fox who pretended to be dead) identical with an Amazonian story,
and strongly resembling one found by you among the negroes.
Vambagen, the Brazilian historian (now Visconde de Rio Branco),
tried to prove a relationship between the ancient Egyptians, or
other Turanian stock, and the Tupi Indians. His theory rested on
rather a slender basis, yet it must be confessed that he had one
or two strong points. Do the resemblances between old and New
World stories point to a similar conclusion? It would be hard to
say with the material that we now have.
"One thing is certain. The animal stories told by the negroes in
our Southern States and in Brazil were brought by them from
Africa. Whether they originated there, or with the Arabs, or
Egyptians, or with yet more ancient nations, must still be an
open question. Whether the Indians got them from the negroes or
from some earlier source is equally uncertain. We have seen
enough to know that a very interesting line of investigation has
been opened."
Professor Hartt, in his Amazonian Tortoise Myths, quotes a story
from the Riverside Magazine of November, 1868, which will be
recognized as a variant of one given by Uncle Remus. I venture to
append it here, with some necessary verbal and phonetic
alterations, in order to give the reader an idea of the
difference between the dialect of the cotton plantations, as used
by Uncle Remus, and the lingo in vogue on the rice plantations
and Sea Islands of the South Atlantic States:
"One time B'er Deer an' B'er Cooter (Terrapin) was courtin', and
de lady did bin lub B'er Deer mo' so dan B'er Cooter. She did bin
lub B'er Cooter, but she lub B'er Deer de morest. So de young
lady say to B'er Deer and B'er Cooter bofe dat dey mus' hab a
ten-mile race, an de one dat beats, she will go marry him.
"So B'er Cooter say to B'er Deer: 'You has got mo longer legs dan
I has, but I will run you. You run ten mile on land, and I will
run ten mile on de water!'
"So B'er Cooter went an' git nine er his fam'ly, an' put one at
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