element--perhaps due to Biblical recollections, and the concluding

assertion that he "have chain round his waist until now" seems to

refer to something which has dropped out, as there is no previous

allusion to a chain in the story as it stands. Of all the five,

"Yellow Snake" is, on the whole, the closest to what we may suppose to

have been the original; "Devil and the Princess" is in some respects

complete, but has acquired several foreign features, and "John Crow"

has quite lost the characteristic conclusion. It is to be hoped that

we may one day succeed in discovering, if not all the African variants

of this story, yet enough to render those we possess more

intelligible, and to afford materials for an interesting comparative

study.

A. WERNER.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The stories and tunes of this book are taken down from the mouths of

men and boys in my employ. The method of procedure has in every case

been to sit them down to their recital and make them dictate slowly;

so the stories are in their _ipsissima verba_. Here and there, but

very rarely indeed, I have made a slight change, and this only because

I thought the volume might find its way into the nursery. The

following list exhausts the emendations: (1) It was not his fat that

Tiger took out when he went bathing, but his viscera; (2) The

"Tumpa-toe" of one of the stories is "Stinking-toe"; (3) Dog always

swears, his favourite expression being, "There will be hell here

to-night," and the first line of one of the dance tunes runs really:

"Hell of a dog up'tairs"; (4) "belly" is replaced by a prettier

equivalent.

The district in which I live is that of the Port Royal Mountains

behind Kingston. Other districts have other "Sings," for these depend

upon local topics. The Annancy Stories are, so far as I know, more or

less alike throughout the island. This title seems to include stories

in which Annancy himself does not figure at all, but this is of course

an illegitimate use of it. The collection in this book is a mere

sample both of stories and tunes.

The book as a whole is a tribute to my love for Jamaica and its dusky

inhabitants, with their winning ways and their many good qualities,

among which is to be reckoned that supreme virtue, _Cheerfulness_.

W.J.

JAMAICA, _January_, 1906.

JAMAICAN SONG AND STORY.

PART I. ANNANCY STORIES.

When the hoes stop clicking and you hear peals of laughter from the

field, you may know that somebody is telling an Annancy story. If you

go out, you will find a group of Negroes round the narrator,

punctuating all the good points with delighted chuckles. Their sunny

faces are beaming, and at the recital of any special piece of knavery

on Annancy's part ordinary means of expression fail, and they fling

themselves on the ground and wriggle in convulsions of merriment.

Annancy is a legendary being whose chief characteristic is trickery. A

strong and good workman, he is invariably lazy, and is only to be

tempted to honest labour by the offer of a large reward. He prefers to

fill the bag which he always carries, by fraud or theft. His appetite

is voracious, and nothing comes amiss to him, cooked or raw. No sooner

is one gluttonous feast over than he is ready for another, and endless

are his shifts and devices to supply himself with food. Sometimes he

will thrust himself upon an unwilling neighbour, and eat up all his

breakfast. At another time he carries out his bag and brings it home

full of flesh or fish obtained by thieving. He is perfectly selfish,

and knows no remorse for his many deeds of violence, treachery and

cruelty. His only redeeming point is a sort of hail-fellow-well-met-ness,

which appeals so much to his associates that they are ready almost,

if not quite, to condone his offences.

Annancy has a defect of speech owing to a cleft palate, and pronounces

his words badly. He speaks somewhat like Punch, through his nose very

rapidly, and uses the most countrified form of dialect. He cannot say

"brother," and has to leave out the _th_ owing to the failure of the

tongue to meet the palate, so he says "bro'er." He even pretends he

cannot say "puss," and turns it into "push." Strings of little words

he delights in, such as, in the Brother Death story, the

often-repeated "no mo so me no yerry," an expressive phrase difficult

to render into good English. It means "I must have failed to hear."

The words are "no more so me no hear," equivalent to "it must be so

(that) I (do) not hear," the "no more" having something of the force

of the same words in the colloquial phrases, "no more I do," "no more

I will." When, for instance, to the remark, "I thought you didn't like

the smell of paint," we make the rejoinder "no more I do," Priscian

strives in vain to disentangle the words and reduce them to rule of

syntax, but they mean "Well! I do not." Thus "no more me hear" would

be "Well! I do not hear." The "so" introduces the hypothetical element

and the "no" before "yerry" is a reduplicated negative.

Thus far for the sense. Now for the pronunciation. The accent

indicates where the stress of the voice falls, and unless the accent

is caught, the phrase will not run off the tongue. This is how it

goes:

n[)o] m[)o] | s[=o] m[)e] n[)o] | yerry.

As an illustration of the necessity of right placing of the accent,

take the name of that town in Madagascar, which we so often saw in our

papers a few years ago, Antananarivo. Most of us just nodded our heads

at it, but never tried, or at least only feebly, to articulate it.

With all this "an an" it was the same sort of hopeless business as

the deciphering of the hieroglyphics of those writers whose words

seem to be composed of nothing but _m_'s. And yet how simple, and easy

to say, the word is when we catch the accent. First "an"; then stop a

little; "tanana," same values as traveller; and finally "rivo." French

sounds for the vowels of course, An-tananarivo. This grouping of

accents is that which in music is known as rhythm. Rightly grouped

they make musical sense, wrongly grouped--and alas! how often we hear

it--musical nonsense. See the stuttering hopelessness and helplessness

of an-tan-an-a--there might be any number more of "an-an"s to follow,

and compare with this the neat satisfying form Antananarivo. So let no

bungler read in the story of Brother Death "no mo so me no yerry" with

halting and panting, but let him reel off as quickly as he can "no mo

so me no yerry" with just the accent that he would use in this

phrase:--"It is here that I want you." Remember, too, that the _o_'s

have the open sound of Italian, and not the close sound of English. So

is exactly like _sol_ (the musical note) with the _l_ left out, and

not as we pronounce it. And above all, speed.

When the stranger lands in Jamaica and hears the rapid rush of words,

and the soft, open vowels, he often says: "Why, I thought they talked

English here, but it sounds like Spanish or Italian!" The difficulty

in understanding a new language lies in the inability to distinguish

the point where one word ends and the next begins. The old puzzle

sentence, _Caille a haut nid, taupe a bas nid_, shows this very well.

The ear catches the sound but fails to differentiate the words, and,

their real identity being disguised, the listener has a sort of

impression of modern Greek or Italian, writing these fragments in his

brain _oni_, _bani_.

Just as hopeless is negro English to the newcomer, and the first thing

to do is to set about learning it. And well it repays investigation.

It is the boast of the English language that it has got rid of so much

superfluous grammatical matter in the way of genders, inflections and

such-like perplexities. True, it has abolished much that was evil, and

enables us to speak and write shortly and to the point. But negro

English goes a step further, and its form is still more concise.

Compare these expressions:

NEGRO. ENGLISH.

Corn the horse. Give the horse some corn.

Care the child. Take care of the child.

Him wife turn fire. His wife became a shrew.

You middle hand. The middle of your hand.

My bottom foot. The bottom of my foot.

Out the lamp. Put out the lamp.

The boy too trick. The boy is very tricky.

I did him nothing. I did not provoke him.

See the 'tar up a 'ky. Look at the star up in the sky.

No make him get 'way. Do not let him get away.

Me go buy. I am going to buy.

A door. Out of doors.

Short-mout'ed. Quick at repartee.

Bull a broke pen. The bull has broken out of the pen.

Bell a ring a yard. The bell is ringing in the yard.

Same place him patch. In the place where it was patched.

To warm fire. To warm oneself by the fire.

You no give. If you do not give.

Bring come. Bring it here.

A bush. In the bush.[38]

[Footnote 38: These idioms are very similar to those of Cape Dutch,

especially as spoken by the coloured people, and may help to

illustrate its development. Cf. _Jy is te skellum_,--_ek gaan_ (or

better, _Corp_) korp, etc. "To warm fire" reminds one of the Bantu _Ku

ot a moto_, of which it is almost a literal translation. (A.W.)]

These are a few typical sentences out of a host which might be cited

to show the neat, short turn they take in the mouth of the Jamaica

Negro.

The rapidity of utterance natural to all the Blacks is exaggerated by

Annancy. He generally affects, too, a falsetto tone as in "Play up the

music, play up the music," in Yung-kyum-pyung. He has a metamorphic

shape, that of the Spider. At one moment he is a man "tiefing

(thieving) cow," the next he is running upon his rope (web).

As he is the chief personage in most of the stories in this book, it

is well to have a perfectly clear idea of the pronunciation of his

name. Unnahncy does not represent it badly, but the first letter has

actually the sound of short French _a_ as in _la_. The accent falls

strongly on the middle syllable. In "Tacoma" all the syllables are

very short. The first has the sound of French _ta_, and takes the

accent; _co_ is something between English _cook_ and Italian _con_,

and it is impossible to determine whether to write the vowel _o_ or

_u_; _ma_ again as in French. The exact relation in which Tacoma

stands to Annancy is obscure. In one case he is described as Annancy's

son, but, according to most of the stories, he appears to be an

independent neighbour.

The stories are obviously derived from various sources, the most

primitive being no doubt those which are concerned only, or chiefly,

with animals. These may be of African origin, but we should have

expected to find the Elephant and not the Tiger. I have a suspicion

that Tiger was originally Lion, and that he is the Ogre of Jack the

Giant-killer, and other fairy stories brought to Jamaica from England.

Ogre would easily be corrupted to Tiger, and with the information,

which might have been acquired at the same time, that Tiger was a

fierce animal which ate men, his name would find its way into stories

repeated from mouth to mouth. This is, however, pure conjecture. How

much the stories vary may be seen from the two versions of Ali Baba,

in one of which the point is so entirely lost that the door is not

kept shut upon the intruder.

The tunes are in the same case as the stories. What I take to be

certainly primitive about them is the little short refrains, like

"Carry him go 'long" (Dry Bone) and "Commando" (Annancy and Hog).

These suggest tapping on a drum. Again, the same influence that has

produced the American Plantation Songs is occasionally visible, as in

"Some a we da go to Mount Siney" (Annancy in Crab Country). This kind

of patter is just what the Negro likes. Some of the tunes are

evidently popular songs of the day, as, for instance, the vulgar

"Somebody waiting for Salizon" (Snake the Postman). But others are a

puzzle, showing as they do a high order of melodic instinct. Such are

the melodies in "The Three Sisters" and "Leah," and the digging-tunes,

"Oh, Samuel, Oh!" and "Three Acres of Coffee." These digging-tunes are

very pleasant to hear, and the singers are quick at improvising parts.

They are an appropriate accompaniment to the joyous labour of this

sunny, happy land.

One more word with regard to the tunes. They gain a peculiar and

almost indescribable lilt from a peculiarity in the time-organisation

of the Negro. If you ask him to beat the time with his foot, he does

it perfectly regularly, but just where the white man does not do it.

We beat _with_ the time; he beats _against_ it. To make my meaning

quite plain, take common measure. His first beat in the bar will be

exactly midway between our first and second beats. The effect of this

peculiarity in their singing is, that there is commonly a feeling of

syncopation about it. The Americans call it "rag-time."

The men's voices are of extraordinary beauty. To hear a group chatting

is a pure pleasure to the ear, quite irrespective of the funny things

they say; and their remarks are accompanied with the prettiest little

twirks and turns of intonation, sometimes on the words, sometimes mere

vocal ejaculations between them. The women's voices have the same fine

quality when they speak low, but this they seldom do, and their usual

vivacious chatter is anything but melodious.

I. ANNANCY AND BROTHER TIGER.

One day Annancy an' Bro'er Tiger go a river fe wash'kin. Annancy said

to Bro'er Tiger:--"Bro'er Tiger, as you are such a big man, if you go

in a de blue hole with your fat you a go drownded, so you fe take out

your fat so lef' it here."

Tiger said to Bro'er Annancy:--"You must take out fe you too."

Annancy say:--"You take out first, an' me me take out after."

Tiger first take out.

Annancy say:--"Go in a hole, Bro'er Tiger, an' make me see how you

swim light."

Bro'er Annancy never go in.

As Tiger was paying attention to the swimming, Annancy take up his fat

an' eat it.

Then Annancy was so frightened for Tiger, he leaves the river side an'

go to Big Monkey town.

Him say:--"Bro'er Monkey, I hear them shing a shing a river side

say:--

[Music:

"Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat,

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat,

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat,

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat."]

The Big Monkey drive him away, say they don't want to hear no song.

So him leave and go to Little Monkey town, an' when him go him said:--

"Bro'er Monkey, I hear one shweet song a river side say:--

"Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat.

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat."

Then Monkey say:--"You must sing the song, make we hear."

Then Annancy commence to sing.

Monkey love the song so much that they made a ball a night an' have

the same song playing.

So when Annancy hear the song was playing, he was glad to go back to

Bro'er Tiger.

When him go to the river, he saw Tiger was looking for his fat.

Tiger said:--"Bro'er Annancy, I can't find me fat at all."

Annancy say:--"Ha ha! Biddybye I hear them shing a Little Monkey town

say:--

"Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat.

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat.

"Bro'er Tiger, if you think I lie, come make we go a Little Monkey

town."

So he and Tiger wented.

When them get to the place, Annancy tell Tiger they must hide in a

bush.

Then the Monkey was dancing an' playing the same tune.

Tiger hear.

