African American Folktales

by Roger Abrahams

  Cat bowed to the Lord and asked him humbly if man died and remained dead or if he was raised again? God said, “Well, what do you think?” And Cat said, “I think that when people die that’s all there is; they just stay dead.” So God said, “Well, that sounds right to me the way you put it.”

  Now, along came Dog, and he asked God the same question. Well, God said to him that it was the very same question Cat had asked and they had decided that when people died they just died. “Cat said it, and it sounded right to me. But you, Dog, you are too late because you couldn’t even keep your mind on what you were coming here for. Every time you passed a bone you just had to stop. It shall be as Cat has said it then: People when they die will not come back to life again.”

  And that’s the way it has been since.

  —Guadaloupe

  5

  THE WIND AND THE WATER FIGHTING

  The wind is a woman, and the water is a woman too, and they love to talk together. Mrs. Wind used to go sit down by the ocean and talk and patch and crochet. Mrs. Wind and Mrs. Water were just like all lady people, talking about their children and bragging on them.

  Mrs. Water would say, “Look at my children! I got all kinds; the biggest and the littlest in the world. Every color in the world, and every shape!”

  The wind lady bragged louder than the water woman: “Oh, but I got more different children than anybody in the world. They fly, walk, swim; they sing, they talk, they cry. They got all the colors from the sun. Lord, my children sure are a pleasure. Nobody has babies like mine, nobody.”

  Tired of hearing about Mrs. Wind’s children, Mrs. Water got so she hated them. One day a whole bunch of Mrs. Wind’s children came to her and said: “Mama, we’re thirsty. Can we get a cool drink of water?”

  She said, “Yeah, children. Run on over to Mrs. Water, but hurry right back.”

  When those children went to quench their thirst, Mrs. Water grabbed them all and drowned them.

  When her children didn’t come home, the wind woman got worried. So she went on down to the water and asked for her babies. “Good evening, Mrs. Water. Have you seen my children today?” The water woman told her, “No-oo-oo.”

  Mrs. Wind knew her children had come down to Mrs. Water’s house, so she passed over the ocean calling her children, and every time she called the white feathers would come up on top of the water. And that’s how come we got whitecaps on waves. It’s the feathers coming up when the wind woman calls her lost babies.

  When you see a storm on the water, it’s the wind and the water fighting over those children.

  About that time a flea wanted to get a haircut, so I left.

  —Florida

  6

  THE WORD THE DEVIL MADE UP

  The he Old Devil looked around Hell one day and saw that his place was short of help, so he thought he’d run up to Heaven and kidnap some angels to keep things running till he got reinforcements from Miami.

  Well, he slipped up behind a great crowd of angels on the outskirts of Heaven and stuffed a couple of thousand in his mouth, a few hundred under each arm, and wrapped his tail around another thousand. And he darted off toward Hell.

  When he was flying low over the earth looking for a place to land, a man looked up and saw the Devil and asked him, “Old Devil, I see you have a load of angels. Are you going back for more?”

  Devil opened his mouth and told him, “Yeah,” and all the little angels flew out of his mouth and went on back to Heaven. While he was trying to catch them, he lost all the others. So he had to go back after another load.

  He was flying low again and the same man saw him and said, “Old Devil, I see you got another load of angels.”

  Devil nodded his head and mumbled, “unh hunh,” and that’s why we say it that way today.

  —Florida

  The knee-high man who lived by the swamp wanted to be big instead of little. One day he said to himself: “I am going to call on the biggest thing in the neighborhood and find out how I can get sizable.” So he went to see Mr. Horse. He asked: “Mr. Horse, I come to get you to tell me how to grow as big as you are.”

  Mr. Horse said: “Eat a whole lot of corn and then run round and round and round until you have gone twenty miles. After a while you will be as big as me.”

  So the knee-high man, he did all Mr. Horse told him to do. And the corn made his stomach hurt, and running made his legs hurt, and the trying made his mind hurt. And he just got littler and littler. Then the knee-high man sat in his house and thought about how it was that Mr. Horse didn’t help him at all. And he said to himself: “I’m going to go see Brer Bull.”

