C027. Baer (p. 52). Why Mr. Possum Has No Hair on His Tail

This is Chase027.

Types (none given)
Motifs A2317.2 Why Opossum has Bare Tail
Notes
Swanton gives two completely different stories about possum losing hair on tail

Baer concludes: "This tale seems to be a blurred merging of two popular African motifs."

Mofokeng: "In all the Mande variants it is not a root that the dupe is declared to have caught hold of, but wood. This may be an adjustment to the new conditions for in all the variants the trickster is caught just before he is completely through a fence and not into a hole"

Baer: "The other is the device of the victim's persuading the captor to grab him by the tail only to have the tail or its covering come off in his hand"

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MY NOTES

Baer's discussion is not really clear but these parallels both seem important:
see Chase008 fox and buzzard tail
see Chase012 fox and turtle tail
... plus of course all the stories about raiding someone else's crops.
I'll keep an eye out for more.