Then Annancy say:--"Bro'er Tiger wha' me tell you? You no yerry me

tell you say them a call you name up ya?"

An' the Monkey never cease with the tune:--

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat.

Yeshterday this time me a nyam Tiger fat.

Then Tiger go in the ball an' ask Monkey them for his fat.

The Monkey say they don't know nothing name so, 'tis Mr. Annancy l'arn

them the song.

So Tiger could manage the Little Monkey them, an' he want fe fight

them.

So the Little Monkey send away a bearer to Big Monkey town, an' bring

down a lots of soldiers, an' flog Bro'er Tiger an' Annancy.

So Bro'er Tiger have fe take bush an' Annancy run up a house-top.

From that, Tiger live in the wood until now, an' Annancy in the

house-top.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=Go a river fe wash 'kin=, go to the river to wash their skins.

Pronounce =fe= like =fit= without the =t=.

=in a de=, into the.

=A go drownded=, will be drowned.

=fe take=, short for =must have fe take=, must take.

=so lef'=, and leave.

=fe you=, for you, yours.

=me me=, I will. Annancy is fond of these reduplications.

=in a hole=, in the hole.

=make me see=, let me see. =Make= and =let= are always confused.

=frighten=, frightened. Past participles are seldom used.

=take=, =eat=, =leave=, =go=, takes, eats, leaves, goes. This shortening is

always adopted. If a final =s= is used, it is generally in the wrong

place.

=shing a shing=, sing a song. Annancy's lisp will not always be printed,

but in reading, it should be put in even when not indicated.

=a river side=, at the river's side. The =v= is pronounced more like a =b=,

and the =i= in =river= has the sound of French =u=.

=me a nyam=, I was eating, I ate. =Nyam= is one of the few African words

which survive in Jamaica.

=make we hear=, and let us hear it.

=have the same song playing=; the past participle again avoided, and its

place supplied by the present participle. Song and tune are

interchangeable terms, and, even when there is no singing, the fiddle

speaks words to those who are privileged to hear; see "Doba" and other

stories.

=Biddybye=, by the bye.

=a Little Monkey town=, in Little Monkey town. So already in this story

we have had _a_ standing for =to=, =in=, =the=, =at=, =will=, besides being

interjected, as in =me a nyam= and elsewhere.

=make we go=, let us go.

=in a bush=, in the bush, in the jungle.

=dancing an' playing.= No mention of singing, observe.

=a wha' me tell you, etc.= What did I tell you? Did you not hear me tell

you they were talking about you up here? A good phrase to illustrate

the use of the interjected =say=.

=Call you name=, mention your name.

=Monkey them=; another common addition.

=nothing name so=, nothing called so.

=a bearer.= Bearers are important people in the Jamaica hills where

post-offices are few. They often bear nothing but a letter, though

some carry loads too.

=Jack Mantora, etc.= All Annancy stories end with these or similar

words. The Jack is a member of the company to whom the story is told,

perhaps its principal member; and the narrator addresses him, and

says: "I do not pick you out, Jack, or any of your companions, to be

flogged as Tiger and Annancy were by the monkeys." Among the African

tribes stories we know are often told with an object. The Negro is

quick to seize a parable, and the point of a cunningly constructed

story directed at an individual obnoxious to the reciter would not

miss. So when the stories were merely told for diversion, it may have

been thought good manners to say: "This story of mine is not aimed at

any one."

II. YUNG-KYUM-PYUNG.

A King had t'ree daughter, but nobody in the world know their name.

All the learned man from all part of the eart' come to guess them

name, an' no one could'n guess them.

Brother Annancy hear of it an' say:--"Me me I mus' have fe fin' them

ya-ya gal name. Not a man can do it abbly no me."

So one day the King t'ree gal gone out to bathe, an' Brother Annancy

make a pretty basket, an' put it in a the house where he knew they was

going to come fe eat them vittle.

He leave it there, an' go under the house fe hear the name.

When them come, them see the basket, an' it was the prettiest

something they ever see in their life.

Then the biggest one cry out:--

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket!

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

And the next one say:--

Margaret-Powell-Alone! What a pretty basket!

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket!

And the youngest bahl:--

Eggie-Law! What a pretty basket, eh?

Yung-kyum-pyung! What a pretty basket, eh?

Brother Annancy hear it all good, an' he glad so till him fly out a

the house an' gone.

Him go an' make up a band of music with fiddle an' drum, an' give the

musicians them a tune to sing the names to.

An' after a week him come back.

When him get where the King could yerry, him give out:--"Play up the

music, play up the music."

So they play an' sing:--

[Music:

Yung-kyum-pyung

Eggie-Law

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.]

After six times sing the Queen yerry.

She say:--"Who is that calling my daughter name?"

Annancy tell them fe play all the better.

Then the Queen massoo himself from up'tairs, an' t'row down broke him

neck.

Dat time de King no yerry, so Annancy harder to play de music still.

At last the King yerry, an' him say:--"Who is dat, calling me daughter

name?"

Annancy let them sing the tune over and over:--

[Music:

Yung-kyum-pyung

Eggie-Law

Marg'ret-Powell-Alone.]

An' the King t'row himself off a him t'rone an' lie there 'tiff dead.

Then Annancy go up an' take the t'rone, an' marry the youngest

daughter an' a reign.

Annancy is the wickedest King ever reign. Sometime him dere, sometime

him gone run 'pon him rope an tief cow fe him wife.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Me, me I mus' have, etc.=, I will find out those girls' names. Anybody

else would have said:--"Me mus' have fe find them ya (those here) gal

name," but Annancy likes to add a few more syllables. His speech is

=Bungo talk=. The Jamaican looks down on the Bungo (rhymes with Mungo)

who "no 'peak good English."

=abbly no me=, except me.

=go under the house.= It is no absurdity to the narrator's mind to

picture the King's house on the pattern of his own. This is a

two-roomed hut, consisting of the hall or dining-room and a bedroom.

It is floored with inch-thick cedar boards roughly cut and planed, so

that they never lie very close. An air space is left underneath, and

anybody who creeps under the hut can hear all that goes on above.

=bahl=, bawl.

=hear it all good=, hears everything perfectly.

=Play up the music.= He almost sings, like this:--

[Music:

Play up the music.]

=all the better=, all the harder.

=massoo himself=, lifts herself up. "Massoo" is an African word. The

hall seems to have a sort of gallery.

=t'row down, etc.=, throws herself down and breaks her neck. They always

say =to broke=.

=Dat time de King.= The turning of =th= into a =d= or nearly a =d= is

characteristic of negro speech. To avoid the tiresomeness of

dialect-printing, and for another reason to be mentioned by and by,

this is not always indicated. The change is introduced occasionally to

remind readers of the right pronunciation.

=let them sing=, makes them sing.

=Sometime him dare=, sometimes he is there (at home), sometimes he goes

and runs upon his web and steals cows for his wife. Other stories will

show Annancy's partiality for beef, or indeed anything eatable.

=tief=, thieve.

Spiders' webs of any kind are called =Annancy ropes=.

III. KING DANIEL.

There was two young lady name Miss Wenchy an' Miss Lumpy. The King

Daniel was courtening to Miss Wenchy, an' the day when they was to get

marry Miss Lumpy carry Miss Wenchy an' show him a flowers in the pond.

Miss Wenchy go to pick it, an' Miss Lumpy shub him in the pond.

An' she said:--"T'ank God! nobody see me."

Now a Parrot sat up on a tree, an' jes' as Miss Lumpy say "T'ank God!

nobody see me" the Parrot say:--"I see you dough!"

Then Miss Lumpy said to the Parrot:--"Do, my pretty Polly, don't you

tell, an' I'll give you a silver door an' a golden cage."

And the Parrot sing:--

[Music:

No, No, I don't want it,

for the same you serve another one you will serve me the same.]

"Oh do, my pretty Polly, don't you tell, an' I'll give you a silver

door an' a golden cage."

But the Parrot wouldn' stay, and he fly from houses to houses singing

this tune:--

[Music:

I brought, I brought a news to the young King Daniel;

Miss Lumpy kill Miss Wenchy loss,

on becount of young King Daniel.]

At last the Parrot got to the table where the young King Daniel was.

An' Miss Lumpy was into a room crying. Many pocket-handkerchief she

got wet with tears. An' the Parrot sing the same song:--"I brought, I

brought a news to the young King Daniel; Miss Lumpy kill Miss Wenchy

loss on becount of young King Daniel."

Then Miss Lumpy call out:--"Oh drive away that nasty bird, for Miss

Wenchy head hurting her."

But King Daniel wouldn' have it so, but said:--"I heard my name call.

I would like to know what is it."

An' the Parrot fly near upon the King's shoulder an' tell him what

become of Miss Wenchy. An' they go an' look in the room an' find her

not.

An' pretty Polly take them to the pond an' show them where Miss Wenchy

is, an' she was drown.

Then the King call Miss Lumpy an' head him up into a barrel an' fasten

it up with tenpenny nails, an' carry him up to a high hill an' let him

go down the gully, an' he drop in the gully pom-galong.

An' the Parrot laugh Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=I see you dough.= The first three words are pitched high and the voice

falls as low as possible on the =dough= and dwells upon it.

=Do, my pretty Polly, etc.= I have heard this story many times, and

these words never vary. Obviously it was once a silver cage with a

golden door.[39]

[Footnote 39: The well-known and lately-current ballad of _May

Colvin_, in which this incident occurs (though it is the false lover,

not the sister, who is murdered), has a cage of gold with an ivory

door. (C.S.B.)]

=I brought=; brought for bring, as we had =broke= for break.

=loss.= It is doubtful what this word represents. It may be loss or

lost. Observe =be=count.

=I would like to know what is it=, I should like to know what it is,

what the matter is. The perverse misplacing of these words strikes a

newcomer to the island. In questions they misplace them again and say

"What it is?"

=find her not.= The =not= has a heavy accent.

=gully=, precipice.

=pom-galong= imitates the sound of the barrel as it goes bumping down.

The =o='s have the Italian sound.

IV. TOMBY.

One day there was a gal, an' Annancy really want that gal fe marry,

but he couldn' catch him. An' Annancy ask a old-witch man--the name of

him was Tomby--an' the old-witch man had a 'mash-up side, an' him was

the only man could gotten the gal for Annancy. An' Annancy give the

old-witch man a t'reepence to give the gal when him goin' to the

market to buy a t'reepence of youricky-yourk. An' the gal take the

t'reepence. An' as she walk along the pass to market she meet up one

of her friend call Miss Princess Johnson an' she said:--"Good mornin'

me love," an' the answer:--"How you do, me dear? Where you a come from

now?"

An Miss Justina say:--"Me a come from Tomby yard, an' see de

t'reepence he give me fe go buy youricky-yourk."

"Never you bodder with somet'ing 'tan' so. Gi' ahm back him fuppence

because him goin' to turn trouble fe you."

"How I manage fe gi' him the fuppence?"

"When you go to the market come back tell him you no see no

youricky-yourk."

"An' what you go go buy, Miss Princess?"

"Me go buy me little salt fish an' me little hafoo yam, t'reepence a

red peas fe make me soup, quatty 'kellion, gill a garlic to put with

me little nick-snack, quatty ripe banana, bit fe Gungo peas, an' me

see if me can get quatty beef bone."

"Ah! me missis, Cocoanut cheap a market ya."

"Yes, me love, make me buy sixpence."

An' as they talking they get to market. They buy what they want an'

turn back, an' when they reach up Princess yard they tell goodbye an'

Justina call in to Tomby.

An' Justina bring back the t'reepence an' sing:--

[Music:

Me go to market, me look, Tomby;

look oh! me look, Tomby, look oh!

me look, Tomby, see no youricky-yourk;

Me went to Lingo Starban, 'cornful day,

me went to Lingo Starban, 'cornful day,

me went to Lingo Starban, 'cornful day.]

An' Tomby very vex as, being a old witch, he knew all what the gal do

already. An' he answer:--

[Music:

Hm hm! hm hm! me have me mash-up side gee oh!

a him make you say

Tatalingo ya you bit oh!

'cornful day.]

An' he won't take the t'reepence. Now the rule is that anybody take

something from old-witch an' can't give it back, it give him power to

catch him. An' so comes it that Tomby catch Justina an' send for Mr.

Annancy an' make him a present to be a wife. His name was Miss

Sinclair, but she becomes now Mrs. Annancy Sinclair.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Old-witch=, a person of either sex possessed of supernatural powers,

not necessarily old in years, as will be seen in other stories. The

name "white witch" applied to men is familiar to dwellers in the West

of England.

='mash-up=, smashed up, wounded, lacerated.

=youricky-yourk=, a nonsense word for some kind of plaster.

=pass=, path.

=Miss Princess.= Prince and Princess are common names for boys and

girls.

=good mornin'.= This broad =o= is always pronounced =ah=.

=yard=, a house with its immediate surroundings.

=Never you bodder=, don't you bother with something which stands so,

with that sort of commission.

=ahm=, frequently used for him.

=fuppence=, with Italian =u= having a turn towards =o=, fivepence in

the old Jamaica coinage, equal to threepence English. Princess advises

the return of the fuppence because it is going to get Justina (English

=u= and Italian =i=) into trouble, coming as it does from an old-witch.

It would not be guessed that the Jamaica coinage is identical with that

of England. Such is, nevertheless, the case in spite of these curious

names:

3 farthings 1 gill.

