African American Folktales

by Roger Abrahams

  The Knee-High Man Tries to Get Sizable (this page). Alabama; Carmer, 177–78.

  The Latest Song (this page). Jamaica; Jeckyll, 7–9. This is one of a great many stories found in Afro-America that involve teaching a song that then incriminates the singer. As Bascom argued in RAL 12 (1981): 203–12, the self-incrimination usually occurs for a slightly different crime: Trickster’s consuming the children of his (larger) friend. For a related story, where the song is sung by the children of the miscreant (Motif K435), see “Poppa Stole the Deacon’s Bull.”

  A License to Steal (this page). Bahamas; Parsons, Andros, 84–85. Under Motif K362, “Theft by Presenting False Order to Guardian,” Flowers gives this and seven other versions from the West Indies. Baer (referring to the tale in Harris, Nights) assigns the story to Aa-Th 122Z, “Other Tricks to Escape from Captor,” on the basis of its provenance in Africa; he says “it is clearly an African/Afro-American tale” (60–61).

  The Lion in the Well (this page). Mississippi; Sale, 44–52. This is a combination of Aa-Th 20, “Animals Eat One Another Up: The Fox Persuades Them to Begin with the Smallest,” and Aa-Th 92, “Lion Dives For His Own Reflection” (K1715.1). Baer (132) discusses the wide provenance of the latter tale.

  The Little Bird Grows (this page). Haiti; Comhaire-Sylvain, 242–45. Tales of such large and demanding birds are found throughout the world; stories concerning them are assigned Aa-Th 1960J, “The Great Bird.”

  Little Boy-Bear Nurses the Alligator Children (this page). Georgia; Harris, Nights, no. 60. This story, which Harris reports from the Sea Islands, is very often found in Africa. See Aa-Th 37, “Fox as Nursemaid for Bear.”

  Little Eight John (this page). North Carolina; Aswell, 105.

  Loggerhead (this page). St. Vincent; recorded by Abrahams.

  Making the Eyes Run (this page). Tobago; recorded by Abrahams. This turns on the use of a common riddle as a “catch.” The use of the riddling contest in this black versus white form is unusual as far as collections of tales are concerned. But the technique of using a riddle and its answer as an animating force in a story is widespread in Afro-America, and is represented in this book by “Never Seen His Equal,” “Brer Rabbit’s Riddle,” and “Three Killed Florrie, Florrie Killed Ten.”

  Making the Stone Smoke (this page). St. Vincent; Abrahams, Man-of-Words, 169–70. Bascom argues in RAL 13 (1981): 196–98, on the basis of four African and five U.S. reportings, with none from anywhere else, that this is an African tale. Though this is the first reported text from the West Indies, it is far from rare there, being one of the more common stories told at wakes.

  Making a Wagon from a Wheelbarrow (this page). Texas; Brewer, 103.

  The Man Makes and the Woman Takes (this page). Florida; Hurston, 49–54. The pattern of getting to the Lord to make your request first is far from unusual in Afro-American tales about the beginning of life; see, for instance, “The Fight over Life,” above.

  Meeting the King of the World (this page). Florida; Hurston, 171–74. This is a version of Aa-Th 157, “Learning to Fear Man” (Motif 517). This is a tale found often in the United States (Owens has it in his early article, for instance) and the West Indies, but not found in Africa nearly as often as in Europe. See Baer, 102.

  Mr. Bamancoo Gets Dropped (this page). St. Vincent; recorded by Abrahams.

  Mr. Possum Loves Peace (this page). Georgia; Harris, Songs, no. 3. Baer, surveying what has been said of the piece, calls it “quite possibly an indigenous American Negro tale” (31).

  My Mother Killed Me, My Father Ate Me (this page). Providencia; Washabaugh, unpaged. The tale is a version of Aa-Th 780B, “The Speaking Hair”; Flowers groups it with “The Singing Bones” (Aa-Th 780).

  Never Seen His Equal (this page). Michigan; Dorson, Negro Tales, 281–82.

  No Chicken Tonight (this page). Georgia; Harris, Songs, no. 1. This version of Aa-Th 122, “The Wolf Loses His Prey: Escape by False Plea,” is recognized by Baer (28–29) as a paradigmatic African form of fable involving the duping and then a clever escape by Trickster. This rendering calls for a combination of Motifs K757, “Capture by Feigning Illness,” and K567, “Escape by Pretending to Perform Errand [do work] for Captor.” Of Flowers’s stories listed under Aa-Th 122, only the Beckwith Jamaican text “The Goats in the Lion’s Den” is a version of this tale.

