African American Folktales

by Roger Abrahams

  So Tuesday morning came, and Bru Pigeon started singing his boasting song again just as loudly:

  This day is Tuesday morning,

  Tama tama tam.

  And Bru Owl answered:

  Whoo-oo tama tama tam.

  Now Wednesday and then Thursday and Friday mornings came around, and still Bru Pigeon kept singing the same verses. Now Bru Owl was really getting hungry. Bru Pigeon was eating berries all this time and drinking the water from the morning dew.

  When Friday came, Bru Pigeon started in to sing again:

  This day is Friday morning,

  Tama tama tam.

  But by now Bru Owl had gotten weaker and weaker. He could hardly answer. So when Saturday came and Bru Pigeon started in on his song, he didn’t hear any voice in reply at all.

  When Bru Pigeon heard no boast coming back at him, he flew over to the tree where Bru Owl was and found Bru Owl was stiff dead. Bru Pigeon took Bru Owl on his shoulder and carried him to the king, and lay Bru Owl down at the King’s feet. And by that he won the hand of the queen and king’s daughter.

  They live in peace, they die in peace, they were buried in a pot of candle grease.

  —Bahamas

  84

  WEAK IN THE DAY AND STRONG AT NIGHT

  Ti Calf’s mother had died, so he was an unprotected orphan. Bouki was crossing the fields one day, and he saw Ti Calf grazing all by himself, and Bouki’s mouth watered just thinking about the meal he could make of Ti Calf. So he said, “Ti Calf, I haven’t seen you for a long time. Where do you live these days?” But Ti Calf knew about Bouki and his tricks. So he said, “I sleep over there on top of the hill.” So Bouki promised to bring him a present of some meat the next day.

  That night, Bouki told his family he would bring home Ti Calf to eat. He took a sack and crept to the top of the hill. But he couldn’t find Ti Calf anywhere because Ti Calf knew what was going on and went to sleep that night in the woods. Bouki searched all night without finding him. When he went home his children said, “Where is Ti Calf?” Bouki just slapped them and told them to keep quiet.

  The next day, Bouki saw Ti Calf grazing, and he went over to him in a friendly manner and he asked him, “Ti Calf, where were you last night? I dropped by with the present I promised and I couldn’t find you at home.” Ti Calf said, “Oh, last night I found a soft place to sleep in the woods, so that’s where I sleep now.”

  That night, Bouki searched in the woods, but he still couldn’t find Ti Calf, because he had moved on down by the spring. The next day, he said to Ti Calf, “Oh, Ti Calf, I came by the woods last night to bring you something but I couldn’t find you at home. Where were you?” And the calf replied, “Last night I found a nice place to stay by the spring. That’s where I’m going to sleep from now on.”

  So, the next night, Bouki took his sack and searched by the spring, but he didn’t find Ti Calf. He began to get really angry. When he saw Ti Calf the next day, he said, “Ti Calf, why have you been telling me lies? Where do you really live?” Ti Calf said to him, “Uncle Bouki, I really live in that cave there in the mountain.”

  Now, Calf knew that the cave really belonged to Tiger. So that night, when Bouki took his sack and went up to the cave, he called, “Are you there?” The tiger replied, “OF COURSE I’M HERE.” So Bouki crept into the dark cave, grabbed hold of the tiger, and tired to put him in the sack. But the tiger knocked Bouki down. He tore his clothes off, bit chunks out of his arms and legs, and mauled him. Bouki ran home. His children wanted to know where Ti Calf was. Bouki said, “Boy, that Ti Calf is a devil! He is so small and weak in the daytime, but at night he’s as ferocious as a tiger. So if you happen to meet him anywhere, you better show him the greatest respect!”

  —Haiti

  85

  JACK BEATS THE DEVIL

  Well, I went up on that meat-skin,

  And I come down on that bone

  And I grabbed that piece of cornbread

  And I made that biscuit moan.

  Once, there was a very rich man who had two sons. One was named Jim and the other they called Jack. One night, he called the boys to him and told them, “I don’t want you sitting around waiting for me to die to get what I’m going to give you. Here’s five hundred dollars apiece. That’s your share of the property. Take the money and make men out of yourselves. Put yourselves on the ladder.”

