Each legend has its variants9, but in every instance I have retained that particular version which seemed to me to be the most characteristic, and have given it without embellishment and without exaggeration.
The dialect, it will be observed, is wholly different from that of the Hon. Pompey Smash and his literary descendants, and different also from the intolerable misrepresentations of the minstrel stage, but it is at least phonetically11 genuine. Nevertheless, if the language of Uncle Remus fails to give vivid hints of the really poetic13 imagination of the negro; if it fails to embody14 the quaint and homely15 humor which was his most prominent characteristic; if it does not suggest a certain picturesque16 sensitiveness—a curious exaltation of mind and temperament17 not to be defined by words—then I have reproduced the form of the dialect merely, and not the essence, and my attempt may be accounted a failure. At any rate, I trust I have been successful in presenting what must be, at least to a large portion of American readers, a new and by no means unattractive phase of negro character—a phase which may be considered a curiously18 sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe's wonderful defense19 of slavery as it existed in the South. Mrs. Stowe, let me hasten to say, attacked the possibilities of slavery with all the eloquence20 of genius; but the same genius painted the portrait of the Southern slave-owner, and defended him.
A number of the plantation legends originally appeared in the columns of a daily newspaper—The Atlanta Constitution and in that shape they attracted the attention of various gentlemen who were kind enough to suggest that they would prove to be valuable contributions to myth-literature. It is but fair to say that ethnological considerations formed no part of the undertaking21 which has resulted in the publication of this volume. Professor J. W. Powell, of the Smithsonian Institution, who is engaged in an investigation22 of the mythology23 of the North American Indians, informs me that some of Uncle Remus's stories appear in a number of different languages, and in various modified forms, among the Indians; and he is of the opinion that they are borrowed by the negroes from the red-men. But this, to say the least, is extremely doubtful, since another investigator24 (Mr. Herbert H. Smith, author of Brazil and the Amazons) has met with some of these stories among tribes of South American Indians, and one in particular he has traced to India, and as far east as Siam. Mr. Smith has been kind enough to send me the proof-sheets of his chapter on The Myths and Folk-Lore of the Amazonian Indians, in which he reproduces some of the stories which he gathered while exploring the Amazons.
In the first of his series, a tortoise falls from a tree upon the head of a jaguar25 and kills him; in one of Uncle Remus's stories, the terrapin26 falls from a shelf in Miss Meadows's house and stuns27 the fox, so that the latter fails to catch the rabbit. In the next, a jaguar catches a tortoise by the hind-leg as he is disappearing in his hole; but the tortoise convinces him he is holding a root, and so escapes; Uncle Remus tells how the fox endeavored to drown the terrapin, but turned him loose because the terrapin declared his tail to be only a stump28-root. Mr. Smith also gives the story of how the tortoise outran the deer, which is identical as to incident with Uncle Remus's story of how Brer Tarrypin outran Brer Rabbit. Then there is the story of how the tortoise pretended that he was stronger than the tapir. He tells the latter he can drag him into the sea, but the tapir retorts that he will pull the tortoise into the forest and kill him besides. The tortoise thereupon gets a vine-stem, ties one end around the body of the tapir, and goes to the sea, where he ties the other end to the tail of a whale. He then goes into the wood, midway between them both, and gives the vine a shake as a signal for the pulling to begin. The struggle between the whale and tapir goes on until each thinks the tortoise is the strongest of animals. Compare this with the story of the terrapin's contest with the bear, in which Miss Meadows's bed-cord is used instead of a vine-stem. One of the most characteristic of Uncle Remus's stories is that in which the rabbit proves to Miss Meadows and the girls that the fox is his riding-horse. This is almost identical with a story quoted by Mr. Smith, where the jaguar is about to marry the deer's daughter. The cotia—a species of rodent—is also in love with her, and he tells the deer that he can make a riding-horse of the jaguar.
"Well," says the deer, "if you can make the jaguar carry you, you shall have my daughter." Thereupon the story proceeds pretty much as Uncle Remus tells it of the fox and rabbit. The cotia finally jumps from the jaguar and takes refuge in a hole, where an owl29 is set to watch him, but he flings sand in the owl's eyes and escapes. In another story given by Mr. Smith, the cotia is very thirsty, and, seeing a man coming with a jar on his head, lies down in the road in front of him, and repeats this until the man puts down his jar to go back after all the dead cotias he has seen. This is almost identical with Uncle Remus's story of how the rabbit robbed the fox of his game. In a story from Upper Egypt, a fox lies down in the road in front of a man who is carrying fowls30 to market, and finally succeeds in securing them.