  No Justice on Earth (this page). Surinam; Herskovits and Herskovits, 419. This is a version of the international tale “Devil Always Blamed,” Aa-Th 846. While the ironic cast of the story is characteristic of Afro-American tales, it is almost never reported in Afro-American collections. Though Flowers does not list any versions under this number, it may be found in Beckwith’s Jamaican collection (70–71); the Herskovitses provide a number of references to African tellings (418–19).

  The Old Bull and the Young One (this page). St. Vincent; Abrahams, Man-of-Words, 173–77. This story, found widely throughout the West Indies, is listed as L111.1*, “Fugitive Bull Calf Returns when Grown and Defeats His Father.” Details of the loss of the body parts are consistent and are a typically African folktale device, as is the opening segment in which all the men-children (or women-children) are ordered killed.

  Old Granny Grinny Granny (this page). Georgia; Harris, Nights, no. 54. Motif G.61.1, “Child Recognizes Relatives’ Flesh,” describes to some extent the ending of the first part. Both Baer and Bascom relate the story to Aa-Th 1530, “Holding Up the Rock,” but Bascom notes that the motivation for the holding (of a tree, in this instance) is quite different in using the ruse as a device of escape. He argues that a separate tale type exists here, one that is characteristically African and Afro-American. See Bascom, RAL 11 (1980): 479–95.

  The One-Legged Turkey (this page). St. Lucia; Parsons, Antilles, 1:156. Flowers (568), assigns this K402.1, “The Goose Without a Leg.”

  The Owl Never Sleeps at Night (this page). American South; Branner, 24–25.

  Philanewyork (this page). Mississippi; Fauset, 267.

  Pig’s Long Nose and Greedy Mouth (this page). American South; Branner, 36–39.

  The Poor Man and the Snake (this page). Georgia; Jones, 46–50.

  Poppa Stole the Deacon’s Bull (this page). Philadelphia; Abrahams, Deep Down, 183–85. This is version Aa-Th 1735A, “The Bribed Boy Sings the Wrong Song,” K1631 and K435, “Child’s Song Incriminates Thief.” It is one of many stories told in Afro-American tradition in which a key revelation is made in a song; in this case, the idea is embodied in a joke rather than the more discursive type of tale. For songs of self-incrimination, see “The Latest Song,” above.

  The Race between Toad and Donkey (this page). Jamaica; Jeckyll, 39–43. This well-known tale, usually known as the race between the tortoise and the hare, is Aa-Th 1974, “Race Won by Deception; Relative Helpers.” It is found worldwide, but is especially popular throughout Africa and Afro-America. All the indices from these areas include a number of versions, and Baer (44–45) following Mofokenge’s argument, establishes that the New World black versions came from African sources. For a prototypical African rendition, see Abrahams, African Folktales, 75–78, where the race for the hand of the King’s daughter is between Falcon and Tortoise, the latter being a man who has been transformed into the animal.

  The Rooster Goes Away in a Huff (this page). American South; Owens, 749–50.

  The Signifying Monkey (this page). Philadelphia; Abrahams, Deep Down, Aa-Th 59, “Jackal Carries False Challenges.…” Motif K1084, “Liar Brings About Fight between Dupes.” Widely collected as both a toast and a story in the United States, this tale might seem to be a New World confection. But the idea of a fight or contest stirred up by Trickster is in fact widely found in Africa, strongly suggesting that this is an importation from that part of the Old World, The stories listed in the Aa-Th tale-type index represent a cognate Indian tradition, but it is sufficiently distinct to suggest that a different tale-type number should be assigned to this story in the future. Henry-Louis Gates has written an important
article concerning this and other “signifying monkey” texts (see Bibliography). For a different development of this kind of drummed-up fight, see “The Tug-of-War between Elephant and Whale.”

  The Singing Bones (this page). Tobago; recorded by Abrahams. As noted in the Introduction, this is a version of international tale Aa-Th 780. This story, as well as the related “My Mother Killed Me, My Father Ate Me” and “The Tell-tale Pepper Bush,” is included by Flowers (252–555).

  The Sinking of the Titanic (this page). Philadelphia; Abrahams, Deep Down, 120–29.

  A Smoking Story (this page). Philadelphia; Abrahams, Deep Down, 255.