  So he went to see Brer Bull and he said: “Brer Bull, I come to ask you to tell me how to get as big as you are.”

  And Brer Bull, he told him: “Bat a whole lot of grass and then bellow and bellow, and first thing you know you will get as big as I am.”

  And the knee-high man did everything that Brer Bull told him to do. And the grass made his stomach hurt, and the bellowing made his neck hurt, and the thinking made his mind hurt. And he got littler and littler. The knee-high man sat in his house and he thought about how come Brer Bull didn’t do him any better than Mr. Horse. After a while, he heard old Mr. Hoot Owl in the middle of the swamp preaching that bad people are going to have bad luck. The knee-high man said to himself: “I’m going to ask Mr. Hoot Owl how I can get to be sizable,” and he went to see Mr. Hoot Owl.

  And Mr. Hoot Owl said: “Why do you want to be big?” The knee-high man said: “I want to be big so that when I get into a fight I can win it.” And Mr. Hoot Owl said: “Anybody ever try to pick a fight with you?” The knee-high man said no. So Mr. Hoot Owl said: “Well, if you don’t have any cause to fight, then you don’t have any reason to be any bigger than you are.” The knee-high man thought about that and finally said: “But I want to be big so I can see a long way.” Mr. Hoot Owl, he said: “When you climb a tree, can you see a long way from the top? You know, when it comes down to it you don’t have any reason to be bigger in your body; but you sure have got a good reason to be bigger in the BRAIN.”

  —Alabama

  8

  PIG’S LONG NOSE AND GREEDY MOUTH

  Take notice that no good ever comes from being greedy, no matter how hungry you feel. And notice too that most troubles began way back there during the week when the Good Lord was so busy in creating the world. The fact is that he didn’t have nobody to help him except the Angel Gabriel, and it kept him mighty busy mixing the mortar, and when anything went wrong there wasn’t anybody to look after it. Of course Old Nick was there, but he was the kind that always gets himself and other folks into trouble.

  Well, when the Good Lord made the pig he made him with a great long nose like an elephant so that he could pick up things and put them in his mouth, and he could scratch his own back with the end of his nose, and things like that.

  But the pig, he had such a big appetite that he was just naturally hungry all the time, and that appetite of his got Mr. Pig into trouble right there at the start, and it’s been getting him into trouble ever since.

  You see, the Good Lord made the pig on a Friday, and that was an unlucky day to begin with. Then the acorns and the pumpkins weren’t ripe yet so he didn’t have anything to eat till Saturday morning, and he was so hungry by that time that he didn’t know what he was going to do next.

  Well, when they went out Saturday morning to feed the stock and they threw some corn over the fence, that pig ate the corn with his mouth and fed it in with that long nose so fast that the other animals couldn’t so much as get a taste of anything.

  When the Good Lord saw the way things were going, he knew that it wouldn’t ever do. So he reached over the fence and picked up the pig by the middle of his back and laid him on a block and took a hatchet and chopped his long nose square off, close up to his mouth. Then he turned him loose and told him he had to root for his living the rest of his life. And that’s how his nose come to be square across the end, lik
e nobody’s else’s.

  But if you ever had your nose cut off you know it hurts mighty bad, and when Mr. Pig begins to root with that square nose of his, it hurt so much that he can’t help but grunt, and he’s been grunting ever since. And every time you scratch Mr. Pig on the back it reminds him of the time when he had a long nose to scratch his own back, and he didn’t have to work so hard to get a living, and that makes him grunt even harder. But the pig, he hasn’t ever quit being greedy.

  —American South

  9

  GETTING COMMON SENSE

  Once upon a time, Anansi thought to himself that if he could collect all the common sense in the world and keep it for himself, then he was bound to get plenty of money and plenty of power, for everybody would have to come to him with their worries, and he would charge them a whole lot when he advised them.