This similarity extends to almost every story quoted by Mr. Smith, and some are so nearly identical as to point unmistakably to a common origin; but when and where? when did the negro or the North American Indian ever come in contact with the tribes of South America? Upon this point the author of Brazil and the Amazons, who is engaged in making a critical and comparative study of these myth-stories, writes:
"I am not prepared to form a theory about these stories. There can be no doubt that some of them, found among the negroes and the Indians, had a common origin. The most natural solution would be to suppose that they originated in Africa, and were carried to South America by the negro slaves. They are certainly found among the Red Negroes; but, unfortunately for the African theory, it is equally certain that they are told by savage31 Indians of the Amazons Valley, away up on the Tapajos, Red Negro, and Tapura. These Indians hardly ever see a negro, and their languages are very distinct from the broken Portuguese32 spoken by the slaves. The form of the stories, as recounted in the Tupi and Mundurucu' languages, seems to show that they were originally formed in those languages or have long been adopted in them.
"It is interesting to find a story from Upper Egypt (that of the fox who pretended to be dead) identical with an Amazonian story, and strongly resembling one found by you among the negroes. Vambagen, the Brazilian historian (now Visconde de Rio Branco), tried to prove a relationship between the ancient Egyptians, or other Turanian stock, and the Tupi Indians. His theory rested on rather a slender basis, yet it must be confessed that he had one or two strong points. Do the resemblances between old and New World stories point to a similar conclusion? It would be hard to say with the material that we now have.
"One thing is certain. The animal stories told by the negroes in our Southern States and in Brazil were brought by them from Africa. Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or Egyptians, or with yet more ancient nations, must still be an open question. Whether the Indians got them from the negroes or from some earlier source is equally uncertain. We have seen enough to know that a very interesting line of investigation has been opened."
Professor Hartt, in his Amazonian Tortoise Myths, quotes a story from the Riverside Magazine of November, 1868, which will be recognized as a variant10 of one given by Uncle Remus. I venture to append it here, with some necessary verbal and phonetic12 alterations33, in order to give the reader an idea of the difference between the dialect of the cotton plantations34, as used by Uncle Remus, and the lingo35 in vogue36 on the rice plantations and Sea Islands of the South Atlantic States:
"One time B'er Deer an' B'er Cooter (Terrapin) was courtin', and de lady did bin37 lub B'er Deer mo' so dan B'er Cooter. She did bin lub B'er Cooter, but she lub B'er Deer de morest. So de young lady say to B'er Deer and B'er Cooter bofe dat dey mus' hab a ten-mile race, an de one dat beats, she will go marry him.
"So B'er Cooter say to B'er Deer: 'You has got mo longer legs dan I has, but I will run you. You run ten mile on land, and I will run ten mile on de water!'
"So B'er Cooter went an' git nine er his fam'ly, an' put one at ebery mile-pos', and he hisse'f, what was to run wid B'er Deer, he was right in front of de young lady's do', in de broom-grass.
"Dat mornin' at nine o'clock, B'er Deer he did met B'er Cooter at de fus mile-pos', wey dey was to start fum. So he call: 'Well, B'er Cooter, is you ready? Co long!' As he git on to de nex' mile-pos', he say: 'B'er Cooter!' B'er Cooter say: 'Hullo!' B'er Deer say: 'You dere?' B'er Cooter say: 'Yes, B'er Deer, I dere too.'
"Nex' mile-pos' he jump, B'er Deer say: 'Hullo, B'er Cooter!' B'er Cooter say: 'Hullo, B'er Deer! you dere too?' B'er Deer say: 'Ki! it look like you gwine fer tie me; it look like we gwine fer de gal38 tie!'
"W'en he git to de nine-mile pos' he tought he git dere fus, 'cause he mek two jump; so he holler: 'B'er Cooter!' B'er Cooter answer: 'You dere too?' B'er Deer say: 'It look like you gwine tie me.' B'er Cooter say: 'Go long, B'er Deer. I git dere in due season time,' which he does, and wins de race."
The story of the Rabbit and the Fox, as told by the Southern negroes, is artistically39 dramatic in this: it progresses in an orderly way from a beginning to a well-defined conclusion, and is full of striking episodes that suggest the culmination40. It seems to me to be to a certain extent allegorical, albeit41 such an interpretation42 may be unreasonable43. At least it is a fable44 thoroughly45 characteristic of the negro; and it needs no scientific investigation to show why he selects as his hero the weakest and most harmless of all animals, and brings him out victorious46 in contests with the bear, the wolf, and the fox. It is not virtue47 that triumphs, but helplessness; it is not malice48, but mischievousness49. It would be presumptuous50 in me to offer an opinion as to the origin of these curious myth-stories; but, if ethnologists should discover that they did not originate with the African, the proof to that effect should be accompanied with a good deal of persuasive51 eloquence.
