C082. Baer (p. 95). Brother Rabbit and Mr. Wildcat

This is Chase082.

Types ATU0122D let me catch you better game
Motifs K0553.1 let me catch you better game
Notes

Harris mentions Creek version in Swanton: "Wilcat eats one of the turkeys and the rest peck Rabbit until his tail comes off"

Swangton also has Creek version with racoon getting deer for panther

also Mooney, who concludes story is Native American and passed to Southern blacks

Arewa, though, has Swahili version with lion and hare, and Morokeng has a story where "rather than be eaten, hare offers to provide meat for lion by binding him with leaves and honey, then calls other animals to eat the honey. When hare tells lion to rise, lion eats all the animals except the elephant and the hog" ... and also from Maritnique: "bird has Denba cover himself with molasses and soot"

So Baer concludes: "seems to confirm Harris's contention that American Indian legends were often borrowed from the American Negroes who had brought them from Africa. This tale differs from African versions only in the substitution of local animals -- wildcat and turkeys -- and the fact that this time all the animals escape."

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I'm not so sure that Baer is right to dismiss the different plot here, with rabbit in league with supposed victims so that they can escape. Re: Mooney, here is contact with the Negroes in Mooney's intro.