Alice Werner

“ There is an opening here for a grammatical dissertation on the "m or living-person" class, and the transference into it of animal names properly belonging to another, when the animals are considered with reference to their personality. But we must not forget that we set out with the Tar-Baby.
M. Junod, in a note to the tale we have just quoted from him, refers to a story in M. Heli Chatelain's "Folk-tales of Angola," where the Rabbit and the Monkey (whom we have not hitherto found in his company) are lamentably caught by "de belles filles-mannequins," whom they are tempted to embrace. ”

“ I suppose the question of the African origin of the "Uncle Remus" stories has been settled long ago, but it is interesting to see how every fresh contribution to the stock of African (and more especially "Bantu") folklore supplies us with fuller and more detailed evidence on this point. Since it was discussed in the introduction to Mr. Chandler Harris's original edition (how long ago was that?) at least three distinct African versions of the Tar-Baby episode in Brer Rabbit's career have come to light. ”

“ At the funeral they pretend to be sent by "the Lord Governor" to catch Leopard. He is bound and carried home. There they torture him, pillage his house, steal his clothes, and decamp. Hence the monkey always sleeps on a tree and the hare in the bush, so as to be secure from surprise by the leopard. The leopard's spots were caused by the torture. The honorific prefix Ngana is given to Leopard, and sometimes to Monkey and Hare. ”

“ In another, the Rabbit's wife goes down to the river with her water-pot like any native woman, and is caught by the Crocodile when stooping to fill it. [6] Numberless touches of the same sort could be quoted from Uncle Remus, but he has a much more sophisticated consciousness of the difference between "folks en de beasteses" than the native African.
M. Junod remarks that this "personification" of animals is emphasised in the Ronga tales by the honorific prefix Nwa, which can be rendered, according to circumstances, by Mr., Mrs., or Miss, and is equivalent to the Yao Che. ”

“ One of these inadvertences, to name no more, is found in the Shisumbwa story, where the Rabbit seizes the Tar-Baby with his hands. So, too, a Mang'anja tale in my MS. collection gives the Swallow a hut with all orthodox arrangements—the hearth in the middle of the floor, and the stage (nsanja) above it, on which meat and other things are dried—and a wife who cooks gourds in an earthen pot. ”

“ No axe can kill me!"
Stones, fire, and knives are all suggested in turn with a like result, and at last some one says: "We will throw him into the deep water!" Then the turtle cried out lamentably: "Alas! I must die! ”

“ The image having been set up in the gardens, the Ronga Brer Rabbit once more gives the alarm: "Nte! nte! nte!" (he is supposed to be sounding his horn—the nefarious acquisition whereof forms an earlier episode in the story) —"the enemy is coming!" [5] The women all ran away; but, seeing the Tar-Baby still there, the Rabbit called out "Va-t-en, femme!" The sequel is exactly as in the version already given (except that Brer Rabbit did not sit down on the "mannequin") , so that "il resta suspendu, se balançant de-ci, de-là." ”