  Anansi started to collect up and collect up all the common sense he could find and put it all into one huge calabash. When he searched and searched and couldn’t find any more common sense, Anansi decided to hide his calabash on the top of a very tall tree so that nobody else could reach it.

  So Anansi tied a rope around the neck of the calabash and tied the two ends of the rope together and hung the rope around his neck so that the calabash was on his belly. He started up the tall tree, but he couldn’t climb very well or very fast because the calabash kept getting in his way. He was trying and trying so hard when all of a sudden he heard a voice burst out laughing in back of him. And when he looked he saw a little boy standing on the tree’s root: “What a foolish man! If you want to climb the tree front-ways, why don’t you put the calabash behind you?”

  Well, Anansi was so angry to hear that big piece of common sense coming out of the mouth of such a little boy after he had thought he had collected all the common sense in the world that Anansi took off the calabash, broke it into pieces, and the common sense scattered out in the breeze all over the world. Everybody got a little bit of it, but no one got it all. It was Anansi who made it happen that way.

  Jack Mandora, me no choose none.

  —Jamaica

  10

  HANKERING FOR A LONG TAIL

  One time, when the summertime had come and the hot sun liked to burn up everything, mosquito and sandfly and gnat, always buzzing, used their mouths too much and bothered Brer Rabbit too much. He didn’t have anything to brush off the pests, so he began jumping around uselessly and soon ran out of breath.

  So he went to scheming to see what he could do to get rid of them. He noticed Brother Bull Cow standing under a tree, chewing his cud in a satisfied way, and every time those bugs lit on him, Brother Cow switched his tail and knocked them, and they flew away and left him alone. Just then Brother Horse came along the road, and a fly buzzed around his haunches, and he just switched his tail and killed it dead.

  Brother Rabbit was eating himself up with envy, vexed because he didn’t have a long tail. He thought that when things like that were handed out he should have gotten a tail like they had. It made him mad to remember how he had been obliged to cry and beg with Sister Nanny Goat just to fool her into giving him even that stumpy little bit of cottontail he had now. There isn’t any way in this world to take away the shame of having something that is nothing at all, like his stub of a tail. Fly and flea just buzz around, laughing at that poor excuse for a switch. A long tail would also have made a fine figure of a fellow! But there wasn’t any way to go back to those times; the question he faced was how he was to get a sizable tail right now.

  He went home and he thought about it and thought about it until suddenly he hatched out a plan. It was a right bodacious plan too, but then Brer Rabbit is a right bodacious creature. There isn’t anything so outrageous that he won’t try to do it at least one time. And Brer Rabbit put on his store clothes, with his blue breeches and his yellow shoes, all fine. And he cocked his hat and he took the path that went to Heaven to ask God if he wouldn’t be so kind as to give him a long tail like those other creatures have.

  It wasn’t easy for Brer Rabbit to find the way because everybody he asked seemed to have a different notion about how to get there. Brer Rabbit listened to everyone and paid no attention to most of them, but kept a steady head about him and kept pushing on. And, bye and bye, it seemed as if the narrow path kind of rambled and rambled in front of him. And he went on and on until at last he was right at the front gate of Heaven and at the head of the long avenue of the Beautiful City. And he pushed in and walked along the grand boulevard and at last there he was, right in front of the Big House.

  That house sure is big! Brer Rabbit had to walk a mile or more around the veranda to the back porch plaza. When he got there he took off his hat and he put it on the step. He took his bandana and dusted his yellow shoes and wiped his forehead and threw the rag into his hat. Then he reached over and knocked on the floor of the porch at the back door. Tap! Tap! Tap!—sort of easy-like.

  His heart almost failed him, but nothing happened. He waited a little while. Then he rapped again. Maybe God isn’t in—but no fresh tracks led away from the house. He decided to rap again, a little louder this time. And this time, God hollered out in the house in a great big voice, “Who is there?” Brer Rabbit was really scared. He said in a timid kind of whisper, “It is me, sir.”

