Thursday, May 26, 2016

C031. Baer (p. 55). A Plantation With

This is Chase031.

Types (none)
Motifs G0275.8.1. witch killed by placing salt or pepper inside skin while it is laid aside
Notes
Baughman has both English and U.S. references for this motif.
Piersen: "stress on the English origins of Negro witch beliefs would seem suspect in light of modern African anthropology. In both cases -- beliefs and tales -- it is probably that there was a cultural cross-fertilization or syncretism."

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MY NOTES

Baer says nothing about the witch rabbits, but I think this was important to Harris, and also to the book illustrators, as a way to weave the rabbit into the story, much like the way he uses the rabbit later on in Taily-Po and Impty-Umpty.

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