  Some Up and Some Down (this page). Texas; Abrahams, Positively Black, 51–52. Aa-Th 32, “The Wolf Descends into the Well in One Bucket and Rescues the Fox in the Other.” Motif K651. Baer suggests that this is a European-derived tale, though it has been widely collected among Afro-Americans in the United States.

  Spreading Fingers for Friendship (this page). Surinam; Herskovits and Herskovits, 355.

  Stackolee (this page). Philadelphia; Abrahams, Deep Down, 129–42.

  A Strange Way to Sleep (this page). Louisiana; Fortier, 25. Bascom surveys Old and New World versions of this surprisingly widespread story (surprising because of the unusual stupidity of Trickster) in RAL (1979): 57–74.

  Tadpole Loses His Tail (this page). American South; Branner, 31–33.

  The Telltale Pepper Bush (this page). St. Vincent; recorded by Abrahams. Like “My Mother Killed Me, My Father Ate Me,” this is a version of Aa-Th 780B, “The Speaking Hair.” However, on the basis of the evidence, this story is a localized version of sufficient stability that it should be assigned a new number (780C?), with variants reported not only from the British and French Antilles but from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

  Testing the Good Lord (this page). Mississippi; Puckett, 559.

  They Both Had Dead Horses (this page). Florida; Hurston, 64–68.

  The Things That Talked (this page). Nevis; Parsons, Antilles, 2:350. This story is widely collected with both talking objects and talking animals, and how this talking surprises humans. Parsons not only gives versions from throughout the Antilles but in her notes (3:300) indicates a great many other Afro-American sources. Flowers assigns the stories Motifs D1610, “Magic Speaking Objects,” and C811.2, “Tabu: Heeding Magic Yam That Says Not to Pick It,” neither of which really suit the story. Dundes (50) is much closer to the mark in placing it as Aa-Th 1705, “Talking Horse and Dog.” An individual is frightened by a talking animal (e.g., a horse); when he remarks on this to his dog, he is astonished to get a response. He calls attention to the relationship of the tale to a shaggy-dog story. Dundes remarks, in summary of the animal story, that “it does not occur in Europe, and it apparently does in Africa.” (50).

  Three Killed Florrie, Florrie Killed Ten (this page). St. Vincent; recorded by Abrahams. The story invokes the most common neck-saving riddle in the West Indies, about the poisoned animal poisoning others, which leads to further adventures. As a riddle involved in the story of the prisoner who saves his neck by profounding a riddle the king or judge cannot guess, it is called Aa-Th 923, “Out-Riddling the Judge,” and is treated in Abrahams, Between the Living and the Dead. The story in which it is found here is the international tale Aa-Th 851, “The Princess Who Cannot Solve the Riddle,” which is where we find most West Indian versions of the riddle listed in Flowers (265–69). The final question about Cricket comes from yet another widely found tale, Aa-Th 1635, “Dr. Know-Ail,” K1956, “Sham Wise Man.”

  Tiger Becomes a Riding Horse (this page). Jamaica; Rampini, 116–19. This tale, Aa-Th 72, “Rabbit Rides Fox A-Courting,” and Aa-Th 4, “Carrying the Sham Sick Trickster” is the most commonly heard Anansi story in the anglophonic West Indies. (I was never at a wake where it didn’t come up in some form.) This particular version comes from its earliest appearance in print from Afro-America (1877), though its telling in Letters from Jamaica is not very different from later reports, except perhaps for its fullness and some of its literary flourishes. Harris himself had no doubt of its African origin in his introduction to Uncle Remus. Dundes (188) surveys the evidence, as does Baer (34–35.)

  Tricking All the Kings (this page). St. Vincent; Parsons, Antilles, 97–100. This is a wonderfully strung together set of motifs by a master storyteller. The opening section is Aa-Th 175, “The Tar-Baby and the Rabbit” (Motif K741). The shark incident involves another, and the Lion episode yet two more, one of which is Aa-Th 73, “Blinding the Guard.”

