PLANTATION FOLK-LORE. 827 



Some of the stories contain incidents which are common to Euro- 

 pean popular tales, as in No. XX, " How Mr. Rabbit saved his Meat." 

 Brer Wolf suspected Brer Rabbit of stealing some of his fish, and 

 killed Brer Rabbit's best cow. The latter frightened the Wolf away 

 by telling him that the " patter-rollers " (patrol, policemen) were 

 coming, and proceeded to skin the cow and salt down the hide and 

 stow away the carcass in the smoke-house. The end of the cow's tail 

 he stuck in the ground, and called Brer Wolf. " Run yer. Brer Wolf, 

 run yer ! Yo' cow gwine in de groun' ! " When Brer Wolf arrived, 

 he found Brer Rabbit holding the tail with all his might to keep the 

 cow from going into the ground. Brer Wolf caught hold, and off 

 came the tail. The Wolf was not going to give the matter up so, and 

 got a spade, a pick-axe, and a shovel, and began to dig for his cow, 

 while Brer Rabbit sat on his front-porch smoking his cigar and watch- 

 ing him. This episode is found in a Basque story (Webster's "Basque 

 Legends," p. 10) and in an Italian tale (" Jahrbuch f iir roman. und 

 eng. Lit.," VIII, 252), and in many others that we have not space to 

 mention. 



No. XIII, " The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf," relates how the Wolf 

 persecuted Brer Rabbit, and carried off some of his family. To pro- 

 tect those left, " Brer Rabbit b'ilt 'im a straw house, en hit wuz tored 

 down ; den he made a house outen pine-tops, en dat went de same 

 way ; den he made 'im a bark house, en dat wuz i-aided on ; en eve'y 

 time he los' a house, he los' wunner his chilluns." Finally, he built a 

 plank house with rock foundations, and then could live in peace. One 

 day the Wolf, pursued by dogs, took refuge in Brer Rabbit's house, 

 and begged him to hide him from the dogs. The Rabbit told him to 

 get into a chest, and, the Wolf once secure, the Rabbit bored holes in 

 the top of the chest, and poured boiling water in and scalded the Wolf 

 to death. A similar story, except that seven Pigs and a Fox take the 

 place of the Rabbits and Wolf, is told by Mr. Owens (" Lippincott," 

 December, 1877, page 753), who cites as a parallel the Anglo-Saxon 

 story of " The Three Blue Pigs." Another parallel may be found in 

 a Venetian story (Bernoni, " Tradizioni Popolari Veneziane," p. G9, 

 "ElGalo"). 



. One of the incidents in No. XX, "A Story about the Little Rab- 

 bits," is also familiar, and seems like a curious metamorphosis of a 

 well-known trait of fairy tales. The Fox goes to Brer Rabbit's house, 

 and the sight of the fat little Rabbits makes his mouth water, and he 

 endeavors to invent some excuse for killing them. He finally sets 

 them difficult tasks to do, intending to devour them if they fail ; but 

 a little Bird on top of the house sings the solution of all the difficul- 

 ties, which are : to break off a piece of sugar-cane ; to bring water in 

 a sieve ; and to put a big log on the fire. The second task is the one 

 found in European folk-lore, an example occurring in another Vene- 

 tian story (Bastanielo, Bernoni, " Fiabe," No. 6). 



