Author: Harold Courlander
Illustrator: Elton Fax
Year: 1957
Location: personal library
From the notes: "All except one of the tales in this book were gathered in rural areas of Alabama, New Jersey, and Michigan from Negro narrators." He provides a list of names.
On dialect: "[...] a story that is completely dependent on dialect for its success is essentially not a very good one. [...] Yet it must be recognized that the American Negro has developed special cultural patterns, and it is difficult to think of Negro lore dissociated fromthe people and the setting which produced it. The rhythm of the Negro storyteller's speech and his use of language are as vital as the direction, pacing, settings, and lighting of a drama in the theater. In transcribing these tales I have tried to be faithful in spirit to the originals, at the same time avoiding "dialect" where it is merely "quaint" or "amusing." But wherever the speech of the narrator seemed to me to contribute to the imagery and movement of a tale, I have tried to preserve it."
Table of Contents:
... 1 Waiting on Salvation.
Buzzard is hungry, waiting for God to send him food. Hawk recommends hunting instead. Hawk dives for Rabbit who hides in a stump; Hawk bangs his head on the stump and dies. Rabbit shouts, "Come and get him, Buh Buzzard! Me and God will feed you!" Hawk thought Buzzard was foolish, but "the way it turned out, Buh Buzzard outsmarted Buh Hawk."
... 2 Reform Meeting.
Animals are all making complaints about each other, but Buh Coon points out that for change to happen, "reform got to begin at home."
["This is from an old Livingston, Alabama newspaper."]
... 3 Rabbit, Fox, and the Rail Fence.
Fox has caught Rabbit and is carrying him away, tied with a rope. They reach a fence; Rabbit offers to raise the fence rail so Fox can get through. When Fox puts head through, Rabbit drops the rail and traps him. The desperate Fox lets go of the rope, and so Rabbit makes his escape.
["It recalls an Indonesian story in which the mouse deer escapes from his captor by getting him to put his nose in a split bamboo tree, where it is pinched fast."]
... 4 Buh Rabbit's Tight Necktie.
Blacksnake is near frozen, so he goes to bask in the sun. Rabbit finds him and decides to wear him as necktie. He visits the gals, and by the heat of the fire, Snake warms up. He is going to eat Rabbit. Rabbit says it will be more convenient if Snake eats Rabbit nears his home. Even better if he gets in the hole since he'll be too fat to get in after he eats Rabbit. Once Snake gets in the hole, Rabbit traps him in there and runs off.
["In this United states variant the element of Buh Rabbit's actually aiding the snake is missing, and thus there is no moral issue involved. Buh Rabbit is depicted not as taking the snake to warm him up, but as using him for his own purposes."]
... 5 Terrapin's Pot of Sense.
All the animals have some sense, but no one is perfect. They decide to let Turtle be the custodian of their collective wisdom. He puts all the sense in a pot and totes it up a tree. The wind blows, and Turtle falls. So does the pot. Animals rush around gathering up bits of sense. This time they decide to put their sense in their own heads. That's how Turtle's shell got cracked. Now he crawls around in the grass, looking for sense.
[In the note Courlander summarizes the Ashanti tale of Anansi and wisdom.]
... 6 Slow Train to Arkansas.
Turtle and Rabbit race; Turtle wins by using other turtles along the way to fool Rabbit. In the end, Rabbit really is convinced that Turtle won. "Rabbit nearly run himself to death, and Buh Terrapin ain't moved a step."
[In the note Courlander summarizes a U.S. version where Buh Snail tricks Buh Deer in a race by holding onto the tale; Snail drops from tail at finish line and says, "Here I am, Buh Deer, what kept you so long?"]
... 7 Buh Rabbit's Human Weakness.
All the animal preachers get together for a big revival meeting. The preachers get together amongst themselves and confess their sins: Raccoon is a garden thief, Dog steals meat, Rooster chases the hens, Fox likes his liquor. Rabbit goes last: his weakness is gossip, and now he has something to gossip about! "Recognition of your weak points is good for your salvation, but when you makes it a subject of conversation, you got only yourself to blame."
[Courlander notes that there are also versions of this story with human preachers instead.]
... 8 Buh Rabbit's Big Eat.