  “Trouble” Coming Down the Road (this page). Surinam; Herskovits and Her-skovits, 293–94. This story has two parts, the second of which (the escape of Rabbit by blowing pepper in Tiger’s face) is classified as Aa-Th 73, “Blinding the Guard,” a story found in many parts of the world. But, as Baer points out, only African and Afro-American versions call for a blinding by throwing sand, blowing pepper, or spittin tobacco juice. Elsewhere, the captor simply gives up the guarding after a while, drifting away. Dundes summarizes the evidence (48), pointing out that the tale in its many versions is extremely rare in Europe, while found throughout the black world; Baer concurs strongly (94–95). The escape is found in combination with a number of other tales in the black world, in this case Aa-Th 157, “Learning to Fear Man”—though here the word “Hunter” is not specified as a man. See “Meeting the King of the World” for a different rendition of the idea.

  The Trouble with Helping Out (this page). Surinam; Penard and Penard, 248–50. The first part of this story is a version of Aa-Th 155, “The Ungrateful Snake Returned to Captivity.” Flowers refers to three African reportings and gives summaries of a number of West Indian tales she says are versions. One draws on the typical African-style solution of having the judge call for a reenactment of the original situation and, as a judgment, returning the ungrateful animal to its original predicament. In this case, the ungrateful snake turns into a helping creature.

  Trying to Get the Goldstone (this page). Georgia; Pyrnelle, 112–18.

  The Tug-of-War between Elephant and Whale (this page). Louisiana; Fortier, 116–20. There seem to be two traditions to this story, both widely found in Africa and Afro-America. The first has Trickster tying the rope to a root or trunk of a tree (which is how we find it in Uncle Remus, no. 26); the other has an arranged tug-of-war between the two largest animals. Flowers (495–97) notes 11 West Indian tests under Motif K22, “Deceptive Tug of War,” all of them of this second variety. Baer, on the hand, under both Aa-Th 291 and Motif K22, argues the primacy of the first type in the black world (51–52), drawing on the comparative work within Africa by Motokeng (6–122, esp. 33–38, 95, 97–99, 101, 117–18). The story is widespread in Africa and seldom found elsewhere, although Aarne-Thompson refer to two Amazonian sources. The relationship of this story to “The Signifying Monkey” is patent, though this tale involves the carrying back and forth of false challenges and insults (cf. Aa-Th 59*, Motif 1084). On occasion, the tug-of-war begins because Trickster himself challenges first one and then another large animal; see, for instance, Parsons, Andros, 74–75. Parsons, Antilles, 3:77, provides notes to a great many African sources. Though these should have been assigned the same tale-type and motif numbers by Flowers, she does not so include them. Indeed, the only story she has under K1084, “Liar Brings About Fight between Dupes,” is not this story at all. The motif of the trees and stones crying “Shame” is found in a number of other West Indian stories; see, for example, Parsons, Antilles, 3:97–98.

  Turning into Nóuna—Nothing (this page). Surinam; Price, 13–14.

  Weak in the Day and Strong at Night (this page). Haiti; Courlander, 74.

  What Makes Brer Wasp Have a Short Patience (this page). South Carolina; Stoney and Shelby, 81–84. Motif A2302, “Animal’s Body Made Smaller.” Flowers (374) has one version of this story, from Jamaica.

  Why Hens Are Afraid of Owls (this page). Kentucky; Harmon, 114.

  Why They Name the Stories for
Anansi (this page). Tobago; recorded by Abrahams. This impossible task (Motif *K713.4, “Trickster Ties Snake to Stick in Pretense of Measuring His Length”) is often connected with Trickster’s desire to be more cunning. As Bascom has shown in RAL 9 (1978): 216, it is very often found, in combination with other tasks, in Africa and Afro-America. He notes that Trickster’s task story is “perhaps best known in the Ashanti version in which Anansi … seeks the right to have folktales known as ‘Anansi stories.’ “ However, as far as I have been able to discover, this design is unique in New World texts. Baer (82–84) discusses the pattern with regard to the Uncle Remus text; see also Dundes (37–38). Flowers lists the tale as H12631, to which she gives no title, though something like “Quest for Great Wisdom (Cunning)” might be appropriate; but none of the versions she cites involves the measurement of the snake. More appropriate would have been H1154, “Task: Capturing Animals,” but Flowers does not include the West Indian versions here. Dundes has uncovered a number of American Indian texts that he regards as borrowing from blacks. His dictum on the subject: “Clearly this is an African Afro-American Tale Type” (38).

  The Wind and the Water Fighting (this page). Florida; Hurston, 166–67. Herskovits (274), comments on the similarity of technique (especially the personification of natural forces) with tales he collected in Dahomey, but similar stories are found in other parts of the Old World as well. See Aa-Th 298, “The Frostgod and his Son,” for example.