  God eyeballed him and said, “Who is me?” “Well just me, Brer Rabbit, sir.” And God asked mighty severely, “What do you want, Brer Rabbit?” “Just a little something, sir. Won’t take you barely a minute to do it.”

  “Humph! What sort of business are you up to now?” God said. “Sit down and I’ll be out right away.”

  Brer Rabbit sat down on the steps. And after a long time while he mostly wished he had never come, God finally came out. The first look Brer Rabbit had of God, he was so scared that he almost took off and ran away. But when he thought about how badly he wanted that long tail he held his ground.

  He jumped off the step and displayed his best manners, pulling his forelock and scraping the gravel with his feet. “Now, Brer Rabbit,” God said, sort of gruffly, “what is the thing that you want so badly that you have gotten bold enough to come way up here like this?” Brer Rabbit pulled his forelock again and answered, “Master, this weather is so hard on us poor creatures, I don’t see how we survive. Looks like Brer Mocking Bird is the only one that can enjoy himself, and he has to go away out to the top of a tree in the woods before he can jump around and sing the way he does. We who have to stay on the ground have Satan’s own time. Every sort of devilish biting and stinging and troubling thing just trying to stay alive, we have to contend with. The gnats, and green head flies, and sandflies, and the redbugs, and the ticks, and the chiggers, and all kinds of varmints like that bother us from first day-clean to dark. They work from can to can’t, and they work faithfully! And when darkness comes and they leave off, the mosquitoes and the gallinippers join hands to take their place and suck out blood and annoy us until the first day brings its light.

  Even then, Master, some creatures make out better than the rest because they have a real tail, not just a leftover stump like Sister Nanny Goat gave me. I noticed what nice tails Brother Bull Cow and Brother Horse were given. When a fly bothers them, all they have to do is wave their tails in the air and the flies and the mosquitoes are scared if they don’t fly off. Ping! That long tail cracks down and they are dead. Now, sir”—Brer Rabbit got mighty bold and brash, but his voice came out as sweet as molasses—“I just came here to ask you to do something for me, Master! Please, sir, if you could be so kind as to give me a long tail so that I can brush away those pesky critters too.”

  God cast his eyes down at Brer Rabbit and squinched up his forehead and looked him over. Then he puckered up his mouth like he had been biting a green persimmon. And he said, “You are made like you are made. You have been contrary about that tail from the first day. Sister Nanny Goat did just as I told her, and she was kind to give you any tail at all. Even with all the blessings you already have you come h
ere to me to get a tail like the very best of creatures have. Hmm! You are mighty little to have a long tail. Brother Horse and Brother Bull Cow are big and stand high off the ground, but your belly mostly drags in the dust. You can jump around in the grass to keep those flies off.”

  “That’s what I have been doing, sir, but it just wears me out.”

  God looked at him closely. “You just want to be in high fashion, don’t you?”

  “Who, sir? Why do I have to think about fashion, sir! I am thankful for what I have got. The flies are the only thing that brought me here!” But Brer Rabbit was so scared he couldn’t keep from trembling just a little bit.

  God kind of smiled at him and then sort of squinched up his face. “Well, you are smart enough to get here, and that is more than most, so I reckon I’ll set you a task to see just how smart you are. That will keep you from bothering me for a while. And if you do it, I might give you a long tail.”

  With that he turned around and went into the house. He came right back out again with something in his hand.

  Brer Rabbit jumped up from where he had been sitting and became polite again. God gave him a crocus bag and said, “Take this bag and bring it back to me full of blackbirds.”

  Poor Brer Rabbit cried out at that. But God looked sour at him, cocking his eye, and Brer Rabbit shut up.

  Then God gave him a hammer and said, “Knock out Brother Alligator’s eye teeth with this hammer and fetch them to me.”

  This time Brer Rabbit was so upset that he could only grunt.

  Last, God took a little calabash and said, “This you must fill with Brother Deer’s eye water. You understand? Now, you get away from here. And don’t come back bothering me until you have done the whole lot.” Then he turned on his heel and went back in the house and slammed the door.