In the Cape Verde Islands "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" is a true folk- tale—I have called it "The Seven Robbers."[1] Whether the island tale came from Portugal as a folk-tale or as literature I do not know. The evidence as far as it goes is in favour of the second hypothesis. In the Portuguese collections accessible to me I have not found "The Seven Robbers."[2] The literary version of the tale I found known to a Saõ Nicolau Islander in Newport, Rhode Island, and to a Boa Vista friend of his in New Bedford.[3] But whether as a Portuguese or as a Cape Verde Islands folk-tale the following tale is of interest as representing probably the initial variant of a great number of variants of "Ali Baba" in negro folklore.
- ↑ But the tale of "Ali Baba and the Piece of Lead" is given by Braga as a folk-tale (Contos Traducionaes do Povo Portuguez, No. 78, Porto, 1883). See Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 1907, pp. 113-I16, for a Spanish-Tagalog variant of Ali Baba, "The Fifty-one Thieves," and ib. xxiv. 191 1, pp. 424-8, for a new Mexican variant.
- ↑ Both men told me the tale. The Boa Vista man subsequently showed me the text he had procured from Lisbon through his Saõ Nicolau friend. The one seminary of the Islands is located on Saõ Nicolau, and Saõ Nicolau Islanders are accounted the best educated men of the group.
- ↑ One of the two variants recorded by Edwards in the Bahamas (Bahamas Songs and Stories, No. xx. Mem. Amer. Folk-Lore Soc, iii. 1895, appears to me to have a literary source.
