FOOTNOTES
[1] Fanti is a dialect of this language, which is variously called Twi, Chwi, Otyi, and Ochi.
[2] One is given by Mr. G.W. Cable in the Century Magazine, xxx. 820, as a Louisiana Voodoo song:
Héron mandé, tigui li papa, Héron mandé, dosé dan godo.
Another by Mr. W.E. Burghart Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk, p. 254—apparently a lullaby:
|
Doba na coba gene me, gene me! Ben d' nu li, nu li, nu li, nu li, bend'le. |
I can make nothing of these. In the latter case, uncertainty as to the phonetic system adopted complicates the puzzle. One might be tempted to connect the last two words with Zulu endhle or pandhle = outside,—but I can find nothing else to support this resemblance, and such stray guesses are unprofitable work.
[3] R.E. Dennett, Folklore of the Fjort, p. 8.
[4] December, 1877, p. 751. The article is one on "Negro Folk-lore," by W. Owens, and contains several stories, some of these independent versions of "Uncle Remus" tales, while others are not to be found in that collection.
[5] J.C. Christaller, in Büttner's Zeitschr. für Afr. Sprachen. M. Réné Basset says of a similar story included in Col. Monteil's Contes Soudanais: "L'Enfant et le caïman est le sujet bien connu de l'ingratitude punie que l'on retrouve dans tous les pays de l'ancien monde, et dont M. Kenneth Mackenzie vient d'étudier les diverses variantes." The idea is one so likely to occur independently that we must not in all cases resort to the hypothesis of borrowing.
[6] Duff Macdonald, Africana, ii. 346.
[7] Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast.
[8] No. 16 in the Handbook of Folklore (p. 122). It might also be referred to the "Golden Goose" type (51). Stories of this kind are the Ronga "Route du Ciel," and "The Three Women" in Duff Macdonald's Africana. But perhaps the tale referred to in the text comes nearer to "The Two Hunchbacks."
[9] In Mr. Dudley Kidd's Savage Childhood (published since the above was written), I find that Zulu (or Pondo?) boys draw certain omens from spiders, in connection with dreams (p. 105), and that in Gazaland the rainbow is called "the spider's bow" (p. 153).
[10] Magana Hausa, 63.
[11] See Ursprung der Sprache (Weimar, 1868), pp. xix, xxiii (Introduction).
[12] McCall Theal, Kaffir Folk-Tales, pp. 96-98.
[13] "Afrikanische Studien," 1898 (Transactions of the Berlin Oriental Seminary, vol. i.) p. 194.
[14] He had been brought to Europe by a German naval officer in 1885, and remained for some time an inmate of Professor Meinhof's family.
[15] May 25, 1906, p. 202.
[16] Contes Soudanais, p. 49.
[17] P. 425. Another Mauritius negro tale from the same source is identical with the Yao one of the Elephant and the Hare (Duff Macdonald, ii. 353)—also found elsewhere in East Africa.
[18] Chants et Contes, p. 135, see also the preceding story, and some remarks on p. 86, footnote 2.
[19] Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folklore, p. 24.
[20] Cunnie Rabbit, p. 219.
[21] "Mr. Wolf makes a failure."
[22] Jacottet, p. 19.
[23] Cunnie Rabbit, p. 133.
[24] Folklore of the Fjort, pp. 82-84.
[25] Kalunga in Angola, Ko by the Né Kru-men. Some curious episodes connected with the latter are given by M. Georges Thomann in his Essai de Manuel de la langue néonlá (Paris: E. Leroux).
[26] McCall Theal, p. 68.
[27] See Junod, Chants et Contes des Baronga, p. 197; also a note in Chatelain, Folk-tales of Angola, p. 254, and Callaway, Zulu Tales, p. 199.
[28] This story is also given by Arbousset.
[29] R. Wolff, "Grammatik der Kingasprachen" (Archiv für das Studium deutschen Kolonialsprachen, iii.), p. 135.
[30] One kind of duppy is a mermaid—but I can find no indication that she came from Africa.
[31] Jacottet, p. 15.
[32] Suaheli Märchen, p. 154 (p. 241 in the German translation).
[33] Ib. p. 304.