Curiously enough, I have found few negroes who will acknowledge to a stranger that they know anything of these legends; and yet to relate one of the stories is the surest road to their confidence and esteem52. In this way, and in this way only, I have been enabled to collect and verify the folklore53 included in this volume. There is an anecdote54 about the Irishman and the rabbit which a number of negroes have told to me with great unction, and which is both funny and characteristic, though I will not undertake to say that it has its origin with the blacks. One day an Irishman who had heard people talking about "mares' nests" was going along the big road—it is always the big road in contradistinction to neighborhood paths and by-paths, called in the vernacular55 "nigh-cuts"—when he came to a pumpkin56—patch. The Irishman had never seen any of this fruit before, and he at once concluded that he had discovered a veritable mare's nest. Making the most of his opportunity, he gathered one of the pumpkins57 in his arms and went on his way. A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled. The pumpkin fell to the ground, rolled down the hill into a "brush—heap," and, striking against a stump, was broken. The story continues in the dialect: "W'en de punkin roll in de bresh—heap, out jump a rabbit; en soon's de I'shmuns see dat, he take atter de rabbit en holler: 'Kworp, colty! kworp, colty!' but de rabbit, he des flew." The point of this is obvious.
As to the songs, the reader is warned that it will be found difficult to make them conform to the ordinary rules of versification, nor is it intended that they should so conform. They are written, and are intended to be read, solely58 with reference to the regular and invariable recurrence59 of the caesura, as, for instance, the first stanza60 of the Revival61 Hymn62:
"Oh, whar / shill we go / w'en de great / day comes
Wid de blow / in' er de trumpits / en de bang / in' er de
drums /
How man / y po' sin / ners'll be kotch'd / out late
In other words, the songs depend for their melody and rhythm upon the musical quality of time, and not upon long or short, accented or unaccented syllables64. I am persuaded that this fact led Mr. Sidney Lanier, who is thoroughly familiar with the metrical peculiarities65 of negro songs, into the exhaustive investigation which has resulted in the publication of his scholarly treatise66 on The Science of English Verse.
The difference between the dialect of the legends and that of the character—sketches67, slight as it is, marks the modifications68 which the speech of the negro has undergone even where education has played in deed, save in the no part reforming it. Indeed, save in the remote country districts, the dialect of the legends has nearly disappeared. I am perfectly well aware that the character sketches are without permanent interest, but they are embodied69 here for the purpose of presenting a phase of negro character wholly distinct from that which I have endeavored to preserve in the legends. Only in this shape, and with all the local allusions70, would it be possible to adequately represent the shrewd observations, the curious retorts, the homely thrusts, the quaint comments, and the humorous philosophy of the race of which Uncle Remus is the type.
If the reader not familiar with plantation life will imagine that the myth—stories of Uncle Remus are told night after night to a little boy by an old negro who appears to be venerable enough to have lived during the period which he describes—who has nothing but pleasant memories of the discipline of slavery—and who has all the prejudices of caste and pride of family that were the natural results of the system; if the reader can imagine all this, he will find little difficulty in appreciating and sympathizing with the air of affectionate superiority which Uncle Remus assumes as he proceeds to unfold the mysteries of plantation lore to a little child who is the product of that practical reconstruction71 which has been going on to some extent since the war in spite of the politicians. Uncle Remus describes that reconstruction in his Story of the War, and I may as well add here for the benefit of the curious that that story is almost literally72 true.
J. C. H.
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1
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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4
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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variants
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| n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体 | |
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variant
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| adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体 | |
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11
phonetically
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| 按照发音地，语音学上 | |
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phonetic
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| adj.语言的，语言上的，表示语音的 | |
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13
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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embody
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| vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录 | |
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15
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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19
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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jaguar
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| n.美洲虎 | |
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terrapin
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| n.泥龟；鳖 | |
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stuns
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| v.击晕( stun的第三人称单数 )；使大吃一惊；给（某人）以深刻印象；使深深感动 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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lingo
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| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
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Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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artistically
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| adv.艺术性地 | |
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culmination
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| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
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41
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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42
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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43
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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45
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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47
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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48
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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49
mischievousness
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| 恶作剧 | |
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50
presumptuous
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| adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的 | |
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51
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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52
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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folklore
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| n.民间信仰，民间传说，民俗 | |
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54
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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55
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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56
pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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pumpkins
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| n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊 | |
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58
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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60
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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61
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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63
latch
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| n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁 | |
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64
syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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67
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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69
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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70
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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71
reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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72
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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