Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/208

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Provenience of Certain Negro Folk-Tales.

should make his daughter speak or laugh, to him he would give half of his kingdom.

Meanwhile the boy had gone off to war, to make war on seven nations. In each country he lost a horse, except in the seventh where he had a horse that could run twenty miles without a drop of sweat. On his way back to the country of the princess he met a shepherd, from whom he bought a goatskin to make a drum. Arrived in the city, he beat his drum to proclaim that he had returned victorious from the wars. The princess, who for over a year had not stirred, had only slept and eaten, as soon as she heard the drum, began to move about as if she were crazy. As the boy approached, she moved faster and faster. When the drum stopped, she stopped. The king noticed the effect on her of the drum, and he sent his soldiers to bring the drummer to his house. When he arrived, she went and embraced him, saying that was her husband, the man who had saved her from the robbers. To convince the king, he showed him the tongue tips; and the king and his soldiers went and fitted them into the mouths of the robbers. The boy married the princess, and enjoyed half of the kingdom. Joa Porcero the king sent back to his pigsty. The pigs began to bite him. Their teeth had grown long, and they bit, and bit, and bit him into pieces.


The only other African version which I know comes from Quilimane, Portuguese East Africa. It is narrated as part of the tale of the Two Brothers of which the latter portion has dropped out. The elder brother Rombao encounters a whale which he kills, cutting out its tongue. The chief, who has given up his daughter to buy water from the whale, sends a captain and soldiers to see whether or not the girl has been killed. The captain brings the girl back and claims that he has killed the whale. On the day the captain is to marry the girl, Rombao sends his younger brother to the wedding. "The marriage feast is