[34] See Thomann, op. cit., "Trois maris pour une femme."
[35] Chatelain, No. I. and No. II.
[36] P. 135, "Liebe bis zum Salz."
[37] See Folk-Lore, March, 1904, p. 90.
[38] These idioms are very similar to those of Cape Dutch, especially as spoken by the coloured people, and may help to illustrate its development. Cf. Jy is te skellum,—ek gaan (or better, Corp) korp, etc. "To warm fire" reminds one of the Bantu Ku ot a moto, of which it is almost a literal translation. (A.W.)
[39] The well-known and lately-current ballad of May Colvin, in which this incident occurs (though it is the false lover, not the sister, who is murdered), has a cage of gold with an ivory door. (C.S.B.)
[40] "The 'three-foot horse' is believed to be a kind of duppy with three legs, hence its name; and is able to gallop faster than any other horse. It goes about in moonlight nights, and if it meet any person it blows upon him and kills him. It will never attack you in the dark. It cannot hurt you on a tree." Folklore of the Negroes of Jamaica, in Folklore, Vol. XV., p. 91. (C.S.B.).
[41] This is evidently a reminiscence of the "medicine" (Nyanja, chiwindo) used in Africa to protect gardens. Sometimes it kills the thief, sometimes makes him ill. (A.W.)
[42] Cf. the story of "Rombas" in Duff Macdonald's Africana II., which would seem to have reached Africa through the Portuguese. Rombas kills the whale which has swallowed the girl, and removes the tongue. (A.W.)
[43] Cf. The Maid Freed from the Gallows, F.J. Child, Ballads, vol. ii., p. 346. (C.S.B.)
[44] Cf. the Bantu use of nyama ("meat") for "an animal." (A.W.)
[45] Is this a survival of the African institution of "sureties" (Yao, ngoswe, see Duff Macdonald, I. 118), or "sponsors," who arrange the marriage? I am not sure whether the custom exists among Negro as well as Bantu tribes. (A.W.)
[46] Cf. Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, No. xiv., and note, p. 233. (C.S.B.)
[47] See the story of Tangalomlibo in Torrend, Comparative Grammar of S. African Bantu Languages, p. 319, where the cock is chosen as messenger, when the ox and goat are rejected. (A.W.)
[48] [Cf. Miss Kingsley, The Fetish View of the Human Soul, in Folk-Lore, vol. viii., p. 138; also R.E. Dennett, Bavili Notes, ibid., vol. xvi., p. 371.]
[49] [See Folk-Lore of the Negroes of Jamaica, in Folk-Lore, vol. xv., pp. 87, 206, 450, and vol. xvi., p. 68.]
[50] "The" always tends to the pronunciation "de," but it has not been thought advisable to write it so as this might render it liable to confusion with "dé," meaning "is," with its differently sounded vowel. Moreover, it is not quite a true d, but has a pretty lisping sound intermediate between th and d.
[51] For a discussion of this game, perhaps the best-known and most widely-spread of all English singing games, see A.B. Gomme, Traditional Games, vol. ii., p. 149.
[52] To avoid the tiresomeness of contraction marks, "see him ya" has been written in one word. It sounds exactly like senior with an m instead of an n.
[53] [Cf. "Bull in the Park," Gomme, Traditional Games, vol. i. p. 50.]
[54] "Yah?" = Do you hear?
[55] Other unusual girls' names are Ambrogine, Ateline, Irene, Melmorine. These rhyme with Queen. The same Italian i is found in Elgiva, Seppelita, Barnita, Justina, and the English i in Alvira, Marina. The next are all accented, like the last six, on the penultimate; Etilda, Iota, Clarista, Pastora, Barzella, Zedilla, Amanda, Agarta (evidently a variant of Agatha), Timinetia (like Polynesia), Cherryana, Indiana. Then there is Hettybel, and one girl has this astonishing combination—Ataria (rhymes with Samaria), Azadell (? Isabel).
[56] A last reminder to pronounce "acrahss," "harse." The Negro rejects the sound aw altogether and always changes it to ah.
[57] Bolow, comrade.
[59] Mowitahl = Mowatt Hall.
[60] Bahss, Boss. "Carry him" is in two syllables, sounding like ca-yim.