This is Chase131.
Types
Motif
D0314.8 transformation: bovine (wild) to person
D0482.1 transformation: stretching tree
R0251 flight on a tree which ogre tries to cut down
B0524.1.2 dogs rescue fleeing master from tree refuge
B0421 helpful dog
Notes
See Chase108 for discussion of Wells's Story of the Hunter
Harris in intro to book emphasized he did not rely on Wells for his story. Harris had the story in a letter from Richard Adam Learned who had the story from his grandfather, born 1802, who got it from his black nurse in Demarara (Guyana). Harris got the oral version from his son who heard it from John Holder.
Learned's version had dogs Yarmearoo and Gengamoroto, which is very close to Wells's Yameoro and Congamoroto.
on the names, Baer says: "Harris used the names John Holder had given the dogs, remaining faithful to his purpose of presenting stories as they were told by southern Negroes."
Swanton has a Flight to the Tree story.
Baer concludes: "The African source of the tale was documented by ear-witnesses in the nineteenth-century, and current information about African folktales serves to confirm their belief."
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