  Jim took his money and bought a big farm and a pair of mules and settled down. Jack took his money and went down the road, skinning and winning. He won from so many men that he had tripled his money. Then he met a man who said, “Come on, let’s skin some money on the wood,” he said, and he laid down a hundred dollars.

  Jack looked at the hundred dollars and put down five hundred and said, “Man, I’m not here just to dig small potatoes. You’re playin’ with your head out the window. You’re fat around the heart. Bet some money!”

  The man covered Jack’s money and they went to skinning. Jack was dealing when he thought he saw the other man on the turn, so he said, “Five hundred more, my ten spot is the best.” The other man covered him, and Jack slapped down another five hundred and said, “Five hundred more, you lose this time.” The other man never said a word. He just put down his five hundred more.

  Jack got to singing:

  When your cards get a-lucky, oh pardner

  You ought a be in a rolling game.

  He flipped the card, and bless God, it was the ten spot! Jack had lost himself instead of the other man. Now he was on the spot. He said, “Well, I’ve lost my money, so the game is through.” The other man said, “We can still play. I’ll bet you all the money on the table against your life.”

  Jack agreed to play because he figured he could outshoot and outcut any man on the road, and if the man tried to kill him, he’d get killed himself. So they shuffled again, and Jack pulled a card out of the deck, and it was a three. Then the man got up and he was twelve foot tall, and Jack was so scared he didn’t know what to do. The man looked down on him and told him, “The Devil is my name, and I live across the deep blue sea. I could kill you right now, but I’ll give you one more chance. If you can get to my house before the sun sets and rises again, I won’t kill you. But if you don’t, I’ll be compelled to take your life.” Then he vanished.

  Jack went on down the road till he met an old man. He said, “What’s the matter, Jack! Why are you looking so down?” “I played skin with the Devil for my life, and he won and told me if I can’t make it to his house by the time the sun sets and rises again he’s going to take my life, and he lives way across that ocean.”

  The old man said, “You sure are in a bad fix, Jack. There’s only one thing that can cross the ocean in that time.” Jack asked him what it was, and he said, “It’s a bald eagle. She comes down to the edge of the ocean every morning and dips herself in the sea and picks off all the dead feathers. When she’s dipped herself three times, she rocks herself and spreads her wings and mounts up into the sky and goes straight across the deep blue sea. So if you could be there when she gets through dipping and picking herself and she begins to mount into the sky, if you jump straddle her back, you just might make it. But get yourself a big yearling, and every time she hollers, you give her a piece of that yearling or she’ll eat you.” Jack got the yearling and was waiting for that eagle to come. He was watching her from behind the bushes and saw her when she came out of the water and picked off the dead feathers and rocked, ready to spread her wings and fly off. He jumped on the eagle’s back with his yearling, and the eagle was outflying the sun. After a while, she turned her head from side to side and her blazing eyes lit up, first the north then the south, and she hollered, “Ah-h-h. Ah, ah! One quarter of the way across the ocean! I don’t see anything but blue water. Uh!”

  Jack was so scared that instead of giving the eagle a quarter of the meat, he gave her the whole bull. After a while, she said, “Ah-h-h, ah, ah! One half way across the ocean! I don’t see anything but blue water!”

&n
bsp; Jack didn’t have any more meat so he tore off one of his legs and gave it to her. She swallowed that and flew on. She hollered again, “Ah-h-h. Ah, ah! Almost all the way across the ocean! I don’t see anything but blue water! Uh!” Jack tore off one arm and gave it to her and she ate that. And pretty soon she landed and Jack jumped off and the eagle flew on to her nest.

  Jack didn’t know which way the Devil lived, so he asked. “That first big white house around the bend in the road,” they told him. Jack walked to the Devil’s house and knocked on the door. “Who’s that?” “One of the Devil’s friends. One without an arm and without a leg.”

  The Devil told his wife, “Look behind the door and hand that man an arm and a leg.” She gave Jack the arm and leg and Jack put them on.