2 gills 1 quatty (quarter of sixpence, pronounced quotty).

2 quatties 1 treppence or fuppence (old coinage).

3 quatties 1 bit.

4 quatties 1 sixpence or tenpence (old coinage).

5 quatties, bit-o-fuppence.

7 quatties, bit-o-tenpence.

8 quatties 1 shilling or maccaroni.

10 quatties, mac-o-fuppence.

=go go buy.= It is not only Annancy who uses reduplications. The close

English =o= is replaced in the Negro's mouth by an Italian open =o=.

=hafoo= (pronounced hahfoo, really =afoo=, an African word), a kind of

yam.

='kellion=, skellion or scallion, a kind of onion which does not bulb.

=Gungo=, Congo. This pea is not only excellent for soup, but the growing

plant improves the soil by introducing nitrogen into it.

=ya=, do you hear? a common ending to any remark.

=tell goodbye.= They =tell= howdy (how do you do?) and goodbye.

=Lingo Starban.= This should probably be Lingo's tavern, Lingo's

tahvern; =v= and =b= being indistinguishable as in Spanish and Russian.

='cornful day=, a day of scorning or flouting. Justina wishes Tomby to

believe that she tried everywhere to get some youricky-yourk, but met

only with flouts and jeers.

=Hm, hm=, grumbling.

=a him=, it is him, it is that which makes you say:--"Tatalingo, here's

your bit," your three quatties. She only had a treppence but the Negro

is above accuracy as the Emperor Sigismund was above grammar.

=Tatalingo.= Lingo's name is now transferred to Tomby. Italian vowels in

Tata. In "Finger Quashy" we find Tatafelo as one of the cats' names.

=make him a present=, make her (Justina) a present to Annancy.

=Mrs. Annancy Sinclair.= They are not particular in the matter of

surnames. A remarried widow is constantly called by the surname of her

first husband.

V. HOW MONKEY MANAGE ANNANCY.

One day Mr. Annancy an' his wife sat under a tree an' don't know that

Mr. Monkey was on the tree. Mr. Annancy say to his wife:--"You know I

really want little fresh." The wife say to Annancy:--"What kind a

fresh?"

"How you mean, me wife, fe ax me dat question? Any meat at all. Me

wife, you know wha' we fe do. Make we get a banana barrel an' lay it

on de bed, make him favour one man, so get white sheet an' yap him up

from head to foot, an' sen' go call Bro'er Cow, Bro'er Monkey, Bro'er

Sheep, Bro'er Goat an' Bro'er Hog. An' when them come we mus' put all

the strange friend them inside de house an' den you fe stay inside de

room wi' dem."

Now Bro'er Annancy send fe all his friend, Sheep, Goat, Hog, Monkey.

Cow was the minister.

When they come to Annancy yard they met him was crying.

Parson Cow say:--"Don't cry so much, my good friend, because it is the

all a we road."

Annancy say:--"Ah, ah! Bro'er Cow, you no know the feeling me have fe

me one puppa. Bro'er Cow, as you is the parson, take you frien' in,

you will see de ole man 'pon bed."

During this time Mrs. Annancy was inside the room. The Reverend Cow

went in to raise up the sheet.

Mrs. Annancy say:--"No; me husban' say nobody fe look on the ole man

face till in the morning."

So Cow don't rist.

Mr. Monkey who hear all what Annancy was saying, he an' his wife

wouldn' go in the house.

Mr. Annancy say:--"Bro'er Monkey, go inside. Go see the last of the

ole man."

Monkey say:--"No, Bro'er Annancy, me sorry fe you too much. If a go in

dere a we cry whole a night."

"No, Bro'er Monkey, go in, go keep them other one company for you are

me nearest frien'."

Monkey never go.

He has to left Monkey, for Monkey was too clever for him.

An' by that time Mr. Annancy hid his cutlass back of his door well

sharpen an' go in the house an' shut the door. It was the only door in

the whole house, so he sat back of the door after lock it.

An' after, Bro'er Annancy ask Bro'er Cow to say a word of prayer.

During the praying Annancy was crying.

Hog with an old voice say:--"Keep up Mr. Annancy, keep up Mr.

Annancy."

He cry much the better.

The prayer was finish. Mr. Annancy ask Cow to raise a hymn.

The Cow commence with hundred a de hymn, hundred a de page.

[Music:

Me gullen ho St. John,

me gullen ho St. John,

me see the last to-day ya,

me see the last, puppa gone.]

Bro'er Annancy want fe kill Parson Cow, begin with a big confusion,

say that him don't like that hymn.

During this time his door was well lock, an' same time Bro'er Annancy

draw his cutlass an' raise a fight, say that him don't like that hymn.

An' the poor friend them didn' have anything to fight. He kill the

whole of them.

In the morning Monkey laugh, say:--"Bro'er Annancy, If me min come in

a you house you would a do me the same."

Annancy say "No."

Him give Monkey a piece of the meat.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=fresh=, fresh meat. In the country districts the only meat to be had as

a rule is ancient salt beef out of a tub.

=favour=, look like. In some parts of England the word is still used in

this sense.

=met him was crying=, found him crying.

=all a we.= All of us have to tread the road of death.

=one=, own.

=who hear=, who had heard previously when he was on the tree.

=cutlass.= Every Negro carries one. It is used for every sort of

purpose, but seldom murderously as here.

=old voice=, voice of simulated grief.

=much the better=, all the more.

=hundred a de=, hundredth.

=me gullen ho=, nonsense words.

=confusion=, quarrel.

=min=, been. If I had come in you would have done the same to me.

VI. BLACKBIRD AND WOSS-WOSS.

One day there was a place where they usual to kill plenty of meat. An'

Mr. Blackbird has a certain tree, hiding himself. An' every cow them

kill Mr. Blackbird see how them kill it. An' going into the house, the

house don't lock with no key nor either open with no key. When they

want to go in them use a word, say "one--two--t'ree--me no touch

liver," an' the door open himself. An' when them want to come out of

the house them use the same words "one--two--t'ree--me no touch

liver." An' Mr. Blackbird tief them fe true, an' them never find it

out.

An' one day Mr. Blackbird write his friend Mr. Annancy to take a walk

with him, an' him will show him where he is getting all these meat.

An' when he is going him tell Mr. Annancy all the rule, that when he

go on the tree he must listen, an' him will hear what them say to open

the door both going in an' coming out.

What Mr. Annancy did; when he see the butcher them passing with the

meat, Annancy was trembling an' saying:--"Look a meat,--Look a meat."

"Bro'er Annancy hush you mout', you a go make dem shot me."

When the butcher them gone, Mr. Blackbird come down, he an' Mr.

Annancy, an' go inside the house the very same as the butcher them do,

say "one--two--t'ree--me no touch liver." As they go into the house

Blackbird tell him that him mustn't take no liver. An' Mr. Annancy

took liver an' put in his bag. An' when Blackbird started out with the

same word Mr. Annancy left inside was tying his bag.

Now Mr. Annancy ready fe come out of the house, count

"one--two--t'ree--me no touch liver," and by this time he has the

liver in his bag.

The door won't open.

Blackbird call him "Come on."

He say:--"The door won't open."

Then he count more than what he was to by get so frighten. He

say:--"One--two--t'ree--four--five--six--seven--eight--nine--ten--me

no touch liver."

The door won't open.

Mr. Blackbird say:--"Look in your bag, you must be have liver."

The fellow so sweet-mout' say in a cross way "No."

Blackbird leave him.

When Blackbird go home he look an' can't see Mr. Annancy, so him fly a

bush an' get up a whole regiment of soldier. Who these soldier was,

was Woss-Woss. Mr. Blackbird was the General, march before. When them

reach to the place they were just in time, for the butcher were taking

Mr. Annancy to go an' tie him on a tree to cut him with hot iron. Word

of command was given from Mr. Blackbird, an' by the time the butcher

them come to the door with Mr. Annancy the whole world of Woss-Woss

come down on them.

They have to let go Mr. Annancy. Not one of the butcher could see. Mr.

Blackbird soldier gain the battle an' get 'way Mr. Annancy. They take

all the butcher meat an' carry home. Then Mr. Blackbird take Mr.

Annancy under his wing an' all his soldiers an' fly to his own

country. From that day Woss-Woss is a great fighter until now, so bird

never do without them to guard their nest.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=Woss-Woss.= The West Indian wasp hangs its paper nest to the twigs of

bushes and trees as a rule, though it does not despise the shelter of

the verandah. The wasps live in colonies, making many small nests

instead of one big one. The nests are shaped like the rose of a

watering-pot with the shank turned upwards.

This story clearly owes its origin to Ali Baba. The conversion of

Sesame, which meant nothing to the negro, into one-two-three, which at

least means something, is not unnatural.

=fe true=, literally =for true= is an expressive phrase conveying the idea

of intensity. =It hot fe true=, it is intensely hot. =He tief fe true=, he

steals terribly. =It rain fe true=, it is raining very hard. =He

wort'less fe true=, he is a regular scamp. =He sinnicky fe true=, he is a

horrid sneak. =His ears hard fe true=, his ears are outrageously hard,

said of a boy who will not do as he is told. =He nyam fe true=, he eats

immensely. =Lazy fe true=, abominably lazy. =Ugly fe true=, exceedingly

ugly. =The water cold fe true=, the water is very cold. =White yam burn

fe true=, the white yam is sadly burnt. =Orange bear fe true=, the

oranges bear heavily. =Puss catch ratta fe true=, the cat catches any

amount of rats. =Him favour tiger fe true=, he looks for all the world

like a tiger, said of a man who has a sullen expression. =Me head hurt

me fe true=, I have a very bad headache. =Boot burn me fe true=, my boots

gall me dreadfully.

=by get so frighten=, through fright; literally, owing to his getting so

much frightened.

=must be have=, must have.

=sweet-mout'=, sweet-mouthed, greedy.

VII. THE THREE SISTERS.

There was t'ree sister living into a house, an' everybody want them fe

marry, an' them refuse.

An' one day a Snake go an' borrow from his neighbour long coat an'

burn-pan hat an' the whole set out of clothing. Then he dress himself,

an' him tell his friends that him mus' talk to those young lady. An'

what you think the fellow does? He get up a heap a men to carry him to

the young lady yard. An' when him got there the door was lock with an

iron bar. An' when he come he say:--"Please to open the door, there is

a stranger coming in." An' he sing like this:--

[Music:

My eldes' sister, will you open the door?

My eldes' sister, will you open the door oh?

Fair an gandelow steel.]

An' the eldest one was going to open the door. An' the last one, who

was a old-witch, say to her sister:--"Don't open the door," an' she

sing:--

[Music:

My door is bar with a scotran bar,

My door is bar with a scotran bar oh,

Fair an' gandelow steel.]

Then the Snake ask again to the same tune:--

My second sister will you open the door?

My second sister will you open the door oh?

Fair an' gandelow steel.

An' the youngest, which was old-witch, sing again:--

My door is bar with an iron bar,

My door is bar with an iron bar oh,

Fair an' gandelow steel.

An' the Snake turn to a Devil, an' the t'ree sister come an' push on

the door to keep it from open.

An' the Devil ask a third time:--

My youngest sister will you open the door?

My youngest sister will you open the door oh?

Fair an' gandelow steel.

But the last sister won't have it so, an' she said with a very

wrath:--

[Music:

The Devil roguer than a womankind,

The Devil roguer than a womankind oh,

Fair an' gandelow steel.]

An' the Devil get into a great temper an' say:--

[Music:

What is roguer than a womankind?

What is roguer than a womankind oh?

Fair an' gandelow steel.]

Then the Devil fly from the step straight into hell an' have chain

round his waist until now.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Snake= is pronounced with an indefinite short vowel between the =s= and

=n=, senake.

=burn-pan hat=, the tall hat of civilized towns. The =pan= is the usual

cylindrical tin vessel used for cooking. When blackened by fire it is

a =burn-pan= or burnt pan. It is pronounced like French _bonne_.

=Gandelow, scotran.= The meaning of these words is lost.

=roguer.= This word is doubtful. Sometimes it sounds like rowgard, at

others like rowgod. It may mean "more roguish." The boy who gave me

this story often quotes this line from a hymn:

"To break the bonds of cantling sin."

One day I asked him to point it out in his hymnbook. It was

=conquering=. He can say it perfectly well, but he still goes on with

=cantling=. It is not surprising, therefore, that we cannot recover

words passed from mouth to mouth for generations.

=womankind.= Again it is doubtful whether this is a single word or two

words. The article would fix it as the latter in pure English, but in

negro speech it goes for nothing.

=old-witch=, though she was a young girl: see notes to No. IV. (Tomby).

VIII. WILLIAM TELL.

Once there was a man who name William Tell, an' him have a lots of

cow. An' in the yard there was a tree, an' the tree no man can fall

it. Any animal at all go under that tree it kill them, an' the name of

the tree is Huyg.

An' William Tell wanted the tree to cut down.

An' him offer a cow to any man that kill the Huyg. They shall get the

cow.

An' first of all Tacoma went to cut down the tree, an' him couldn'

bear the itch, I mean 'cratch of the tree.

An' William Tell made a law that any man come to cut the tree they

must not 'cratch their 'kin or else they would lose the cow.