Gator eats baby rabbits. Rabbit plots revenge, and he invites Gator family to a big jamboree, promising to show him "Double Trouble." When Gators are dancing in the field, Rabbit builds a circle of fire around them and burns them up. "Buh Alligator, you been eatin' up my young 'uns, and now you got your Double Trouble."
[Courlander cites a similar story where Rabbit's enemy is instead Buh Bear.]
... 9 Buh Fox's Number Nine Shoes.
Rabbit always has new tricks, and Fox is always one trick behind. Fox watches Rabbit steal fish from Buh Bear this way: Rabbit put a shoe in the road, and Bear sees it but drives on. "What good is one shoe?" Rabbit took the same shoe and ran ahead and dropped it again. This time, Bear halted his cart, ran back for the first shoe, and Rabbit stole the fish; Bear ends up with nothing. Fox tries to repeat the trick the next day, but Bear is wiser; he picks up the shoe the first time he sees it. Fox puts out the other shoe, and Bear takes that too. Fox has got nothing, so he runs after Bear and asks him if he found a pair of shoes. Bear then accuses Fox of having stolen his fish yesterday and thrashes him. "It don't do you no good to learn the right trick at the wrong time."
[In the note Courlander cites the version where there are no shoes and instead Buh Rabbit pretends to be dead on the road himself.]
... 10 Buh Rabbit's Tail
Fox trapped Rabbit in tree, but Rabbit throws trash down on him. Fox sets Frog to guard tree while he goes to get ax, paying Frog five dollars. Rabbit spits tobacco juice at Frog and manages to escape. Frog washes eyes. Fox returns and cuts down tree; no Rabbit. Frog confesses to Fox. Fox then catches Rabbit in garden. Rabbit runs, hides in hole. He praises his ears and legs for helping in his escape, but criticizes his tail, which he pushes out of the hole; Fox bites it off. Fox say, "I didn't get Rabbit, but I sure got his tail." And so it's a caution: "That was the time the mixture of good sense was runnin' mighty lean in Buh Rabbit. Once in a while he looks at his short tail and gets a powerful message of wisdom from it."
[Courlander compares this to a Mexican tale in which "Senor Coyote similarly haranges his various organs and limbs, finally exiling his tail from his place of safety. In this way, he is seized by waiting dogs."]
... 11 The Well
During a drought, the animals decide to dig a well. Rabbit does no work, and claims he needs no water because he can drink dew off grass. Bear is set to guard the well; he falls asleep and Rabbit drinks. Same with Wolf. Then Frog, who still stands guard to this day to keep the rabbi from drinking. He still croaks, "Here he is!" The screech of the well pump is about Rabbit too: "If you listen good you can hear that screech say: Quit hangin' around! Quit hangin' around!"
[Courlander invokes Haitian tale in which "frog was made chief of the well. He refuses to elt the animals drink, and his downfall comes when God arrives to see what the matter is. Frog is so infatuated with his position as guardian that he tells God to go away. Both the United States and Haitian versions seem related to a West African talein which the Sky God appoints Frog custodian of his well during a drought. One by one Frog turns the thirsting animals away, and acts in the same manner when the Sky God arrives. In ager, the Sky God takes away the frog's tail.]
... 12 Rabbit Scratches Buh Elephant's Back
Wolf is after Rabbit, who runs into Elephant as he flees. Elephant has an itch, and Rabbit offers to jump up and scratch his back, but he requires that Elephant trumpet and scream like he's dying. The Wolf comes up and thinks he sees Rabbit attacking and killing Elephant. "I'm hungry," the Rabbit says, "and I'm goin' after Buh Wolf next." Wolf runs away in fear.
[Courlander cites an Indonesian story: "The mouse deer plays the trickster role. The elephant has lost a bet to the tiger, and the gier is scheduled to eat him. The mouse deer gets on the elephant's back, pretends to be killing him, and frightens the tiger away.]
... 13 Buh Mouse Testifies
The animals assemble to confess their sins and find out who has made God angry and brought troubles upon them. Gator ate baby rabbits, but he looks intimidating while he confesses, so they all forgive him. Same with Bear, who ate pigs, and Lion who confesses to all sorts of crimes, and so too with Rattlesnake. Then mouse confesses to taking a bit of grain; this outrages the other animals. They are going to kill him, but he escapes into the grass just in time.
[Courlander invokes Ethiopian story "in which the donkey is punished by the stronger, meat-eating animals for nibbling grass."]
