C003. Baer (p. 31). Brer Possum, Brer Coon, and Brer Dog

This is Chase003.

Types
(none)

Motifs
A2466. Why opossum plays dead when caught

Notes

Gerber associates the story with the Aesop's fable about the friends and the bear, commenting that it appears "in Noah Webster's spelling-book, and on that account has been enjoying the widest circulation in the South."

The Aesop fable is ATU0179 What the Bear Whispered in his Ear. Baer is not convinced by the analogy. See also a version by CJJones, and Parsons also found two "Tickling Possum" stories in North Carolina.


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MY NOTES

See notes collected at Diigo: Chase003

Baer wants to call this an indigenous American Negro tale, but I think it is surely connected to the Aesop's fable; the story is too odd on its own, and is far too similar to Aesop IMO.