An' Mr. Tacoma were very sorry, an' he was to leave the cow just to

save his life.

An' that great man Mr. Annancy heard about the cow an' him got a very

sharp axe. An' when Mr. Annancy come, William Tell show him the

cow--Annancy glad when he see the cow--an' after he show Mr. Annancy

the tree.

Then Mr. Annancy say:--"Ho, me good massa, don't you fret of the tree.

If one sing don't send 'way the tree another one must send him 'way."

An' the first sing was:--

[Music:

Big chip, fly! little chip, fly!]

He repeat the word over an' over, but the tree don't fall yet.

So him take up another sing again:--

[Music:

Me go to Rickylanjo, eye come shine,

come show me your motion, eye come shine.]

An' Mr. Annancy never cease till him cut down the tree an' receive his

reward.

NOTES.

=Huyg= for Hag, as they say =buyg= for bag. The spelling is awkward but it

seems the only convenient one to adopt. The sound will be best

understood from the second example. Say =buy= and put a hard =g= after it.

The =Huyg= seems to combine the qualities of the Upas and Cow-itch

(_Mucuns pruriens_). The last, a common Jamaica weed, looks like a

scarlet runner. It bears pods covered with a pretty velvet of hairs

which "scratch" or irritate the skin.

=sing.= Further on there is a collection of these =sings=.

=show me your motion=, let me see you begin to topple.

IX. BROTHER ANNANCY AND BROTHER DEATH.

One day Brother Annancy sen' gal Annancy fe go a Brother Deat' yard fe

go beg fire.

When the gal go, him go meet Brother Deat' dis a eat fe him breakfas'

enough eggs. Brother Deat' give gal Annancy one. Gal Annancy take the

egg an', after eat done, put the shell 'pon him finger.

Brother Annancy wait an' wait but can't get the fire, till at last he

see the gal a come.

When him see the gal with the egg shell 'pon him finger, him run an'

bit off the gal finger slap to the hand. Him take 'way the fire, out

it, an' go back to Deat' say:--"Bro'er Deat', de fire out."

Brother Deat' give him fire an' one egg, tell him fe go home.

"Say, Bro'er Deat', I goin' to give you me daughter fe marry to."

So Annancy do marry off Deat' an' him daughter the same day. So him

lef' them gone for a week, then come back again fe come see him

son-in-law.

When him come him say:--"Bro'er Deat', me son, me hungry."

Brother Deat' no 'peak.

So Annancy begin fe talk to himself: "Bro'er Deat' say me fe go make

up fire, but no mo so me no yerry."

After five minutes him call out:--"Bro'er Deat', me make up de fire."

Deat' no 'peak.

"Bro'er Deat' say me fe wash de pot, but no mo so me no yerry."

When the pot wash done, him call out:--"Pot wash."

Deat' no 'peak.

"Bro'er Deat' say me fe to put him on, but no mo so me no yerry."

Soon him say:--"Bro'er Deat', where de vittle?"

Deat' no 'peak.

"Him say me fe look somewhe de me see enough yam, me fe peel dem put

dem a fire, but no mo so me no yerry."

Annancy cook all Deat' food.

When it boil, him take it off. Him say:--"Bro'er Deat', him boil."

Deat' no 'peak.

"Bro'er Deat' say me fe share, but no mo so me no yerry."

Annancy eat fe him share, then turn back say:--"Bro'er Deat', you no

come come eat?"

Deat' no 'peak.

"Bro'er Deat' say him no want none, but no mo so me no yerry."

So Annancy eat off all the food him one.

Then Deat' get vex in a him heart, and him run into the kitchen.

"Bro'er Annancy a whe you mean fe do me, say a come you come fe kill

me?"

So Deat' catch Annancy an' say:--"Me no a go let you go again, no use,

no use."

Then, after, Deat' carry Annancy in a him house an' leave him, gone to

get his lance to kill him.

So, after Annancy sit a time an' about to go away, him say:--"Bro'er

Deat' say me fe go take piece a meat, but no mo so me no yerry."

When Annancy go to the meat cask, him see the cask full with meat. Him

take out two big piece of meat. Then he see fe him daughter hand with

the missing finger. Him jump out of the house an' bawl out:--"Bro'er

Deat', you b'ute, you b'ute, you kill me daughter."

Deat' catch him again an' was going to kill him, but the feller get

'way, run home a fe him yard.

Brother Deat' follow him when him go home.

Annancy take all him children an' go up a house-top, go hang up on the

rafter. Brother Deat' come in a de house, see them up a de house-top.

Annancy say to his family--there was two boy an' the mumma--"Bear up!

If you drop de man a dirty de a go nyam you."

Here come one of the boy say:--"Puppa, me han' tired."

Annancy say:--"Bear up!"

The boy cry out fe de better.

Annancy say:--"Drop, you b'ute! No see you dada a dirty de?"

Him drop.

Deat' take him and put him aside.

Five minutes the other one say:--"Puppa, me han' tired."

Annancy say again:--"Drop, you b'ute! No see you dada a dirty de?"

Him drop.

Deaf take him an' put him aside.

Soon the wife get tired, say:--"Me husban', me han' tired."

Annancy say:--"Bear up, me good wife!"

When she cry she couldn' bear no more, Annancy bawl again:--"Drop you

b'ute! No see you husban' a dirty de?"

She drop.

Deat' take her.

At last Annancy get tired. Das de man, Bro'er Deat' been want. Annancy

was so smart, no want fe Deat' catch him, so he say:--"Bro'er Deat', I

goin' to drop, an' bein' me so fat, if you no want me fat fe waste, go

and fetch somet'ing fe catch me."

"What me can take fe catch you?"

"Go in a room you will see a barrel of flour an' you fe take it so fe

me drop in de."

Deat' never know that this flour was temper lime.

Deat' bring the barrel an', just as he fixing it up under where

Annancy hanging, Annancy drop on Deat' head PUM, an jam him head in a

the temper lime an' blind him. So he an' all him family get 'way.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=dis a eat=, just as he had eaten.

=no mo so me no yerry=, I must have failed to hear. See page 3.

=Deat' no 'peak=, Death won't speak. The comedy is well sustained.

Annancy goes through the various stages of preparation for breakfast,

pretending that he is carrying out orders from Death which he fails to

hear.

=put him on=, put the pot on the fire.

=somewhe de=, somewhere there. The =e='s are like French =e=, and =de=

is said with a strong accent and made very short.

=enough yam=, plenty of yams.

=say a come you come=, say do you come.

=me no a go etc.=, I am not going to let you go again.

=no use=, no mistake about it this time.

=bawl.= Remember to pronounce it =bahl=.

=b'ute=, brute, pronounced byute like the island Bute.

=a fe him yard=, to his yard.

=a dirty de, etc.=, on the ground there will eat you.

=fe de better=, all the more.

=Das=, that's.

=temper lime=, tempered lime originally no doubt, but now meaning quick

lime. Temper, I am told, means cross. And in further explanation my

informant adds: "You can't fingle (finger) temper lime as you have a

mind; it cut up your hand."

=pum= with the shortest possible vowel represents the thud of Annancy's

fall upon Death's head.

The Kitchen is outside the house, often at a considerable distance

from it.

X. MR. BLUEBEARD.

There was a man named Mr. Bluebeard. He got his wife in his house an'

he general catch people an' lock up into a room, an' he never let him

wife see that room.

One day he went out to a dinner an' forgot his key on the door. An'

his wife open the door an' find many dead people in the room. Those

that were not dead said:--"Thanky, Missis; Thanky, Missis."

An' as soon as the live ones get away, an' she was to lock the door,

the key drop in blood. She take it up an' wash it an' put it in the

lock. It drop back into the blood.

An' Mr. Bluebeard was a old-witch an' know what was going on at home.

An' as he sat at dinner, he called out to get his horse ready at once.

An' they said to him:--"Do, Mr. Bluebeard, have something to eat

before you go."

"No! get my horse ready."

So they bring it to him. Now, he doesn't ride a four-footed beast, he

ride a t'ree-foot horse.

An' he get on his horse an' start off itty-itty-hap, itty-itty-hap,

until he get home.

Now, Mrs. Bluebeard two brother was a hunter-man in the wood. One of

them was old-witch, an' he said:--"Brother, brother, something home

wrong with me sister."

"Get 'way you little foolish fellah," said the biggest one.

But the other say again:--"Brother, brother, something wrong at home.

Just get me a white cup and a white saucer, and fill it with water,

and put it in the sun, an' you will soon see what do the water."

Directly the water turn blood.

An' the eldest said:--"Brother, it is truth, make we go."

An' Mrs. Bluebeard was afraid, because he knew Mr. Bluebeard was

coming fe kill him. An' he was calling continually to the cook, Miss

Anne:--

[Music:

Sister Anne, Sister Anne, Ah! you see any one is coming?

Sister Anne, Sister Anne, Ah! you see any one is coming?]

An' Sister Anne answer:--

[Music:

Oh no, I see no one is coming,

But the dust that makes the grass so green.]

An' as she sing done they hear Mr. Bluebeard coming, itty-itty-hap,

itty-itty-hap.

Him jump straight off a him t'ree-foot beast an' go in a the house,

and catch Mrs. Bluebeard by one of him plait-hair an' hold him by it,

an' said:--"This is the last day of you."

An' Mrs. Bluebeard said:--"Do, Mr. Bluebeard, allow me to say my last

prayer."

But Mr. Bluebeard still hold him by the hair while he sing:--

Sister Anne, Sister Anne, Ah! you see any one is coming?

Sister Anne, Sister Anne, Ah! you see any one is coming?

An' Sister Anne answer this time:--

[Music:

Oh yes! I see someone is coming,

And the dust that makes the grass so green.]

Then Mr. Bluebeard took his sword was to cut off him neck, an' his two

brother appear, an' the eldest one going to shot after Mr. Bluebeard,

an' he was afraid an' begin to run away. But the young one wasn't

going to let him go so, an' him shot PUM and kill him 'tiff dead.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=three-foot=, three-legged.[1] =Hand= is used for arm in the same way.

=itty-itty-hap=, imitating the halting gait of the three-legged horse.

The voice rises on =hap= which is said with a sharp quick accent.[40]

[Footnote 40: "The 'three-foot horse' is believed to be a kind of

duppy with three legs, hence its name; and is able to gallop faster

than any other horse. It goes about in moonlight nights, and if it

meet any person it blows upon him and kills him. It will never attack

you in the dark. It cannot hurt you on a tree." _Folklore of the

Negroes of Jamaica_, in _Folklore_, Vol. XV., p. 91. (C.S.B.).]

=fe kill him=, to kill her. The use of masculine for feminine pronouns

is bewildering at first.

XI. ANNANCY, PUSS, AND RATTA.

One day Annancy an' Puss make a dance, an' invite Ratta to the ball.

Annancy was the fiddler. The first figure what him play, the tune

say:--

[Music:

Ying de ying de ying,

Ying de ying de ying,

take care you go talk oh,

min' you tattler tongue ying de ying,

min' you tattler tongue ying de ying,

min' you tattler tongue ying de ying.]

The second tune he say:--

[Music:

Bandywichy wich, Bandywichy wich, Bandywichy wich,

Timber hang an' fall la la, fall la la, fall la.]

Then, as the Ratta dance, the high figure whe him make, him slide in

the floor an' him trousies pop. Then the shame he shame, he run into a

hole, an' him make Ratta live into a hole up to to-day day.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

This story should be rattled off as quick as possible.

=Ratta=, rat or rats.

=Ying de ying= imitates the "rubbing" of the fiddle, as they call it.

=take care you go talk=, mind you don't talk, mind your tattling tongue.

=figure whe him make=, caper that he cuts.

=trousies pop=, trousers burst.

XII. TOAD AND DONKEY.

One day a King made a race and have Toad and Donkey to be the racer.

An' Toad tell Donkey that him must win the race, an' Donkey mad when

him yerry so. And the race was twenty mile.

An' Donkey say:--"How can you run me? I have long tail an' long ear

an' a very tall foot too, an' you a little bit a Toad. Let me measure

foot an' see which one longer."

An' Toad say to Donkey:--"You no mind that man, but I must get the

race."

An' Donkey get very vex about it.

An' Donkey say to the King:--"I ready now to start the race."

An' the King made a law that Donkey is to bawl at every miles that he

might know where he got.

Now that little smart fellah Toad says to the King that he doesn't fix

up his business yet, an' will he grant him a little time.

An' the King grant him a day, an' say to the two of them:--"Come again

to-morrow."

An' Donkey wasn't agree, for he know that Toad is a very trickified

thing.

But the King wouldn' hear, an' say:--"No, to-morrow."

Now Toad have twenty picny. An' while Donkey is sleeping, Toad take

the twenty picny them along with him on the race-ground, an' to every

mile-post Toad leave one of his picny an' tell them that they must

listen for Mr. Donkey when he is coming. "An' when you yerry that

fellah Mr. Donkey bawl, you must bawl too." An' Toad hide one of his

picny behind every mile-post until him end the twenty mile.

So the race begin.

Donkey was so glad in a him heart that he was going to beat Toad that

he say to himself:--"Tche! That little bit a fellah Toad can't manage

me, so I must have plenty of time to eat some grass."