... 14 Buh Rabbit's Graveyard
Coon and Rabbit are farming together. Lion comes: Coon flees up the tree, but Rabbit is stuck on the ground. He quickly covers a couple of watermelons with dirt to look like mounds, and then starts digging another hole. Rabbit tells lion that he's killed Gator and Bear, and is about to get Coon. And he'll kill Lion too just to finish the row of graves. Lion runs away. Coon comes down, and Rabbit says their partnership is over. How to divide? Rabbit flatters Coon by saying he is the strongest, so he should take away whatever he can carry. Coon thus gets only a little while most of the crop stays with Rabbit.
["Here is a theme found in trickster tales in many cultures - the frightening off of a strong adversary by means of threatening talk. The denouement of the tale concerning the sharing of the crops reminds one of the Haitian story telling how Bouqui and Ti Malice divide their fishing spoils.]
... 15 Buh Rabbit and the King
Rabbit wants to marry the princess. King demands a bag of Blackbirds and two Snake teeth. Rabbit tricks the Blackbirds by saying he thinks Quails are heavier than Blackbirds; they offer to go into the back so he can weigh them and see. With Rattlesnake, Rabbit expresses concern that Snake is crooked, and offers to put him on a splint. After he is tied up, Rabbit says problem is in his mouth, not his back, and pulls out the two teeth. For the third test, King gives Rabbit a bag of money to go and bury. Rabbit cannot resist taking some money, and when he opens the bag, two big dogs jump out and chase him. Luckily, there was no Rabbit tail for them to grab, so that's how Rabbit got away with his life.
["The Ashanti version of the story explains how Anansi came to own all tales. When he delivers th epython, the hornets, and the leopard to Nyame, the Sky God, who becomes the King in the U.S. version, Nyame gives him all the stories in the world.
... 16 The Texas Sandstorm.
This is a big lie where the storyteller conceals a hundred head of cattle in his big hollow tooth to protect them from the sandstorm, and so on.
... 17 Hot Times
This is a big lie about how it used to get so hot: so hot that the train tracks would burrow under ground to get out of the sun, and so on.
... 18 The Champion.
Two slave owners bet on a fight between their best slaves, John or Juke. Juke it bigger, but John is smarter: he has a tree transplanted, and Master pretends to have to tie him to the tree to hold him back. Then it looks like John is pulling the tree right out of the ground. Juke flees in fear, which means John has won the fight.
[One version recorded in Michigan (Dorson) has the slave slap the master's wife, the logic being that a slave who'd do that wouldn't be afraid of anything.]
... 19 The Skull
Slave finds talking skull; it warns him: "Do what I done, then you'll see; my big mouth done this to me." He brings his master to hear the talking skull, but it won't talk, and master whips him. Then after master leaves, the skull says: "My big mouth done this to me, son. Your big mouth done this to you too."
[in addition to African stories,R Courlander cites Burmese one: "The origin of the cocoanut: It tells of a mischief-maker who was beheaded by the king. An officer finds the head talking the next day and reports the matter to th eking, who promptly investigates. When the head refuses to speak, the officer too is beheaded, whereupon the first head speaks. The king orders the mischief-maker's head buried deeply so that it will cause no more trouble, and it grows into a coconut tree. And if you shake a coconut and place it against your ear, you will hear a gurgling inside -- the mischief-maker is still gossiping." Courlander also mentions variations with singing tortoises instead of talking skulls.]
... 20 Old Master and Okra
Total disaster occurs when Master leaves, putting Okra in charge. When Master comes back, Okra breaks the news to him slowly, one item after another, worse and worse. "Why didn't you come right out with it? Why did you tell me everything was fine?" Okra: "Just wanted to break it to you easy."Lincoln is reported to have cited a similar incident at a cabinet meeting when, after a long silence, his cabinet began to pour out criticism of a plan he had offered. Lincoln then told the anecdote about a slave who greeted his returning master with the words: Master! Master! The off-ox run away. The other one run away too. I didn't tell you both together. I wanted to break it easy."]
The Do-All Ax
The King and Kuffie
Old Boss, John, and the Mule
Crossing the River
Old Boss and George
Devil in Church
Preacher and the Devil
What the Preacher's Talking About
Sharing the Crops
Death and the Old Man
The Moon's a Woman
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