Week 6 Project: Research

For the Week 6 Project, I don't think I need to do any actual revising at the Introduction; it turned out really nicely I think, and I'll wait to make adjustments based on the feedback I start getting.

So, the way I'll use my Storybook hour this week is to do background research on the first story I want to tell, which is Chase 69: Brother Rabbit Submits to a Test. This story is an enormously important African tale type, and as such it is a great example of the failure of tale type indexing that it has no tale type number. There are motifs, yes, but because the tale-type indexing project is Eurocentric, there is no tale type for this incredibly important story, widespread in Africa and in the Americas too. So frustrating! In Baer's commentary she lists the motifs, but there is no tale type, and as such it does not show up in Klipple. Fortunately for me, though, this is one of the stories that Bascom worked on. In fact, it is the second-longest article that he wrote on the types, second only to the story of the boy in the tree and his dogs. I've typed up my notes below.

First, quick summary of Brer Rabbit and the Witch-Rabbit: Brer Rabbit feels like he is losing his mental powers, so he goes to Mammy-Bammy Big-Money for help. She tells him to bring her a squirrel, and he tricks the squirrel into a bag [instead of the usual birds or insects]. Next, she wants a snake, and Rabbit tricks the snake into showing its length so he can measure it, which allows him to trap it. When he comes back, Mammy-Bammy Big-Money has vanished but he hears her say, "If you get any more sense, you'll be the ruination of the whole settlement." So Rabbit takes the snake home, stews the meat and uses the grease to ease his aching joints.

PLUS there is the one about Rabbit and a witch-doctor: Brother Rabbit's Love-Charm. That one is Chase 68, and I'm guessing I can use this to develop the witch-rabbit, borrowing from what happens here with the "Africky mans" from whom Rabbit seeks the love charm: he needs an elephant tusk, a gator tooth, and a rice-bird beak. This quest succeeds: Rabbit completes the tasks and gets the charms. 

So, I can definitely combine those two... and I can perhaps also pull in elements from different legends. Lots of information below from Bascom:

African Folktales in the New World by William Bascom, Chapter 3: 3. Trickster Seeks Endowments: Measuring the Snake, Challenging Birds (Insects) to Fill a Container, Milking a Cow (Deer) Stuck in a Tree.

Bascom has collected 78 versions of the story from African, African American, and Native American sources, with some additional versions listed in a footnote added later to the article.

He acknowledges that his name for the folktale type "Trickster Seeks Endowments" comes from the use of the title "Rabbit Seeks Endowments" in Elsie Clews Parsons.

He divides the tale up into three phases: the quest where the trickster seeks wisdom, cunning power, or a wife, or some physical feature, etc. from God or some other supernatural being; the tasks, which regularly include capturing a snake (or getting its teeth), capturing a wild animal (or getting its teeth), filling a gourd or sack with birds or insects, and sometimes getting milk (or tears) from an unwilling animal; and the conclusion, where the trickster is told that he has enough wisdom already, or where the trickster is somehow tricked or killed.

Bascom notes that Gerber had already identified this as an African tale type, and Dundes focuses on this particular tale as an example of why the African origin hypothesis is tenable, while the Native American origin hypothesis is not. Harris himself cited this story as an example of an African tale which had been taken up Creek storytellers.

In pages 44-67, Bascom summarizes the 78 versions he found, and the footnotes on page 70 add some more. Not all of these are in the public domain, but I'll make a list below of the ones that are in the public domain, and in English, with links to their online versions.

Bascom also includes Rabbit and Sis Cow where he milks her by getting her stuck in the tree. I don't think I want to work with that one, but it's cool to see how that motif can exist as a story of its own: Miss Cow Falls a Victim to Mr. Rabbit.

So, here are the English-language stories that are listed by Bascom and which are in the public domain, available online.

Barker and Cecilia. Ghana. How We Got the Name 'Spider Tales'
Bundy. Liberia. Nyamo Seeks Wisdom
Cronise. Sierra Leone. Spider Wins a Wife
Thomas. Sierra Leone. Marriage of Pa Spider
Thomas. Sierra Leone. Spider Wishes to Marry
Tremearne. Hausa. How the Woman Taught the Spider Cunning

Christensen. Sea Islands. Rabbit Desires a Long Tail
Jones. Georgia (Gullah). Rabbit and the Conjure Man
Jones. Georgia (Gullah). Rabbit and the King's Daughter
Parsons. Elizabeth City. Rabbit Seeks Meat
Parsons. Sea Islands. Rabbit Seeks Endowments (7 versions)
Sale. Mississippi. Rabbit Wants More Sense
Work. Georgia. Rabbit Seeks a Tail plus variant

Edwards. Bahama. Jack and the Snake
Parsons. Antilles. Rabbit Seeks Endowments, summaries A-T (not all in English)

Kunst. Chuh  (Guatemala). How Rabbit Argued with Lion.
Swanton. Chitimacha (Louisiana). The Labors of Rabbit
Swanton. Hitchici (Oklahoma). The Tasks of Rabbit
Swanton. Creek (Georgia). The Tasks of Rabbit - version 2 - version 3
Swanton. Natchez (Oklahoma). incident in Corn Woman's Son