So him stand by the way, eat grass and poke him head through the fence

where he see some potato-slip, an' try a taste of Gungo peas. An' he

take more than an hour fe catch up the first mile-post, an' as him get

him bawl:--

[Music:

Ha! Ha! Ha! me more than Toad.]

An' there comes the first picny call out:--

[Music:

Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok.]

An' Donkey quite surprise, an' say:--"Tche! How him manage to be

before me?"

An' he think:--"Me delay too long with that grass, I must quicker next

mile."

An' him set off with a better speed an' only stop a minute for a drink

of water. An' as him get to the next post him bawl:--

[Music:

Ha! Ha! Ha! me more than Toad.]

An' there come the second picny call out:--

[Music:

Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok.]

An' Donkey say:--"Lah! Toad travel fe true. Never mind, we will chance

it again."

So him 'tart, an' when him reach the third mile-post him bawl:--

[Music:

Ha! Ha! Ha! me more than Toad.]

An' the third picny behind the post say:--

[Music:

Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok.]

Jackass get vex when he hear Toad answer him, an' he go fe 'mash Toad,

an' Toad being a little man hide himself in a grass.

Then Donkey say:--"Hi! fellah gone ahead; make I see if I can catch up

the next mile-post before him." An' he take him tail an' touch it like

a horsewhip an' begin fe gallop.

An' him get to the fourth mile-post an' bawl:--

[Music:

Ha! Ha! Ha! me more than Toad.]

An' there comes the fourth picny answer him:--

[Music:

Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok.]

When him yerry, him 'tand up same place an' trimble, say:--"My

goodness King! a whe me a go do? Make me gallop so I knock off all me

hoof self upon the hard hard dirty because I must beat the race."

An' he gallop so fast than he ever do before, until when he get to the

fifth mile-post he was really tired an' out of breath.

But he just have enough to bawl:--

[Music:

Ha! Ha! Ha! me more than Toad.]

When he hear:--

[Music:

Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok.]

This time he really mad, an' race on harder than ever. But always the

same story. Each mile-post he catch him bawl:--"Ha! Ha! Ha! me more

than Toad." An' always come answer:--"Jinkororo, Jinkokkokkok."

An' Donkey begin to get sad in his mind for he see that he lost the

race. So through Toad smartness Donkey can never be racer again.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=tall foot=, long leg. A tall bridge is a long one, not one that stands

high above the river.

=wasn't agree=, didn't agree. Auxiliaries are a snare.

=picny.= This is the almost universal form of picaninny in Jamaica,

varied occasionally by picany.

=Tche!= the Pshaw! of books and the Tush! of the Psalms. There is a

world of contempt in this ejaculation, which is accompanied by an

upward jerk of the chin. The vowel is that of French =le=.

=potato-slip.= The sweet potato (_Ipomoea Batatas_) is cultivated by

slips or cuttings. Our kind of potato is called "Irish potato."

=Jinkororo, etc.= This is a capital imitation of the Toad's croaking

chuckle. The second bar should be made as out of tune as possible and

the =kok= is on the lowest note of the voice. It is the repeated k's

that make the croak so life-like.

=take him tail.= They are fond of this expression. Other examples

are:--"The horse take him mout' fe 'cratch him foot," the horse

scratches his leg with his mouth. "Me take me owny yeye an' see it," I

saw it with my own eyes.

=a whe me a go do?= What am I going to do, what shall I do?

=dirty=, ground.

XIII. SNAKE THE POSTMAN.

One day Annancy ask Snake to be his postman.

Snake ask him how much he is going to pay him.

An' Annancy tell Snake that he know he is a man love blood, an' when

him come in the night he will give him a bite off his head.

An' Snake did agree.

An' the first night he give Annancy a bite in his head, an' Annancy

feel it very much.

An' the second night when Snake is to come back Annancy invite his

friend Mr. Rabbit. An' Annancy usual to sleep out in the hall. An'

that night, when his friend Mr. Rabbit did come, he move an' go in the

room an' make a very high bed. An' his friend Mr. Rabbit didn' know

what Annancy mean to do.

So Annancy put him out in the hall, an' tell him that one of his

cousin is sleeping in here too, so he will come in later on; an' when

him hear him call he must just get up an' open the door an' see who it

is.

An' when Annancy out lamp Rabbit think it very hard, an' say to

himself:--"Bro'er Annancy up to some trick."

An' Rabbit wake up an' begun to dig a hole, an' him dig a hole until

him get outside the door an' find himself back to his yard.

When Snake come in the night to get the other bite from Annancy him

call Annancy.

Annancy wouldn' give answer as him being put Rabbit outside in the

hall, an' Snake continually calling until Annancy give answer.

An' when him give answer he begin to wake Rabbit an' thought Rabbit

was inside the house. He didn' want was to receive his bite, an' he

begun to call Rabbit "Cousin Yabbit," that Rabbit may glad an' give

him answer. When him couldn' hear, him say "Godfather Yabbit" An' him

call again "Bro'er Yabbit," an' him couldn' hear him. An' he call

again "Puppa, Puppa!" an' he couldn' hear.

An' him light the lamp an' come out the hall an' begin to s'arch for

Rabbit. An' when him look, him see Rabbit dig a heap of dirt an' come

out.

An' Annancy beguns to cry inside the house an' wouldn' open the door.

An' he begin to complain to Snake that the first bite him gi' him he

'mash up the whole a him head.

An' Annancy 'tudy a 'cheme, catch up a black pot an' turn it down over

him head.

An' as he put out him head Snake bite the pot, t'ought it's Annancy

him catch. An the whole of Snake mouth was in sore. An' when he get

home he send back to Annancy that he sick an' won't manage to come

back another night.

An' Annancy was very glad an' send go tell him that himself is in bed.

An' when the bearer start for home him sing this song:--

[Music:

Somebody waiting for Salizon,

Somebody waiting for Salizon,

Somebody waiting for Salizon,

Take up your letter an' go.]

An' from that day Snake broke friend with Annancy.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

The house would have two rooms, first the hall and then the inner room

or bedroom. From Rabbit's burrowing operations it appears to have no

floor. This was a common condition in the old times, but now it gets

rarer and rarer. Only Coolie (East Indian) houses are unfloored.

=him being put=, he had put.

='tudy a 'cheme=, studies a scheme. It is more usual ='tudy a plan=. This

common, vulgar song is evidently of late origin and probably does not

really belong to the story.

XIV. DOBA.

One day Puss make a ball an' invite the whole world of Ratta.

All the Ratta dress in long coat an' silk dress. There was t'ousand of

them women, an' men. When them come they bring a little boy an' the

mother with a young baby.

When all the Ratta settle, the door was shut, an' the Puss them have

them junka 'tick secretly in a them trousies' foot. They made a

bargain between themselves that, when the Ratta deep in dancing, Doba

must out the lamp, then the licking-match commence.

When the music begin, it sweet Ratta so that they dance till their

white shirt-bosom was wet.

The fiddler was Dandy Jimmy Flint.

An' this is what the fiddle say:--

[Music:

Doba, Doba, Doba no make de little one get 'way

Ballantony Bap! twee twee,

Ballantony Bap! twee twee.]

The boy Ratta take notice of what the fiddle say.

Him go to him dada an' whisper:--"Puppa, you no yerry what the fiddle

say?"

[Music:

Doba, Doba, Doba no make de little one get 'way

Ballantony Bap! twee twee,

Ballantony Bap! twee twee.]

The father say:--"Get 'way, Sir, you little fellah you! It the worst

fe carry any little boy out fe met. Go, off, Sir, you lying fellah!"

During this time the boy hear what the music say in truth, went an'

dug a hole fe him an' him mumma.

When Ratta in hot dancing the gate-man Puss, Mr. Doba, out the lamp.

Then the junka 'tick fly round an' all the Ratta was kill. Blood was

cover the floor an' all the Puss take their share.

Only boy Ratta an' his mumma an' the young baby, get way.

If the puppa did take what the boy say him wouldn' dead.

Puss ball was flourish with meat.

If boy Ratta an' his mumma didn' get 'way we wouldn' have no Ratta in

dis ya-ya-world again.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=Ratta=, rats.

=Puss them.= These words are closely joined together.

=junka 'tick=, short sticks.

=trousies' foot=, the legs of their trousers. The Negroes are expert in

the art of hiding things about their person.

Fighting with sticks is called a =licking-match=.

=sweet= (a verb), pleased, delighted.

In these stories the fiddle is often made to sing words which some

have the gift of hearing.

=Bap!= is the knock of the stick, or "lick of the stick" as they say.

=twee twee=, the squeak of the rat.

=no make=, don't let.

=it the worst fe carry, etc.= It is very troublesome to take a little

boy out to a meeting. Met, dance, spree, picnic are convertible terms.

=Carry= is seldom used as in English. They say:--Carry the mule a pastor

(to the pasture). When a man carries you over a river on his back he

"crosses you over."

=Doba=, long =o= as in Dover.

=Blood was cover, etc.=, the floor was covered with blood.

=Dis ya-ya=, the vulgar English "this here." =Ya-ya= is said very quickly.

It does not come into common speech but is reserved for Annancy

stories and is generally found only in Annancy's mouth.

XV. DRY-BONE.

One day Rabbit invite Guinea-pig to his yard.

An' when Guinea-pig go, Rabbit ask Guinea-pig to go an hunting.

An' Rabbit meet up Dry-bone.

An' when him meet up Dry-bone, him t'row down his gun an' him call to

Guinea-pig an' tell him:--"I meet with a luck."

An' Guinea-pig tell Rabbit:--"I won't carry none of the Dry-bone, but

you must make me carry the birds what we kill."

Rabbit wasn't agree to let him carry the birds, but Guinea-pig coax

him until Rabbit consent an' they fix up the bargain: Rabbit was to

carry Dry-bone, an' Guinea-pig was to carry the birds.

So they put Dry-bone into the bag, an' Rabbit ask Guinea-pig to help

him up.

An' Guinea-pig help him up an' pick up the gun an' carry it.

An' they start home to their yard.

An' when Rabbit got half part the road he found the load getting

heavier an' heavier, an' him ask Guinea-pig to take it for a while.

Guinea-pig tell him that he made no promise was to help him with

Dry-bone.

Rabbit walk on till the load get so heavy him begin to cry, say that

him going to t'row down Dry-bone.

An' Dry-bone fasten on his head an' begin to talk.

He say to Rabbit:--"You take me up you take up trouble."

An' that time Guinea-pig was laughing after Rabbit.

Just then that cravin' fellah Mr. Annancy was passing an' see Rabbit

with his load. He thought that it was something good, an' he ask

Rabbit that he will help him carry it.

An' Rabbit was very glad to get relief of his trouble.

So Annancy take Dry-bone from Rabbit an' put him on his own head.

An' when Annancy 'tart, he t'ought that Rabbit was coming.

An' Rabbit turn back an' hide a bush an' leave the trouble to Annancy.

When Annancy get home to his yard him find that it was Dry-bone, an'

it vex him in a him heart.

An' Annancy want to leave Dry-bone an' go away.

An' Dry-bone find out what Annancy mean to do.

Annancy have a cock in the yard.

Dry-bone tell him that him must watch Annancy, keep him a yard, an' he

will pay him.

An' the Cock ask Dry-bone:--"What is your name?"

An Dry-bone say:--"'Tis Mr. Winkler."

So Dry-bone live in Annancy yard.

An' one day Annancy ask him if him don't want to warm sun.

Dry-bone say:--"Yes."

An' Annancy tell him that to-morrow he will put him out a door.

Annancy went away an' make a bargain with Fowl-hawk, that him have a

man name of Mr. Dry-bone, him must come to-morrow an' take him up an'

carry him an' drop him in the deepest part of the wood.

An' so Fowl-hawk did do.

When the Cock see Fowl-hawk take up Mr. Winkler him sing out:--

[Music:

Mister Winkler, Winkler come give me me pay.]

An' Annancy look up a 'ky an' sing:--

[Music:

Carry him go 'long, Annancy say so,

Carry him go 'long,

Me'll pay fe cock,

Carry him go 'long, Annancy say so,

Carry him go 'long,

Me'll pay fe cock,

Carry him go 'long.]

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=help him up=, to get the load on to his head. In this story and some

others the load once taken up cannot be put down. It sticks to the

head of the bearer and, until it reaches its destination, can only be

transferred to another head.

=cravin'=, craving, greedy, often sounds like craven. A man who is

=cravin'= is generally =cubbich=, covetous. This has lost its original

meaning of desiring possession of other people's things and is used

only in the sense of close-fisted. A =cravin'= man wants to get hold of

what others have got, a =cubbich= (ends with the sound of rich) one will

not part with what he has.

=laughing after=, laughing at.

=him must watch.= The Cock must watch Annancy and not let him leave the

yard; Dry-bone is helpless, and requires attention.

=to warm sun=, to warm himself in the sun. So they have:--"Puss warm

fire," the cat warms herself by the fire.

=a 'ky=, in the sky.

=Me'll pay fe cock=, I will pay the Cock's wages which Dry-bone agreed

to give. _We_ pay a person for a thing, but the Negro pays for the

person as well.

=Walk=, =talk=, =warm=, =hawk=, all have the vowel ah. This story refers to

the time of slavery. It is almost indisputable that in certain cases,

when a slave was in a weak state owing to incurable illness or old

age, he was carried out and left to die. To his pitiful remonstrance,

"Massa me no dead yet," the overseer made no reply, but went on with

his directions to the bearers, "Carry him go along." This kind of

barbarity was not practised by owners living in Jamaica. By them the

slaves were well treated and such a thing would have been impossible.

