C181. Baer (p. 161). The Baby and the Punkins

This is Chase181.

Types
ATU0480 the Kind and the Unkind Girls
Motifs
L0210 modest choice best
Q0003 moderate request rewarded; immoderate punished
Q0041.2 reward for cleansing loathsome person
F0162.3.2 wishing tree
Notes

In Dixie publication, Harris expressed his own doubts in Uncle Remus's words: "I don't like ter be tellin' tales what dat ole Nigger man done tole... Dey don't soun' right ter me, en fer all I know he mought er made um all up hisse'f"

for analogue, see Milne-Home: The Little Child and the Pumpkin Tree

Baer notes that her story "is a reprint of one of a group of tales collected earlier by her brother, Sir George Webb Dasent." ... "He saw in the pumpkin tree, the 'Wishing Tree' of the Hindus, F0162.3.2, and he compared the woman's washing and big man's refusing to wash the old man's dirty head to an incident in The Bush Bridge (ATU0480 the Kind and the Unkind Girls)."

For Q41.2 Thompson gives Roberts study (missing in Baer's bibliography?) and 7 African tales

Baer: "That botanical curiosity, a pumpkin tree, likely developed from economy in retelling or imperfect memory of an African tale."

Ashanti: woman tells silkcotton tree that she would send her children to pick pumpkins UNDER the tree. Story is in Rattray.

Conclusion: "The two Jamaican tales, this and Mr. Goat's Short Tail, were attributed by Uncle Remus to an old Negro named Jimps. While the roots of both tales are African, the close analogues in the West Indies lead to the conclusion that the tales could well have reached the southern United States via the West Indies."