C134. Baer (p. 130). The King that Talked Biggity

This is Chase134.

Types
Motifs
H1074 task: furnish beef which is neither male nor female; countertask: send when neither day nor night
Notes
Lambrecht has Lega tale about goat not male or female.
Baer observes this is popular European paradox also, "but the particular task and countertask in the Central African tale is the closest to Uncle Remus's."

she notes Jones Old King and Young King where there is a massacre of wise men, and young king learns witty response from his father whom he saved from the massacre. Baer compares this story to Ghana story (Dorson, 1972) where a man hides his father, and the riddling answer is how the tongue is the bitterest and sweetest part... Dorson notes it is widespread tale, and he gives it Type ATU0981 = J0151.1 wisdom of hidden old man saves kingdom.

Baer concludes about the gap between that story and Harris: "The story teller is no longer a part of the African tradition that equates age with wisdom and venerates both. He and his story have been "Americanized" -- youth triumphs unassisted. Notwithstanding such differences, it is most likely that these three stories have a common source in Africa."