  The Devil said, “I see you got here in time for breakfast. But I got a job for you before you eat. I got a hundred acres of new ground that hasn’t ever had bush cut on it. I want you to go out there and cut down all the trees and bushes, grub up all the roots and pile them and burn them before dinner time. If you don’t, I’ll have to take your life.”

  Just about that time, the Devil’s children came out to look at Jack and he saw that the Devil had one real pretty daughter. But Jack was too worried to think about any girls. So he took the tools and went on out to the woodlot and went to work.

  By the time he chopped down one tree he was tired, and he knew it would take him ten years to clear that ground right, so Jack set down and started to cry. About that time, the Devil’s pretty daughter came with his breakfast. “What is the matter, Jack?” “Your father has given me a job he knew I couldn’t get done with, and he’s going to take my life and I don’t wanna die.” “Eat your breakfast, Jack, and put your head in my lap and go to sleep.”

  Jack did as she told him, and went to sleep. And when he woke up every tree was down, every bush—and the roots dug up and burned. It looked as if there never had been a blade of grass there.

  The Devil came out to see how Jack was doing and saw that a hundred acres were cleaned off so nice. He said, “Uh, huh, I see you’re a wise man, almost as wise as me. Now, I got another job for you. I got a well, a hundred feet deep, and I want you to dip it dry. I want it so dry that I can see dust from it and then I want you to bring me what you find at the bottom.”

  Jack took the bucket and went to the well and went to work, but he saw that the water was coming in faster than he could draw it out. So he sat down and began to cry again.

  When the Devil’s daughter came along with Jack’s dinner, she saw Jack sitting down crying. “What’s the matter, Jack? Don’t cry like that unless you want to make me cry too.”

  “Your father has put me to doing something he knows I can’t do, and if I don’t get through, he is going to take my life.” “Eat your dinner, Jack, and put your head in my lap and go to sleep.”

  Jack did as she told him to do, and when he woke up the well was so dry that red dust was just boiling out of it like smoke. The girl handed him a ring and told him, “Give my father this ring. That’s what he wanted to see. It’s my mother’s ring, and she lost it in the well the other day.”

  When the Devil came to see what Jack was doing, Jack gave him the ring and the Devil looked and saw all that dust blowing out of the well. He said, “I see that you’re a very smart man. Almost as wise as me. All right, I have just one more job for you, and if you do that I’ll spare your life and let you marry my daughter as well. You take these two geese and go up that coconut palm and pick them, and bring me the geese when you get them picked and bring me every feather that comes off of them. If you lose one, I’ll have to take your life.”

  Jack took the two geese and climbed the coconut tree and tried to pick the geese. But he was more than a hundred feet off the ground, and every time he’d pull a feather from one of the birds, the wind would blow it away. So Jack began to cry again. By that time, Beatrice Devil came to him with his supper. “What is the matter, Jack?” “Your father is determined to kill me. He knows I can’t pick geese on top of a palm tree and save the feathers.” “Eat your supper, Jack, and lay down in my lap.”

  When Jack woke up both the geese were picked and the girl even had all the feathers; she had caught the ones out of the air that had gotten away from Jack. The Devil said, “Well, now you’ve done everything I told you to, you can have my daughter. You take that old house down the road apiece; that’s where me and her mother got our start.”

  So Jack and the Devil’s daughter got married and went to keeping house. In the middle of the night, Beatrice woke up and shook Jack: “Jack! Jack! Wake up! My father’s coming here to kill you. Get up and hide in the barn. He has two horses that can jump a thousand miles at every jump. One is named Hallowed-be-thy-name and the other, Thy-kingdom-come. Go hitch them to that buckboard and head them this way and we’ll escape.”

  Jack ran out to the barn and harnessed the horses and headed toward the house where his wife was. When he got to the door, she jumped in and hollered, “Let’s go, Jack. Father’s coming after us.”

