Types ATU0015 Theft of butter (honey) by playing godfather
Motifs
K0401.1 dupe's food eaten then blame fastened on him
H0221 ordeal by fire
Notes
No godfather here, but instead a different series of excuses. In 1885 Harris received a letter from W. E. Myers of Mariette "who sent the variant in which Rabbit is naming the babies; in this case: Jest Fetched, Mos' Done, and Clean Gone."
Baer also cites Klipple re: Africa: "Although this motif is not characteristic of the African tales, Klipple reports a Fjort tale in which rabbit uses the pretense of naming children to dupe antelope out of the food supply. The Fjort tale is further uncharacteristic in that the test - unspecified - proves rabbit's guilt."
Dundes notes: "Whatever the ultimate origin of AT tale type 15 may be, it is pretty clear that the immediate source of the Afro-American versions which include the fire-jumping (or in some versions, river jumping) motif is Africa, not Europe. It might be noted that T. F. Crane in 1881, arguing witout the benefit of modern folklore apparatus, came to much the same conclusion.
Ellis also based on a Gold Coast Tale and Harris on item in Theal (Story of Hlakanyana) came to same conclusion
Baer: "Gerber predicates a European origin then transmission to Africa, but he ignores the ordeal by fire motif in his summary of teh story."
Johnston remarks about a Hausa story: "The trial by ordeal to which the animals here submit themselves suggests that this story is of very early origin," and further notes of this Uncle Remus story that it "describes a similar rial by ordeal and was probably derived from the Hausa story."
No comments:
Post a Comment