But when the masters went away they left the control in the hands of

overseers, men of low caste who had neither scruples nor conscience.

XVI. ANNANCY AND THE OLD LADY'S FIELD.

One day there was a old lady work a very nice field on a rock, an' an

old-witch boy is the watchman.

An' one day Annancy heard about the old-witch boy, an' Annancy send

an' invite him to his yard. An when the old-witch boy come, Annancy

ask him what his name. An' he says to Annancy that his name is

John-John Fe-We-Hall.

An' the boy ask Annancy why him ask him like that.

An' Annancy say:--"Don't be afraid my frien', I very love you; that's

why I ask whe you name."

An' by this time the old lady didn't know that the old-witch boy gone

to Annancy yard.

An' Annancy have a son is a very clever tief, call Tacoma.

An' Annancy made a bargain that, when him see John-John Fe-We-Hall

come, he must walk to the back door an' come out, an' go to the old

lady ground an' destroy the provision.

An' when Tacoma come home, Annancy leave John-John out the hall, an'

tell him that he is going to get some breakfast for him.

Now the old lady make a law that, if the watchman eat any of his

provision, it going to make him sick in a way that he will find out if

it is the same watchman tiefing him.[41]

[Footnote 41: This is evidently a reminiscence of the "medicine"

(Nyanja, _chiwindo_) used in Africa to protect gardens. Sometimes it

kills the thief, sometimes makes him ill. (A.W.)]

An' being the boy is old-witch, he know that the food Annancy is

getting ready is from the old lady field. So when Annancy bring the

breakfast he won't eat it.

Annancy tell him that he must eat the food, he mustn't be afraid.

An' the boy say:--"No."

An' Annancy send an' tell the old lady that the man is here clever

more than him.

An' when the old lady receive the message from Annancy, he sent to the

ground to tell the old-witch boy that he must look out for Mr.

Annancy, for him receive a chanice from Annancy.

An' this time the old lady didn't know that the watchman is at Annancy

yard.

An' the old-witch boy is a fluter, an' when the old lady want to dance

it's the same boy playing for the old lady. An' the old lady have a

tune which he is dancing with. An' Annancy ask the boy to play the

tune when he is going home, an' Annancy know if the tune play the old

lady will dance till she kill herself.

When the boy going home, him took up his sing with the flute:--

[Music:

Old lady you too love dance, turn dem,

Old lady you too love dance, turn dem,

Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem,

Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem.]

An' when the old lady hear the sing she beguns to dance an' wheel

until she tumble off the rock an' dead.

An' Annancy becomes the master of the field until now.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

A rock would be a bad place for a field. Her house was on a rock

probably, and her field or provision-ground elsewhere. For

Provision-grounds and their contents see Digging-Sings.

=old-witch.= Join these words as closely as possible wherever they

occur.

=Fe-We-Hall.= Very humble houses are called So-and-so Castle and

So-and-so Hall. =Fe we=, for us, our. He was John of our Hall.

=destroy=, take away, so that they are lost to the owner and destroyed

as far as she is concerned.

=out the hall=, out in the hall.

=breakfast=, the principal repast of the day at twelve o'clock.

=the man is here.= They delight in this enigmatic language. Annancy

speaks of himself. He sends word that the man here (himself) is more

clever than her (the old lady). Straightforwardness is a quality which

the Negro absolutely lacks. If you try to get at the truth of any

story he brings, and cross-question him upon it, he will shuffle and

change it little by little, and you cannot fix him to any point.

Language with him is truly, as the cynic said, the art of disguising

thought.

=chanice=, more usually =chalice=, challenge.

Boys constantly carry their musical instruments about with them. The

Flute, a cheap kind of fife, and the Concertina are the favourites.

They play as they walk along the road.

The tune, which is quick, is sung over and over and gets uproariously

and deliriously merry; gasps on an inward breath, which there is no

time to take properly, doing duty for some of the notes.

The words are fragments of a song referring to fowls and eggs. It

runs:--

Mother Bonner me hen a lay, turn dem,

Them a lay t'ree time a day, turn dem,

Turn dem make dem lay, turn dem.

XVII. MAN-CROW.[42]

[Footnote 42: Cf. the story of "Rombas" in Duff Macdonald's _Africana_

II., which would seem to have reached Africa through the Portuguese.

Rombas kills the whale which has swallowed the girl, and removes the

tongue. (A.W.)]

Once there was a bird in the wood name Man-crow, an' the world was in

darkness because of that bird.

So the King offer thousands of pounds to kill him to make the world in

light again.

An' the King have t'ree daughter, an' he promise that, if anyone kill

Man-crow, he will make them a very rich man an' give one of his

daughter to marry.

So t'ousands of soldiers go in the wood to kill Man-crow. An' they

found him on one of the tallest trees in the woods. An' no one could

kill him, an' they come home back.

So there was a little yawzy fellah call Soliday.

An' he say to his grandmother:--"Gran'mother I am very poor. I am

going in the wood to see if I can kill Man-crow."

An' the grandmother answer:--"Tche, boy, you better go sleep a

fireside than you go to the wood fe go dead."

"Gran'mother, I goin' to town fe buy six bow an' arrow."

So he went to Kingston an' bought them.

An' when him return home he ask his grandmother to get six Johnny-cake

roast, an' he put it in his namsack, an' he travel in the wood.

He s'arch until he find the spot a place where Man-crow is, an' he see

Man-crow to the highest part of the tree.

An' he call to him with this song:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

How are you this marnin'?]

An' the bird answer:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

How are you this marnin'?]

An' Soliday shot with his arrow at Man-crow an' two of his feather

come out.

An' Man-crow come down to the second bough.

An' Soliday sing again:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

Good marnin' to you, Man-crow,

How are you this marnin'?]

An' Man-crow answer as before:--

[Music:

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

Good marnin' to you, Soliday,

How are you this marnin'?]

An' he fire after Man-crow an' two more feather fly out.

An' so the singing an' shotting go on.

At every song Man-crow come down one branch, an' Soliday fire an arrow

an' knock out two feather, till five arrows gone.

So Brother Annancy was on a tree watching Soliday what he is doing.

An' the song sing for the sixth time, an' Man-crow jump down one more

branch.

An' Soliday put his last arrow in the bow an' took good aim an' shot

after Man-crow.

So he killed him an' he drop off the tree.

An' Soliday go an' pick up the bird an' take out the golden tongue an'

the golden teeth, an' shove it in a him pocket, an' Soliday come

straight home to his grandmother.

An' Annancy come off the tree an' take up the bird, put ahm a him

shoulder, cut through bush until he get to the King gate, an' he

rakkle at the gate.

They ask:--"Who come?"

He say:--"Me, Mr. Annancy."

An' they say:--"Come in."

An' the King said:--"What you want?"

"I am the man that kill Man-crow."

An' they take him in an' marry him to one of the King daughter an'

make a very big table for him an' his family.

They put him in the middle of the table, but he refuse from sit there.

He sit to the doorway to look when Soliday coming. (The King then do

know that that fellah up to trick.) An' directly Annancy see Soliday

was coming, he stop eating, ask excuse, "I will soon be back." An' at

that same time he gone outside into the kitchen.

An' Soliday knock at the gate.

An' someone answer him an' ask:--"What you want?"

"I am the boy that kill Man-crow."

An' they said:--"No, impossible! Mr. Annancy kill Man-crow."

An' he take out the golden tongue an' teeth an' show it to the King,

an' ask the question:--"How can a bird live without teeth an' tongue?"

So they look in the bird mouth an' found it was true.

An' they call Annancy.

An' Annancy give answer:--"I will soon be there."

An' they call him again.

An' he shut the kitchen door an' said:--"Me no feel well."

All this time Brother Annancy shame, take him own time fe make hole in

the shingle get 'way.

They call him again, they no yerry him, an' they shove the kitchen

door.

Annancy lost in the shingle up to to-day.

An' the King marry Soliday to his daughter an' make him to be one of

the richest man in the world.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Yawzy.= Yaws is a disease very prevalent among the Negroes. It causes

ulcers to form on the soles of the feet. In old slave days every

estate had its yaws-house for the accommodation of the sufferers. This

complaint does not attack the Whites.

=six bow an' arrow=, a bow and six arrows, we suppose.

=Johnny-cake=, journey cake made of flour and water fried in lard.

=spot a place=, spot of place, exact place.

=ask excuse=, asks to be excused. Pronounce the =s= like =z=.

=shame, etc.=, was ashamed and was quietly making a hole in the shingle

roof so as to get away.

XVIII. SAYLAN.

There was a man have two daughter. One of the daughter belongs to the

wife an' one belongs to the man. An' the wife no love for the man

daughter, so they drive her away.

An' she get a sitivation at ten shillings a week, an' the work is to

look after two horses an' to cut dry grass for them.

An' every night she put two bundles of dry grass in the 'table.

An' the mother was very grudgeful of the sitivation that she got.

An' one night she carry her own daughter to the pastur' an' they cut

two bundles of green grass. An' they go secretly to the horse manger

an' take out the dry grass an' put the green grass in its place.

So the horse eat it, an' in the morning they dead.

An' the master of that horse is a sailor.

The sailor took the gal who caring the horse to hang her.

An' when he get to the 'pot a place to hang her he take this song:--

[Music:

Mourn, Saylan, mourn oh!

Mourn, Saylan, mourn;

I come to town to see you hang, hang, you mus' be hang.]

An' the gal cry to her sister an' brother an' lover, an' they give her

answer:--

[Music:

Sister, you bring me some silver?

No, my child, I bring you none.

Brother, you bring me some gold?

No, my child, I bring you none.

Lover, you bring me some silver?

Yes, my dear, I bring you some.

Lover, you bring me some gold?

Yes, my dear, I bring you some.

I come to town to see you save, save you mus' be saved.]

An' the lover bring a buggy an' carry her off an' save her life at

last.

An' the mumma say:--"You never better, tuffa."

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

This is quite an unusual form of story, but appears to be of some

antiquity in my district, where it ranks as an Annancy story.[43]

[Footnote 43: Cf. _The Maid Freed from the Gallows_, F.J. Child,

_Ballads_, vol. ii., p. 346. (C.S.B.)]

=caring=, taking care of. This is so convenient a word that it is used

by everybody.

=You never better=, you will never be good for anything.

=tuffa=, with Italian =u= imitates spitting, a sign of contempt.

XIX. ANNANCY AND SCREECH-OWL.

One day Annancy made a dance, an' ask 'creech-owl to be the musician.

An' Annancy send an' invite all his friend.

An' when they come Ratta was in long coat an' Guinea-pig too, for

Ratta tell Guinea-pig they must wear long coat an' they will get all

the gal to dance with.

An' 'creech-owl is a great player, but the only danger he cannot sing

in the day.

An' 'creech-owl has a Cock in his yard, an' he sent an' ask Annancy if

he can bring a friend along with him.

An' Annancy send an' tell him that 'tis no objectin to bring the

friend, an' Annancy tell 'creech-owl that he will get a lots of drink.

At that time Annancy didn't know the friend as yet.

So, as he being hate 'creech-owl, he didn't wish to see no friend of

his.

So when the friend come the friend was a Cock.

An' Annancy was very sorry for he knew that the Cock going to crow

when day clean, an' 'creech-owl going to know when day is cleaning an'

go away.

An' Annancy got some corn, an' get a pint of 'trong rum, an' t'row the

rum in the corn, an' let the corn soak in the rum.

An' when the Cock call out to 'creech-owl that he is hungry, he says

to Mr. Annancy that he must treat his friend Mr. Cock, an' Annancy

took some of the corn an' give to the Cock.

An' it so being that he love corn, Annancy continually feed him with

the corn until he get drunk an' fast asleep.

An' Annancy feel very glad in his heart that he is going to kill

Brother 'creech-owl for his breakfast.

An' when 'creech-owl playing, his mind was on his dear friend Mr.

Cock, an' he continually listen to hear him crow, an' he couldn' hear

him.

An' he ask for him.

Mr. Annancy tell him that he is having a rest.

An' 'creech-owl play an' play till day catch him.

An' Annancy got a kettle of boiled water an' dish it out an' ask his

friend them to have some tea.

An' 'creech-owl get very sad to see day catch him.

An' Annancy didn' know whe make 'creech-owl wouldn' drink the tea.

So Annancy begin to raise a confusion over it, say, as he won't drink

the tea he must made up him mind to sarve him breakfast.

An' 'creech-owl began to cry.

An' the same time Annancy (that wicked fellah!) take up 'creech-owl

music, an' ask young ladies an' young gentlemen to assist him in a

noble song which he is going to kill Mr. 'creech-owl with.

An' this the song:--

[Music:

There's a blind boy in a ring, tra la la la la,

There's a blind boy in a ring, tra la la la la,

There's a blind boy in a ring, tra la la la la,

He like sugar an' I like plum.]

An' when Annancy sing the sing done, he catch up 'creech-owl an' wring

off him neck, an' get him cook for his breakfast an' becomes the

master of 'creech-owl's band of music.

An' from that day Mr. Annancy becomes the greatest player an' the

biggest raskil in the world.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=the only danger=, the only danger is. This omission is frequent.

