Compare Zeltner’s stories of Soundita, 1–6, and Kama, 54–61; Renel 1:82–85; 117–118; Tremearne, 408–412; Lenz, 22; Fortier, 11–13; Harris, Friends, 86–89; Boas, Notes, JAFL 25:258.
(1) In the less sophisticated versions, the bull kicks the child from the “breeding” woman.
(2) See Burton’s Arabian Nights Tales (Burton Club, 1885) 1:231. The mocking incident is common in Maori tales.
(3) In Zeltner’s “Soundita” story, the contest with a witch turned buffalo is carried on with three magic eggs and three magic arrows. In Fortier, the boy fights the bull with flap-jacks. The arrows suggest the weapons used in the fight of Sir Percival with the Red Knight in the English romance version. See also number 79, 80, 82.
(4) By comparing this bull version with Harris, Friends, 86–89, and Fortier, 11–13, it is clear that the North American version contained the two episodes, that of exposing the bull husband by means of a song, as in number [87], and that of the challenge to conflict which completes number [89] in Jamaica. In Harris, the word used for the bull transformation is “Ballybaloo-bill,” which is very close to my “Ballinder bull.” The more common name in Jamaica is “Geshawnee,” as in P. Smith’s version and Johnson’s song. But in Johnson’s song, as in Harris, the boy is named Sammy and his small size emphasized. In the Harris-Fortier version, one episode is used to motivate the other. The first episode explains the rather mysterious use of the song in the Ballinder Bull story and in number [88], where the bull seems surprised that anyone knows enough to challenge him by name and where the knowledge itself seems bound up with his defeat. In Jekyll’s version of number [88], [[278]]when the son challenges the father by name a cow calls, “Master, master, I hear some one calling your name.” The bull answers, “No, no, not a man can call my name!” At some stage in transmission a fatal name motive must have dropped out and a magic song taken its place.
This comparison with Harris and Fortier merely proves a relation with the Jamaica story. It by no means explains the original source of the American version, or its exact relation to the other bull stories collected; namely, numbers [84] and [88]. Zeltner’s story of Soundita, 3–5, has perhaps more elements in common with the Harris-Fortier story than any other African parallel, and further analysis may decide whether the complex Senegambian story is in the direct line or merely has gathered episodes from a common source.
(5) and (6) See note to number [82] and Bolte u. Polívka, discussing Grimm 60, Two Brothers.
(7) The episode of the mock claim appears also in the next number and in [97].