Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/76

Of Animal Tales there are few; and all (in his opinion) borrowed, except one, The Little Hare (p. 3, cf. 26), which records the exploits of this animal in tricking others stronger than himself. We are reminded of Brer Rabbit; but here the hare tricks the rabbit himself amongst others. Nos. 2 and 3 contain a Cunning Jackal; the editor believes these to be Hottentot or Bushman tales. One Masilo is a frequent character in the book; he seems to be a kind of legendary chief. On p. 56 he wants to marry his sister. In the same tale is an old woman who jumps on M's back and stays there, like the Old Man of the Sea (p. 49). M. murders his brother, and the heart flies back to the village and proclaims the crime (52). In Mosélantja (78) we have the incident of the Personated Bride in a new setting: the witch has a tail which uncurls at night and eats all the food it can find. When at length she is killed, a pumpkin grows on the spot; and afterwards, when the true wife has borne a child, the pumpkin drops off its stalk, rolls into the hut, and beats the poor wife soundly. The pumpkin is burnt, and on the spot a thistle grows; this too is burnt, and becomes a pumpkin seed, which bites the child at night. In the end this seed is ground to powder and burnt again, when at length the family has rest. Nyopakatala (99) is the story of a childless woman, and an extraordinary device for obtaining offspring (good tale). In it we see the Life Token (no; cf. 211, 266); Look-behind Taboo (no, cf. 83), werewolves (111), heart escaping when one is killed (112, cf. above), bird transformed back into a girl by pulling off its feathers (120). Modisa-oa-dipodi (136) contains the Despised Youngest Sister, the Invisible Husband (again in Boulané, p. 179), and an episode oddly resembling the visit of Joseph's Brethren to Egypt: a queer medley. Egg (155) is an amusing tale; here we see the Neglected Wife. Polo (168) is the story of a girl who was always dressed in a snake-skin, to keep her from harm; it looks to me like a tale of the Lamia or Swan-maiden type (cf. 170, where she doffs her skin to bathe with her companions, and is seen by a man), much degenerated. The skin is burnt, p. 174. One or two other stock incidents may be mentioned: the country under a lake (201), girl tabooed against seeing the sun, and brought up in darkness (206), the pursuit and its baulking (250), a Magic Pot which makes butter (234), the name-taboo (259). The best story is a very quaint culture-legend, dealing with the origin of marriage, and the