At daylight, or soon after, it is the custom to drink tea. This is

generally hot water and sugar with, or more often without, milk.

Sometimes they make an infusion of the leaves of lime, orange, mint,

fever-grass, cinnamon, pimento or search-me-heart. Coffee and

chocolate are also occasionally used. These all grow in Jamaica, but,

owing to its high price, actual tea is beyond the reach of the

peasant. Lime is, of course, not the English tree of that name, but

the tropical one which bears that small juicy fruit which is so much

better than the coarser lemon. Fever-grass (_Andropogon citratus_) has

the exact smell and taste of lemon-scented verbena. Search-me-heart

(_Rhytidophyllum tormentosum_) is a pretty wild plant with leaves of

green velvet, which on moist days give out a delicious aromatic smell

much like _Humea_.

=raise a confusion=, get up a quarrel. Annancy resorted to the same

artifice when he killed Cow and the other animals at the mock

obsequies of his father.

=sarve him breakfast=, serve for his breakfast.

The song will be found again among the dance tunes.

=sing the sing done=, finished the song.

='creech-owl= sounds like creechole.

XX. ANNANCY AND COW.

One day Annancy tell his family that he is going in the wood.

Before he start he get some cane-liquor an' pour it into a big gourdy,

an' he tell him wife that "me gone."

An' he travel so till he meet three Cow.

An' he tell one of the Cow marnin', say:--"Marnin', Bro'er Cow."

Cow say:--"Marnin', Brother Annancy."

Annancy say:--"Beg you a little water, Bro'er Cow."

When Annancy get the water he said:--"The water no sweet not 't all."

An' he say to Cow:--"Come taste fe me water." An' he no make Brother

Cow know say a cane liquor him got.

When Cow taste it him lick him tongue.

Annancy say:--"No say fe me water sweeter more than fe you?"

Cow said "Yes."

Annancy said:--"Bro'er Cow, you want to go home with me becausen me

have it de a run like a river? Bro'er Cow, if you want to go with me

you fe make me put one wiss-wiss over you harn. But, Bro'er Cow, me

have some picny a me yard, dey so fooyish, when time we most yech, dey

ma go say 'Puppa bring Cow.' When them say 'Puppa bring Cow' you mus'

say 'A so him do.'"

Annancy carry Cow into his yard an' tie him upon a tree, an' tell Cow

him goin' to get a yitty breakfus' for him. (Annancy 'tudy trick fe

nyam Cow; he was very anxious for his beef.)

An' he get into his house and take his tumpa bill coming to Cow force

ace fe chop off Cow's neck. He miss the neck an' chop the wiss-wiss,

an' Cow take him tail put on him back an' gallop away.

Annancy a bawl, a call:--"Say, Bro'er Cow, a fun me a make, me a drive

fly, come back."

Cow no a yerry but gallop till him get home an' tell him wife an'

picny, said Annancy want fe kill him:--"Thank God me get 'way; the

whole family must sing we own tune to-day ya":--

[Music:

Brother Annancy tie somebody,

Me no min know da bad me do,

Brother Annancy tie somebody,

Me tie, me tie, me tie oh!

Brother Annancy tie somebody.]

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=cane liquor=, juice of sugar-cane.

=gourdy=, the dried shell of the gourd-like fruit of the Calabash

(_Crescentia Cujete_).

=wiss-wiss=, withe. There are many kinds of these natural ropes to be

found in the bush.

=fooyish=, foolish.

=most rech=, almost reach, are just getting to the yard.

=day ma go say=, they may go and say.

=A so him do=, so he does. The reciter imitates lowing here, the voice

falling to a deep prolonged note on the last word.

=carry=, lead.

=yitty=, little.

=nyam=, eat.

=tumpa=, stumpy, short.

=force ace=, post haste.

=a fun me a make=, it's fun I am making, I was only pretending.

=min=, been, wrong auxiliary for did. I did not know that I had done

anything wrong.

Substitute the vowel =ah= in water, all, bawl, call.

XXI. TACOMA AND THE OLD-WITCH GIRL.

One day there was a old-witch gal, an' Tacoma want the gal to marry.

An' Tacoma went to the gal yard an' ask the gal to courten to. An' the

gal tell Tacoma that he don't want a husband as yet.

So Tacoma get very sad in his heart, an' he comes home back to his

yard, an' when he come he 'tudy a plan. An' when he 'tudy the plan he

fix a day to go back to the gal yard.

An' Tacoma get a buggy, an' get Ratta for his Coachman, an' get a pair

of brown-coloured mongoose to be the horse.

An' when Tacoma was going he sent to notice the gal that he is

coming such a day.

An' Tacoma went to his friend Annancy an' borrow long boots an' dress

himself nicely, an' borrow a gold watch an' chain, an' got a helmet to

his head.

An' when Tacoma ready he order his coachman to harness up the horses.

An' when he start he carry lots of present, an' hitch a grey horse

behind the buggy, an' take along with him t'ree pieces of music.

An' this time Tacoma didn' know the gal was a old-witch, an' all what

Tacoma talk from home the gal really know everything.

An' he reach up the yard an' sing:--

[Music:

I will make you have a present of a nice gold watch,

Just to wear it on your side for to let the people see,

If you'll only be my true lover,

If you'll only be my true lover.]

An' the gal answer:--

[Music:

No, no, dear, not for all your gold watch,

I will never be yours true lover,

I will never be yours true lover.]

An' Tacoma have plenty more t'ing is to make a present to the gal. An'

he promise to give her a nice silk dress, an' a nice silver bangle,

an' a nice gold egg, an' a nice grey horse, an' tell the gal that

everyt'ing, which is going to make him a present to, he must wear it

along the street to let the people see, if you will only be my true

lover.

An the gal say to Tacoma:--"No, for I want the best thing which you

have."

An' Tacoma guess an' guess an' he couldn' find out.

An' the gal say if Tacoma find out she will marry Tacoma.

An' Tacoma guess an' guess until he made the gal a promise that he

will give him the key of his heart.

An' then the gal was so glad an' said to Tacoma that I'll ever be

yours true lover.

An' Tacoma sent for the gal's parents an' his parents an' marry off

the gal, an from that day the gal becomes Tacoma wife.

NOTES.

=mongoose=, see the note to the dance tune "Mahngoose a come."

=yours true lover=, always =yours=. Generally it is "you" for "your." They

say "this is yours" correctly and then add "and this is mines."

=t'ing is=, things.

=which is going, etc.=, which he is going to make her a present of.

When, commenting on Tacoma's directions, I objected that the girl

could not wear the grey horse, the boy who was telling the story saw

it at once and said:--"No, he must =carry= it." When the story was done

(it is reproduced exactly from his dictation) he sang all the missing

verses with the girl's answer to each verse, and instead of his usual

"carry" which did not fit he substituted "lead it in the street." The

singer will see at once where to make the necessary alterations. The

words "silver bangle" want four quavers instead of two crotchets, and

it will be worn on the hand as they call the wrist or any part of the

arm. "Just to keep it in your hand" follows "gold egg." "The silk

dress is worn 'long the street," and after "the key of my heart" comes

"just to keep it in your own." I was looking out in this last verse

for a change in the words "for to let the people see," but none came.

To the last verse the answer is:--"Yes, yes, dear, for the key of your

heart I will ever be yours true lover." [Cf. Baring-Gould, _Songs of

the West_, No. xxii.; Fuller-Maitland and Broadwood, _English County

Songs_; and _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_, Vol. ii., pp. 85-87.

(C.S.B.)]

XXII. DEVIL'S HONEY-DRAM.

One day Devil set his honey-dram near a river side.

An' Annancy has a little son name of John Wee-wee, an' when the boy

find out Devil honey-dram he continually tiefing all the dram.

An' Devil couldn' find out who was doing it.

An' Devil put out a reward that if any one can prove who is tiefing

his dram he will pay them a good sum.

An' one day Annancy miss his son, an' Annancy guess that the little

boy must be gone to Devil honey-dram.

An' as Annancy being a tief himself he went an' s'arch for the boy.

An' when he go he found him drunk an' fast asleep. An' Annancy lift

him up an' bring him home.

An' when the boy got sober, about three days after, he got so use to

the dram an' he went back.

An' Devil gone out to hunting. An' when he was going he ask his mother

to give a heye upon his dram until he come in. An' the mother went

down to the dram an' he found the boy drunk the very same again.

An' there was no one know the woman name except Mr. Annancy.

An' Annancy went an' look for his son.

An' when he go the woman catch the boy already an' carry him to Devil

yard. An when the boy go the woman gi' him some corn to beat.

An' Annancy went an see his son was beating corn, an' he ask the woman

what the boy is doing here. An' the woman tell him that this is the

boy was tiefing all Devil honey-dram, an' now him catch him, an' him

wouldn' let him go until the master come.

An' Annancy ask the woman if he don't have any more corn to beat.

The foolish woman say:--"Yes, Brother Annancy, but not all the corn

you going to beat you won't get your son till the master come."

An' Annancy begin to fret for him know when Devil come he won't have

no more son again, for Devil will kill him an' eat him.

An' the woman name is Matilda.

An' Annancy took the corn an' begun to beat an' he start to sing:--

[Music:

Wheel oh! Wheel oh Matilda.

Turn the waterwheel oh Matilda!

Matilda mahmy los' him gold ring,

Turn the waterwheel oh Matilda.]

An' the woman begun to dance an' wheel. An she dance an' dance till

she get tired an' fall asleep. An' Annancy (the clever fellah) took

his son out an' light Devil house with fire.

An' when Devil in the bush look an' see his house is burning he t'row

down his gun an' 'tart a run to his yard.

Until he come the house burn flat to ground.

An' Devil couldn' find Matilda his faithful mother, an' Devil take to

heart an' dead.

An' Annancy take Devil honey-dram for himself an' build up a house in

Devil own place, an' from that day Mr. Annancy becomes the smartest

man.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=Honey dram.= The ingredients are honey, water, chewstick, ginger and

rum. When mixed the dram is put in the sun to ripen. Chewstick

(_Gouania domingensis_) is bitter and takes the place of hops.

=beating corn=, _i.e._ maize, to separate the grain from the husks,

called also =huxing corn= (husking).

When an animal is found trespassing it is brought down to the yard,

and its owner comes to redeem it by a money payment. John Wee-wee was

brought in in the same way and according to custom was given something

to do while he waited.

=faithful.= A faithful person is one in whom confidence is reposed.

XXIII. ANNANCY IN CRAB COUNTRY.

One day Annancy form himself as a minister, an' was going out an'

preaching about. An' Annancy preach an' preach till he get in Crab

country. An' Crab them wouldn' hear Annancy at all.

An' Annancy went home back, an' dress himself in a black gown, an' get

some red paint an' redden his 'tummy, an' ask a few friend to walk

with him.

An the friend was Mr. Toad an' Ratta an' Blackbird.

An' they all start.

An' when Annancy reach to Crab country he beguns to preach.

An' he preach an' preach till they wouldn' hear him again.

An' Annancy hire a house from Crab to stop in the night.

An' Annancy, seeing he couldn' catch them with his preaching, made a

drum an' a fiddle an' give Blackbird the fiddle to play. An Ratta was

playing the drum. An' Annancy see that the music didn't sufficient.

He wait, until the next day he made a flute an' give to Toad.

An' when he done he put up the music them an' got in friendship with

Crab, an' begun to do the same as Crab them are doing.

An' poor Crab didn' know what Mr. Annancy mean.

An' Annancy go on go on until they got used to Annancy.

An' when they got used to Annancy, Annancy write out plat-card and put

it out an' tell his friend Mr. Crab that he is going to have a nice

baptism at his house, an' tell them that he will have a bands of music

playing in going home, an' how the music will be so sweet they won't

tired walking.

An' when Annancy start with his three friend he tell Ratta to roll the

drum, an' Blackbird is to rub the fiddle 'tring till it catch fire,

an' Toad is to blow the flute as hard as he can, an' he will be

reading the tune.

An' he start like this:--

[Music:

The bands a roll, the bands a roll,

the bands a roll, a go to Mount Siney.

Salem is Zakkilow,

Some a we da go to Mount Siney.]

An' when Annancy get home he made a bargain with his t'ree friend that

he is going to baptize them an' let Crab see.

An' when he baptize them, Crab they were very glad to see this treat

which Annancy do to his t'ree friend, an' they say that they want

Annancy to do them the very same.

An' Annancy tell them that they must wait till to-morrow.

An' Crab them agree.

An' Annancy made a bargain with his t'ree friend an' is going to

baptize Brother Crab with boiling water.

An' he get a deep barril an' order Crab them that they must go in the

barril, an' Crab they do so.

At that time Annancy have a good pot of boiling water an' as Crab a

settle theirself in the barril Annancy tilt the pot of boiling water

on them an' the whole of Crab body get red.

An' Annancy was very glad an' said:--"T'ank God I have got some of the

clever man them for me breakfus'."

An' from that day Annancy was going about an' fool all his friend.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

The black land-crab is a much-esteemed delicacy. Formerly every

property had its crabber, whose duty it was to provide crabs for the

house. Since the introduction of the mongoose they have become

scarcer.

=form himself as=, pretends to be.

=stop in the night=, stop in for the night.

=put up=, put away.

=do the same, etc.=, live in the same way as the Crabs.

