Wednesday, June 15, 2016

C069. Baer (p. 82). Brother Rabbit Submits to a Test

This is Chase069.

Types
Motifs
H1154.6 task: capturing squirrel and rattlesnake
H1149 capture and deliver python, leopard, fairy and colony of hornets
K0711 deception into entering bag
K0713.1 trickster ties snake to stick under pretense of measuring his length

Notes

Harris writes about Creek legend in Tuggle about rabbit who wants Creator to give him more sense
he has notes about Big Money in the intro to the book
Baer notes that it is god/creator in African, West Indian, and American Indian versions, but 19thc American Negro versions do not have god
Baer cites a letter from a missionary to Liberia returned to the United States who comments on absence of God in the American stories: "Now in my African stories, God runs through and through them, is interwoven, and presides over, and lies back of all..." (etc. see Baer for more)

Gerber has a Woloff tale with the Creator. in Hausa, jackal story has God (Johnston). Bascom works on this story and has 29 African and 49 New World examples.

God appears in all 15 West Indian versions

Harris refers to Negro version where Rabbit must capture a swarm of bees as in Creek variant where rabbit must do the snake test and then capture a swarm of gnats... Dundes has additional North American Indian examples.

Baer concludes: "This is a tale of African origin, brought to the New World by the Africans, and adopted by the North American Indians."

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