4 1 2 The Prove7iience of certain Negro Folk- Tales.
prove to me you know all you need know." Jose went out, he took with him a silver shoe. He went ahead of the man with the ox, he threw the shoe in the road, he hid. The man saw the shoe. " Oh, what a pretty shoe," he said. " If it was a pair I'd take them to my daughter. (His daughter was getting married, he was taking the ox for the feast.) But I can't do anything with one shoe." Jose ran on ahead again, he dropped the shoe in the road. " Now there's a pair," said the man. " I'll tie my ox here, I'll go back to find the other shoe. I'll have a pair of pretty shoes for my daughter." Jose cut the rope tying the ox, he took the ox to his master. His master gave him his diploma.^
When the owner of the ox came back and found the ox gone, he thought the ox had chewed up the rope. " The ox has run off," he said, " I'll get my big, fat sheep." Jose covered himself with the hide of the ox and fixed its horns on his head. He went down into a ravine where the man was coming with his sheep. There he lowed like an ox. " That's my ox," said the man. " You think you've escaped, do you } I'm going to tie my sheep and go and catch you." As the man passed through a grove of pulgeira, Jose came around and took the sheep.
The Norse tale of the Master Thief collected by Dasent ^ and the Scotch tale collected by Campbell ^ contain close parallels to this Cape Verde Islands tale. In the Norse tale the youth drops a pretty shoe with a silver buckle in the road. When the man with the ox sees the shoe a
1 In another version when the owner of the ox goes home with only one shoe he tells his wife about the mishap. He was bringing her the shoes. "It was all on your account," he added. " Fool ! " said she.
"^ Poptda)- Tales from the Norse, p. 234-7. New York and Edinburgh. Other European variants have been recorded. See Ktihler, R., in Orient and Occident, ii. (1864), 313; Schiefner, A., in Melanges Asiatiques, Bttli. de VAcadi'mie de St. Paersbourg, vi. (1869-73), 181.
"^Popular Tales of the West Highlands, xvii. d. London, 1S90.