=plat-card=, placard; a rough written advertisement affixed to the trunk

of a tree. When there is a public gathering the musicians play as they

walk to the place of entertainment and again as they leave it.

XXIV. GAULIN.

One day there was an India woman who have a daughter, an' when the gal

born she born with a gold ring on her finger. An' everybody hear about

it but they never see it.

An' Mr. Annancy was very crave to got the gal to be his wife.

An' Annancy study a plan an' take up his bands of music an' go down to

the gal yard, an' when him go down they admit Mr. Annancy.

An' when they admit him Annancy beguns to play all different tune just

to see if the gal would laugh with him. But the gal was very sad,

neither would laugh nor smile, until Annancy see there was no good,

an' tell good bye an' go home back.

Annancy when him goes home back, met his friend Mr. Rabbit in the

road.

Rabbit ask him:--"Brother Annancy, where you is comin' from?"

An' Annancy begun to tell Rabbit.

So Rabbit make a bargain with Annancy that he is going to try his

luck.

So Annancy say:--"As you being such a clean an' white gentleman I

think you will succeed. So if you succeed, when you coming home back

you must make me know; then you can take me to be your servant."

That time Rabbit didn' know what Annancy study. Annancy mean was to

take away the gal from Rabbit.

So Rabbit start to the yard, an' when him go they admit him in.

An' the mumma ask Rabbit what he come about.

Rabbit says he is looking for a courtier.

An' the mumma say to Rabbit:--"Oh, my dear Mr. Rabbit, I am very

sorry! You is only but a meat,[44] so I can't give you my daughter."

[Footnote 44: Cf. the Bantu use of _nyama_ ("meat") for "an animal."

(A.W.)]

An' Rabbit spend a little time till he tell goodbye.

Meanwhile Annancy wouldn' go home. Him sit in the road till Rabbit

coming home back. An' him ask Rabbit if him succeed.

Rabbit say:--"Oh no!"

So they begin to talk. An' by this time Sea-gaulin was passing an'

hear what they are saying.

An' when Gaulin go home back, him 'tudy between himself that, if him

only get a bus an' dress himself tidy an' drive to the gal yard,

she'll sure be his wife.

An' Sea-gaulin goes down, an' the gal was very glad to see him an'

invite him inside the house, an' they begun to arrange to be married.

An' there was a old-witch boy which was brother to the gal whisper to

her:--"That one is Gaulin."

An' the gal say:--"Oh no, it is my dear love."

So the boy say to then:--"Never mind, one day you will find out if he

is not Mr. Gaulin."

So, when Gaulin tell goodbye an' go home to his yard back, the boy

follow him an' go to the river side where Gaulin is fishening, an' he

climb a tree which hung over the water.

An' when Gaulin come down the river he 'tart a singing:--

[Music:

My iddy, my iddy Pyang halee,

Come go da river go Pyang,

me Yahky Yahky Pyang me jewahlee Pyang,

me Yahky Yahky Pyang me jewahlee Pyang.]

An' that time Gaulin didn' know that the boy was on the tree hearing

him.

When he first sing his hat fall off.

An' he sing again his jacket was off.

That time the boy was seeing every bit.

An' he sing again an' his shirt was off.

Sing an' sing till the trousies drop off.

An' as he done he find himself inside the water begun to fishening.

An' as him put him head under a stone-hole the boy come down off the

tree an' find himself back to his yard.

An' next Wednesday when Gaulin come to get married, the boy provide

for him to sing that very same tune when they are on the cake table.

An the boy say:--"Ladies and gentlemen will you like to hear a song?"

An' everybody say "Yes."

An' that time the boy was a fiddler, an' he tune up his violin an'

beguns to play "My iddy, my iddy Pyang halee."

Gaulin say:--"Oh no, my brother, stop that tune. That same very tune

kill my grandfather, an' when you sing it you let me remember my old

grandfather."

An' the boy never stop sing an' play till all Gaulin clothes drop off.

An' Gaulin fly out the door mouth an' find himself right up in the

air.

An' from that day that's what make Gaulin fly so high.

_Jack Mantora me no choose none._

NOTES.

=Gaulin=, the Egret. In stormy weather the egrets leave the seaside and

fly up into the country to fish in the streams. They are especially

fond of the small crabs which abound in the mountain rivulets. The

words of the song have been spelt so as to convey as nearly as

possible their right sound. =Halee= rhymes in both syllables to the

=stali= of the Venetian gondolier. =Jewahlee= is =Jubilee= with a different

middle syllable. =Pyang= with French =a= made as short as possible is the

Egret's cry. It should be accented and brought out strongly.

=When him goes home back=, as he was going home.

=white gentleman.= This counts many points in the estimation of the

Negro.

=Rabbit spend a little time.= Most characteristic. After the rebuff one

would have expected him to go away at once, but that is not the

Negro's way. He is never abashed, and after the curtest refusal of any

favour he has come to ask, will sit on and talk of other things,

finally taking his leave as if nothing had happened.

=bus=, the buggies which ply for hire in Kingston are so called.

=Wednesday=, the favourite day for weddings. The bridegroom is

accompanied to church by a godmother, not the baptismal one but

another specially appointed for the occasion.[45] They ride to church,

which is usually at some distance from the yard. The bride also rides

from her yard, accompanied by a godfather and two bridesmaids between

the ages of eight and eleven. The ceremony and signing of the register

over, the newly-wedded couple mount and gallop to the wife's yard, the

rest of the company following more leisurely. Arrived there, the bride

proceeds to put on her wedding-clothes and the guests are received by

the godfather and given sugar-water and bread. When the bride has

donned her satin gown and veil (she was married in her riding-habit)

and with much sorrow pinched her feet into white shoes too small for

them, the company sit down to the cake table. This has upon it two

cakes, two fantastically fashioned loaves of shewbread, triumphs of

the baker's art with their doves and true lovers' knots, and three

vases of cut flowers. The bread is not eaten then but is distributed

(_distribbled_, as they have it,) to friends on the days following the

wedding. One cake is cut. A knife and fork being handed to a

bridesmaid she takes off the cake-head, which is a small top tier or

addition to the cake proper. This is put aside and afterwards sent to

the officiating minister. The godfather then proceeds to the more

serious work of cutting up the cake, giving pieces first to the bride

and bridegroom and then to the guests. The second cake is left intact.

Wine is poured out, and there are speeches and toasts and hymns. Then

follows dinner, which is over about five o'clock. They then begin to

play _Sally Water_ (see introduction to the Ring tunes) which goes on

for an hour or two, and as night falls dancing is started. This goes

on all night and does not end, at the earliest, till dusk on the

following day, Thursday. It is often kept up until Friday evening or

even until Saturday, the dancers and musicians appearing to require no

rest. The latter are well supplied with rum and when they get sleepy

they beg for an extra tot to rub their eyes, which burns them and

keeps them awake. The whole of this time refreshments are supplied to

the guests, and as long as these hold out they do not disperse, or as

they put it:--"till hungry bite them they no go 'way."

[Footnote 45: Is this a survival of the African institution of

"sureties" (Yao, _ngoswe_, see Duff Macdonald, I. 118), or "sponsors,"

who arrange the marriage? I am not sure whether the custom exists

among Negro as well as Bantu tribes. (A.W.)]

The Sunday after the wedding is 'turn t'anks (return thanks). The

married couple and their friends get all the beasts, _i.e._ horses and

mules, they can muster, and ride to church dressed in their best. The

bride and bridegroom, attended by the godfather and godmother, sit in

"couple bench," the rest of the party going to their own pews. After

service the whole cavalcade gallops as hard as it can, regardless of

the precipices which skirt all Jamaica mountain paths, up hill and

down hill to the husband's yard. There wine is provided, and the

second cake is cut and eaten. Dinner follows at three, and then _Sally

Water_ is again played until midnight, when dancing recommences and

goes on till four or five o'clock on Monday afternoon. This is the end

of the festivities, which sometimes cost twenty pounds or more.

=provide for him=, prepared himself.

=door mouth= includes not only the opening, but also the whole space

just outside the door.

XXV. ANNANCY, MONKEY AND TIGER.

One day Annancy an' Tiger get in a rum-shop, drink an' drink, an' then

Monkey commence to boast. Monkey was a great boaster.

Annancy say:--"You boast well; I wonder if you have sense as how you

boast."

Monkey say:--"Get 'way you foolish fellah you, can come an' ask me if

me have sense. You go t'rough de whole world you never see a man again

have the sense I have."

Annancy say:--"Bro'er Monkey, how many sense you have, tell me?"

Monkey say:--"I have dem so till I can't count dem to you, for dem de

all over me body."

Annancy say:--"Me no have much, only two, one fe me an' one fe me

friend."

One day Monkey was travelling an' was going to pass where Tiger live.

Annancy was working on that same road.

As Monkey passing, Tiger was into a stone-hole an' jump out on the

fellah an' catch him. All his sense was gone, no sense to let him get

'way. Tiger was so glad, have him before him well ready to kill.

Here come the clever man Mr. Annancy.

When he saw his friend Monkey in the hand of such a wicked man he was

frighten, but he is going to use his sense.

He said:--"Marnin', Bro'er Tiger, I see you catch dat fellah; I was so

glad to see you hold him so close in hand. You must eat him now. But

before you eat him take you two hand an' cover you face an' kneel down

with you face up to Massa God an' say, 'T'ank God fe what I goin' to

receive.'"

An' so Tiger do.

An' by the time Tiger open his eyes Monkey an' Annancy was gone.

When they get to a distant Annancy said to Monkey:--"T'ink you say you

have sense all over you 'kin, why you no been get 'way when Bro'er

Tiger catch you?"

Monkey don't have nothing to say.

Annancy say:--"Me no tell you say me have two sense, one fe me an' one

fe me friend? Well! a him me use to-day."

From that day Tiger hate Annancy up to now.

_Jack Mantora me no choose any._

NOTES.

=can come and ask me=, that can come. The ellipsis is best explained by

giving the sentence another turn: "Get away you man who are so foolish

that you can come," etc.

=into a stone-hole=, in a cave.

=Tiger was so glad, etc.=, Tiger was well pleased and held him in his

paws all ready for killing.

=why you no been=, why didn't you.

=a him me use=, that is the one I used.

XXVI. THE THREE PIGS.

One day a Hog have three Pig an' the three of them was boy. When they

were about two month the father died, so the mother grow them up

herself. When the Pig them come to big young man the mother said to

the first son:--"Me son, a time fe you go an' look you own living."

The day come when he was to start. The mother tie up his clothes an'

give him, an' said:--"If you get work sen' an' tell me."

The Pig start.

As he was going he meet a man with a cart of hay.

He said:--"Please, sir, you can give me that hay that I may go an'

build a house?"

The man give him.

Pig go an' make up a house with his hay, an' find it very warm an'

comfortable.

One day Wolf come, call:--"Little Pig, little Pig, let me come in."

Pig say:--"No, no, by the hair of my chinnychinchin."

Wolf said:--"I will huff an' I will cuff an' blow you house down."

Wolf huff an' cuff an' blow down the house, an' go in an' eat Pig.

The mother wait an' can't get no letter from the first son.

She send the other one, second to the first, an' that one travel until

he meet a man with a cart of kindling.

He say:--"Please, sir, you can give me that kindling that I may go an'

build a house?"

The man give him.

He make up his house, an' one day Wolf was passing, see that it was

pig house, call to him:--"Little Pig, little Pig, let me come in."

Pig say:--"No, no, no! by the hair of my chinnychinchin."

Wolf say:--"I will huff an' cuff an' will blow you house down."

An' he do so an' go in an' eat Pig.

The mother wait six months an' don't get no letter.

She said:--"Those boy must be get good work an' can't get to write."

The last son she said:--"Me own little son, time fe you go look you

living."

Pig say:--"Yes, mumma me wi' go now."

She tie up his bundle give him some money an' kiss him, say:--"You

must try write me."

The boy start.

He travel an' travel till night take him. He has to sleep under a

stone-hole. When he was sleeping he get a dream that he see his two

brother was in a frying-pan. He was so frighten he wake an' start away

the same hour. He travel till day clean. At about nine o'clock he get

to a big road. He travel on that road till he meet a man with a cart

of brick.

He said:--"Please, sir, you can give me that brick that I may go an'

build a house?"

The man give him.

He go an' make up a grand house with the brick.

When his house finish Wolf hear, an' come one day, call to

Pig:--"Little Pig, little Pig, let me come in."

Pig say:--"No, no, no! by the hair of my chinnychinchin."

So wolf think that this house was like the rest.

He said:--"I will huff an' cuff an' will blow you house down."

He try for one whole day an' never succeed, so he lef an' go home an'

'tudy upon Pig.

One evening he come an' call Pig an' tell him he know where there is a

garden of all sort a t'ing, so Pig must come an' let them take a walk.

Pig ask him:--"What time you will be going?"

He said:--"A two in the morning."

Pig 'tart eleven, go an' come back with all good food.

At two Wolf come an' call:--"Little Pig, you ready?"

Pig say:.--"You lated; I go an' come back already."

Wolf was so vex he go home back. He didn' want nothing but to eat Pig.

He said a next day:--"Little Pig, I know where there is a apple tree a

Mr. Simmit garden, make we go an' get some."

Pig ask:--"What the time?" Wolf say "T'ree."

Pig go two.