  When the Devil got to the house to kill Jack and discovered Jack was gone, he ran to the barn to hitch up his fastest horses. When he saw that they were gone, he hitched up his jumping bull that could jump five hundred miles at every jump, and he took off down the road. The Devil was really driving that bull, whipping him, and the froth was coming from his mouth and the fire from his nostrils. With every jump he’d holler, “Oh, Hallowed-be-thy-name! Thy-kingdom-come!” And every time the horses would hear him call, they would fall to their knees and the bull would gain on them.

  The girl said, “Jack, he’s about to catch us! Get out and drag your feet backward nine steps, throw some sand over your shoulders, and let’s go!” Jack did that, and the horses got up and off they went! But every time they heard their master’s voice, they’d stop till the girl told Jack to drag his feet backward nine times, and he did it, and they ran away so fast from the Devil that the horses couldn’t hear them anymore and they got away.

  So they got to this crossroad and decided to hide to see if they could fool the Devil once and for all. The Devil passed a man and he said, “Have you seen a man in a buckboard with a pretty girl with coal black hair and red eyes behind two fast horses?” The man said, “No, I think they must have made it to the mountain, and if they have gone to the mountain you won’t be able to catch up with them.” But you know, Jack and his wife were right there listening to the Devil. When the daughter saw her father coming, she turned herself and the horses into goats and they were cropping grass. Jack was so tough she couldn’t turn him into anything; so she saw a hollow log and she told him to hide inside it.

  Now when the Devil looked all around, he saw that log and something just told him to go look in it. He went over and picked the log up and saw there was someone inside. So he said,“ Ah, ha! I got you!” Jack was so scared he began to pray to the Lord. He said, “Oh Lord, have mercy.” You know there’s nothing the Devil hates more than to hear the name of the Lord, so he threw down that log and said, “Damn it! If I had known that God was in that log, I never would have picked it up.”

  So he got back on his bull and picked up the reins and hollered to the bull, “Turn, bull, turn! Turn clean around. Turn bull, turn! Turn clean around!” The jumping bull turned so fast that he fell and broke his own neck and threw the Devil out on his head and killed him.

  So that’s why they say Jack beat the Devil.

  —Florida

  86

  THREE KILLED FLORRIE, FLORRIE KILLED TEN

  Now, this is a story about Old Witch Boy and his mother. She sent her son to the shop at the crossroads to get some provisions, and at the junction was a signboard with a sign on it saying that the king’s beautiful daughter would marry whoever can give her a riddle she can’t answer. After he bought a pound of flour he ran home and told his mother about what the sign said. His mother said, “A dumb fellow like you, dirty and stupid, how are you going to give the king’s daughter a
riddle she can’t unriddle? So how are you going to get the king’s daughter to marry you?” He said, “Mommy, take this flour, please, and bake me three loaves so that I can travel to the king’s house and ask his daughter a riddle.” So the mother fried him up three bread loaves, but she put poison in them because she was so vexed with her son.

  Now, Old Witch Boy had a dog named Florrie and he took him along on his travels. After a while, the boy had to relieve himself, so he went into the bush and he set down the bag with his three cakes. So while he is off in the bush, Florrie stuck his head in the bag and ate all three. And when the Old Witch Boy came back, Florrie was lying down feeling sick. He whistled for him but found he couldn’t come, he was dead of the poison. Already the buzzards had begun to eat him, and ten of them were dead from the poison as well. So he said to himself, “Mother made three, three killed Florrie, Florrie killed ten. That’s a riddle that I can ask the king’s daughter.” Right! Traveling on again, on and on, he reached a huge river, solid water like a lake. Along came a body of a cow that someone had killed and only eaten half. The other half was bloated and floating there, so he jumped on its back and it went bobbing, bobbing, bobbing across the river until it reached the other side. Now he said to himself:

  Mother made three

  Three killed Florrie

  Florrie killed ten.

  The dead carry over the living.

  So he went on, going, going until he came to an old church at about nighttime. The Old Witch Boy didn’t know where he was going to eat or sleep. He caught some birds. He had matches, but nothing to make a fire to cook the birds. He went into the church and found some old Bibles, so he used leaves from one of them to start the fire, and he roasted the birds. So now he said to himself, O.K.: