Jamaican Song and Story Part 2

As regards the imported stories, it seems reasonably clear that "Yung-Kyum-Pyung" is a "Rumpelstiltzchen" story which has accidentally become a.s.sociated with Annancy. Though the superst.i.tion on which these stories are based exists in Africa as well as in other parts of the world, and is one of the factors in the custom of _hlonipa_, I do not remember any tale embodying it in this form, though there are numerous examples of those which turn a _tabu_ of some sort.

"King Daniel" is the story of the jealous sister, best known, perhaps, in the ballad of "Binnorie." But it has African prototypes as well, though the resemblance to these is not so close, in which the crime is discovered by the song of a bird--sometimes the metamorphosed heart of the victim. In "Masilo and Masilonyane" and the Kinga "Die Reiherfeder,"[29] one brother (or companion) kills the other; in "Unyengebule" (Callaway) the husband kills the wife, and here it is her feather head-dress which turns into a bird. "Pretty Poll" (x.x.xI.) is a variant of this story.

[Footnote 29: R. Wolff, "Grammatik der Kingasprachen" (_Archiv fr das Studium deutschen Kolonialsprachen_, iii.), p. 135.]

Another pair of variants, apparently, are "Blackbird and Woss-woss"

and "Open Sesame." But the former of these, it seems to me, corresponds much more closely with a Nago story of the Lizard and the Tortoise, given by M. Ba.s.set (_Contes populaires d'Afrique_, p. 217); and it should be remembered that the Nagos of Yoruba are one of the tribes represented among the Jamaica negroes. The lizard finds a rock containing a store of yams, and overhearing the words used by the owner "_Stone, open!_" obtains food for himself in time of famine. He imparts the secret to the tortoise, and they go together, but the tortoise lingers behind to load himself with all he can carry, and not knowing the word fails to get out, and is killed when the owner returns. He revives, however, and gets the c.o.c.kroach to stick his sh.e.l.l together, thus presenting a point of contact with other aetiological myths about the Tortoise. The rescue by the army of wasps I have been unable to match.

"Man-crow" is the story, which exists in so many variants, where the hero is robbed of the fruit of his achievement by an impostor stepping in at the last minute. The nearest parallel which occurs to me is "Rombao" (probably obtained from a Portuguese source by the Quilimane natives who related it to Mr. Duff Macdonald), where the hero kills the whale and cuts out its tongue; the captain who finds it dead claims his reward, but is discomfited by Rombao's appearance with the tongue.

"The Three Pigs" will be readily recognized as the familiar English story, and corresponds pretty closely to the version in Mr. Jacobs's _English Fairy Tales_. A version current among the negroes of the Southern States is given by Mr. Owens in the paper in _Lippincott's Magazine_ already referred to. This version, ent.i.tled "Tiny Pig,"

omits the two incidents of the apple-tree and the b.u.t.ter-churn; but curiously enough these appear as "Buh Rabbit" episodes in another part of the same paper, the apple-tree having become a pear-tree, and the churn a tin mug which Buh Rabbit puts over his head, while he hangs various articles of tinware about his person.

"Sea-Mahmy" introduces several different elements. The mermaid herself is probably of European extraction,[30] and the device by which Blackbird brings Annancy to the feeding-tree _might_ be a far-off echo of the Daedalus and Icarus myth. But Annancy's trick for conveying Trapong to his house and eating him recalls one of the stock incidents of Bantu folk-lore--the one where Hlakanyana, or the Hare, or some other creature, induces his dupe to get burnt or boiled by pretending to undergo the process himself and to escape with impunity. The Suto Hare[31] commends this as a device for attaining immortality--in which there is a faint suggestion of Medea's caldron. I was at first disposed to refer this episode to the "Big Klaas and Little Klaas" (or the "Getting-to-Heaven-in-a-Sack") group; but the inducement to enter the sack, which is so great a point in these, is here wanting. It is found in a Zanzibar story ("Abu Nuwasi na waziri na Sultani") in Dr.

Velten's collection,[32] where Abu Nuwas is sewn up into a sack to be thrown into the sea, and induces another man to take his place by saying that he is to be drowned for refusing to marry the Sultan's daughter. This is evidently an Arab tale, though I do not remember it in the _Arabian Nights_.

[Footnote 30: One kind of duppy is a mermaid--but I can find no indication that she came from Africa.]

[Footnote 31: Jacottet, p. 15.]

[Footnote 32: _Suaheli Mrchen_, p. 154 (p. 241 in the German translation).]

The exotic tales to be found in Bantu Africa come mainly from two sources--Arab and Portuguese. The former is exemplified at Zanzibar and all down the Mozambique coast; the latter in Angola and Mozambique. We have already referred to an example obtained at Delagoa Bay by M. Junod; but "Bonaouaci" (_Chants et Contes_, p. 292), though the names are Portuguese, and the local colouring goes so far as to introduce the Governor of Mozambique in person, is in substance identical with one of the "Abu Nuwas" stories given by Dr. Velten, the incident of the egg-production being nearly the same in both, as well as the two other impossible tasks set the hero--sewing a stone and building a house in the air. I fancy the same is the case with "Djiwao," though the incidents have been a good deal remodelled, and the concluding episode--the boiling of the chief Gwan.a.z.i in the pot he had intended for Djiwao, is the purely Bantu one alluded to in the last paragraph--in a somewhat unusual setting. "Les trois vaisseaux,"[33] again, is an _Arabian Nights_ story, of which a curious version has been obtained at Domasi, probably brought from the coast by some member of a Yao trading caravan. Mr. Dennett's No. III., "How the wives restored their husband to life," looks like a much altered and localized form of this. If so it might have reached the Congo through the Portuguese. We also find it on the Ivory Coast[34]

where it might have come from an Arab source through Mandingoes or Hausas.

[Footnote 33: _Ib._ p. 304.]

[Footnote 34: See Thomann, _op. cit._, "Trois maris pour une femme."]

The stories of "Fenda Maria" and "Fenda Maria and her elder brother Nga Nzu"[35] ("The Three Citrons" and "Cinderella"), are good examples of transplanted stories invested with local colour by successive generations of narrators, till, as Mr. Chatelain says, "the fundamental idea of exotic origin has been so perfectly covered with Angola foliage and blossoms, that science alone can detect the imported elements, and no native would believe that [these tales] are not entirely Angolan."

[Footnote 35: Chatelain, No. I. and No. II.]

A curious stage in the migration of stories is exemplified by the "Taal" (or Cape Dutch) versions of Oriental stories imported into South Africa by the Malays, and existing in a purely traditional form among the coloured people. One of these was printed by Mr. H.N. Mller in _De Gids_ for Jan., 1900, but I think hardly any attempt has been made to collect them. And here I may mention that Herr Seidel's _Lieder und Geschichten der Afrikaner_[36] contains a Nama version of the Lear story, taken down and translated by Herr Olpp, of the Rhenish Mission, who seems quite unaware of its real origin, in spite of the very obvious parallel in Grimm's _Hausmrchen_. He says in a note: "Diese Begebenheit kann sich nur in der Kap-Kolonie ereignet haben zu einer Zeit in welcher Kolonisten sich schon angesiedelt hatten und unter den Eingeborenen wohnten. Der Name der Tochter spricht dafr und enstammt dem Hollndischen." Now the youngest daughter's name is "Katje Leiro"--surely, all things considered, not such a very far cry from Cordelia.

[Footnote 36: P. 135, "Liebe bis zum Salz."]

It is interesting to trace the African elements in these imported tales as distinct from those which are merely derived from West Indian surroundings. Thus Mr. Bluebeard's three-legged horse (compare also the three-legged horse in "Devil and the Princess") is, as explained in the footnote, a "duppy"; and the duppy, whatever the derivation of his name, seems to be West African in origin. Duppies are the souls of the dead, "capable of a.s.suming various forms of men and other animals."[37] Some of these forms are monstrous, as the "three-foot horse" already alluded to, the "long-bubby Susan," and the "rolling calf." The informant who is responsible for these statements also says that "the duppy in human form generally moves along by spinning or walking backwards." Perhaps this may explain the mysterious "Wheeler"

(LI.) who has his habitation in a hollow tree, and seizes the hand of any unwary person who puts it into the hole. What he would have done if not requested to "Wheel me mile an' distant," remains obscure; but apparently the persons making the request are whirled through the air and then dropped at the place where Annancy (who has previously pa.s.sed through the experience unscathed) has prepared a trap for them. The story suggests--though the resemblance is not very close--the episode of "The Stone that wore a Beard" in _Cunnie Rabbit_ (p. 167), where the Spider, having had a narrow escape from the magic powers of the bearded stone (a transformed "devil") utilises them for the destruction of his acquaintances. Those who remark on the peculiarity of the stone are struck down unconscious, and Spider exercises all his ingenuity in inducing his victims to say, "Dah stone get plenty bear'-bear'!" Cunnie Rabbit will not say the words till Spider has himself done so, and has suffered the consequences; both are afterwards rescued by Trorkey (Tortoise). Somewhat similar to "Wheeler" is the magic jar in XLV.--which might, however, be due to a distorted reminiscence of "Bluebeard." Spirits are often believed on the Gold Coast to take up their abode in trees, as well as to a.s.sume the form of animals. The usual Ts.h.i.+ name for them appears to be _bonsum_ or _bossum_: the word "duppy" I have been unable to trace.

[Footnote 37: See _Folk-Lore_, March, 1904, p. 90.]

The method of divination in "Mr. Bluebeard" is one I do not remember to have met with, though it may be akin to the "magic mirror of ink."

The magic drum by which Calcutta Monkey (x.x.xVIII.) finds out Annancy's whereabouts is African. I do not recall any parallel story, but drums are much used by witch-doctors and in ceremonial dances, and in some cases auguries are drawn from their sound. But Monkey first discovers Annancy to be the thief by cutting the cards, which of course is European.

Two stories, "Annancy and the Old Lady's Field" (XVI.) and "Devil's Honeydram," introduce the incident of a woman compelled to dance against her will--in one case to dance herself to death. In both cases the music seems to be the compelling power; but it is not clear whether, in "Devil's Honeydram," the knowledge (and use in the song) of the woman's name has anything to do with the spell. If so, the idea is so universal that one can scarcely refer to it as specially African. It is interesting, though perhaps scarcely pertinent to the matter in hand, to note that the Akikuyu believe their images (of which Mr. Scoresby Routledge has brought home specimens) to have the power, if held up before people, of compelling them to dance.

The folk-lore of Jamaica, as given in the interesting papers published in _Folk-Lore_, 1904-5, is decidedly of a composite character. The negroes have, as there pointed out (1904, p. 87), "adopted many of the most trivial of English superst.i.tions," while at the same time preserving some reminiscences of their African beliefs. These are especially seen in the notions respecting "duppies," which again are perceptibly influenced by Christian ideas, cf. the efficacy of the name of Christ (p. 90) and the statement that the "rolling calf" is the spirit of a person not good enough for heaven or bad enough for h.e.l.l, or the recipe of "sitting on a Bible" to get rid of a duppy. The directions for "killing a thief" (p. 92) belong to the system (universal throughout Negro and Bantu Africa) of guarding crops by means of "medicine," or "fetish," or whatever one likes to call it: the technical name in Chinyanja is _chiwindo_. I do not remember any of the particular forms of _chiwindo_ here enumerated; and the silver threepence to be planted with the "guinea yam" is a civilized addition, but the principle is the same. The methods of "finding out the thief," on the other hand, which follow on p. 93, are certainly English--the Bible and key, and the gold ring, hair and tumbler of water. There is a third alternative:--"A curious kind of smoke, which, when it rises, goes to the house of the thief, etc."--but it is too vaguely stated to enable us to p.r.o.nounce upon it.

Among funeral customs we find the following (p. 88): "If a person dies where there are little children, after the body is put into the coffin, they will lift up each little child, and calling him by name, pa.s.s him over the dead body." According to a Sierra Leone paper this custom is observed there; but it is not stated by which of the tribes who make up the extremely mixed population. It may even be found on investigation that some of the freed slaves brought the notion back from the New World. The same authority states that it is considered unlucky to whistle, and adds the rationalizing explanation that whistling attracts snakes, lizards, and other undesirable creatures into the house. In Jamaica, you must not "whistle in the nights, for duppies will catch your voice."

The proportion of native and acquired, or African and European ideas in these superst.i.tions can only be determined by a much more detailed examination than I can make here, and one based on fuller materials than are yet accessible.

In conclusion, I would briefly glance at five stories which I have grouped together as derived from a common African original, and which present several features of interest, though I am unable to examine them as much in detail as I should like to do. These are "The Three Sisters" (VII.), "Gaulin" (XXIV.), "Yellow Snake" (x.x.xIV.), "John Crow" (XLIII.), and "Devil and the Princess" (LI.). The type to which these may be referred resembles the one registered by Mr. Jacobs as the "Robber-Bridegroom"; but the African prototypes are certainly indigenous, and it might seem as if the stories Mr. Jacobs had in view were late and comparatively civilized versions of the corresponding European and Asiatic ones, the Robber being the equivalent of an earlier wizard or devil, who, in the primitive form of the story, was simply an animal a.s.suming human shape. The main incidents of the type-story are as follows:

(1) A girl obstinately refuses all suitors.

(2) She is wooed by an animal in human form, and at once accepts him.

(3) She is warned (usually by a brother) and disregards the warning.

(4) She is about to be killed and eaten, but is saved by the brother whose advice was disregarded.

A Nyanja variant of this story, where the bridegroom is a hyena, corresponds very closely with the Temne "Marry the devil, there's the devil to pay" (_Cunnie Rabbit_, p. 178)--even to the little brother who follows the newly-wedded couple, against the wishes of the bride, and who is afflicted--in the one case with "craw-craw," in the other with sore eyes. A translation of the Nyanja story may be found in the _Contemporary Review_ for September, 1896. In Mrs. Dewar's _Chinamw.a.n.ga Stories_ (p. 41) there is a variant,--"Ngoza,"--where the husband is a lion. In the Machame story, previously alluded to, the hyena, having befriended a girl, marries her, and she escapes with some difficulty from being eaten by his relations. Yet another variant is "Ngomba's Balloon" in Mr. Dennett's _Folklore of the Fjort_. Here the husband is a _Mpunia_ (translated "murderer")--apparently a mere human bad character, and Ngomba escapes by her own ingenuity.

In the Jamaican stories it strikes one that the idea of transformation is somewhat obscured. We are told how "Gaulin" (Egret) and "John Crow"

provide themselves with clothes and equipages--the latter a carriage and pair, the former the humbler local buggy;--and this seems to const.i.tute the extent of their disguise. Yellow Snake is said to "change and fix up himself"--but the expression is vague. Gaulin, however, can only be deprived of his clothes (and so made to appear in his true shape) by means of a magic song. The "old-witch" brother, who has overheard the song, plays its tune at the wedding and thus exposes the bridegroom, who flies out at the door. "John-Crow" is detected by a Cinderella-like device of keeping him till daylight, and his hurried flight through the window (in which he sc.r.a.ped the feathers off his head on the broken gla.s.s) explains a characteristic feature of these useful but unattractive birds.

In neither of these is the bride in any danger: but in "Yellow Snake"

her brothers save her when already more than half swallowed; in "Devil and the Princess," she escapes by the aid of the Devil's cook, who feeds the watchful c.o.c.k on corn soaked in rum. In this story, too, it is not the girl's brother, but the "old-witch" servant-boy, who warns her; and, as he is cast into prison for his pains, he has no hand in the release. In two cases ("Gaulin" and "John Crow") Annancy is one of the unsuccessful suitors, and, in the former, "Rabbit" is another.

(He, apparently, takes no steps to change his shape, being rejected on the ground that he is "only but a meat," _i.e._, an animal.) In the Nyanja story, Leopard and Hare are mentioned as meeting with refusals, before the Hyena arrives on the scene. "The Three Sisters," while keeping one or two points of the original story, is much altered, and seems to have introduced some rather unintelligible fragments of an English ballad (as to which see Appendix, p. 286). The Snake is never accepted; and the youngest of the sisters, who answers him on behalf of all, would seem to represent the "old-witch" brother who detects his true character. His "turning into a devil" is another alien element--perhaps due to Biblical recollections, and the concluding a.s.sertion that he "have chain round his waist until now" seems to refer to something which has dropped out, as there is no previous allusion to a chain in the story as it stands. Of all the five, "Yellow Snake" is, on the whole, the closest to what we may suppose to have been the original; "Devil and the Princess" is in some respects complete, but has acquired several foreign features, and "John Crow"

has quite lost the characteristic conclusion. It is to be hoped that we may one day succeed in discovering, if not all the African variants of this story, yet enough to render those we possess more intelligible, and to afford materials for an interesting comparative study.

A. WERNER.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The stories and tunes of this book are taken down from the mouths of men and boys in my employ. The method of procedure has in every case been to sit them down to their recital and make them dictate slowly; so the stories are in their _ipsissima verba_. Here and there, but very rarely indeed, I have made a slight change, and this only because I thought the volume might find its way into the nursery. The following list exhausts the emendations: (1) It was not his fat that Tiger took out when he went bathing, but his viscera; (2) The "Tumpa-toe" of one of the stories is "Stinking-toe"; (3) Dog always swears, his favourite expression being, "There will be h.e.l.l here to-night," and the first line of one of the dance tunes runs really: "h.e.l.l of a dog up'tairs"; (4) "belly" is replaced by a prettier equivalent.

The district in which I live is that of the Port Royal Mountains behind Kingston. Other districts have other "Sings," for these depend upon local topics. The Annancy Stories are, so far as I know, more or less alike throughout the island. This t.i.tle seems to include stories in which Annancy himself does not figure at all, but this is of course an illegitimate use of it. The collection in this book is a mere sample both of stories and tunes.

The book as a whole is a tribute to my love for Jamaica and its dusky inhabitants, with their winning ways and their many good qualities, among which is to be reckoned that supreme virtue, _Cheerfulness_.

W.J.

JAMAICA, _January_, 1906.

JAMAICAN SONG AND STORY.