832 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that jar." So he ran ahead of the man and lay down in the path. 

 The man thought it was a dead Cotia, and shoved it aside with his 

 foot and went on. This the Cotia repeated four times, and at last the 

 man said : " Here's another dead Cotia ! Now, I will go back and get 

 the others, and carry all four home." lie put down the jar and went 

 to look for the other Cotias. Then the Cotia jumped up and thrust 

 his head into the jar, which contained molasses instead of water. In 

 " Uncle Remus," p. 70, the Rabbit, by a similar stratagem, steals Brer 

 Fox's game. Mr. Smith, p. 558, note, mentions a parallel to this 

 story from Egypt (Khunzinger, " Upper Egypt, its People and its 

 Products," p. 401). I do not recall any parallel in which animals are 

 the actors ; but a similar trick is found in many versions of the story 

 of " The Master Thief," for instance, in Asbjornsen and Moe's " Norske 

 Folke-Eventyr," No. 34, " Mestertyven." 



We are prepared now to consider briefly the origin of these stories, 

 which are substantiallv the same in Brazil and in the Southern States. 

 That the negroes of the United States obtained these stories from the 

 South American Indians is an hypothesis no one would think of main- 

 taining ; but that the Indians heard these stories from the African 

 slaves in Brazil, and that the latter, as well as those who were formerly 

 slaves in the United States, brought tliese stories with them from 

 Africa is, we think, beyond a doubt, the explanation of the resem- 

 blances we have noted. Owing to a scarcity of materials, we have not 

 been able to show very clearly the African origin of these stoi'ies, but 

 what we have cited makes it at least probable. Whether the African 

 stories of "Reynard the Fox " are original with the Hottentots, or have 

 been communicated to them by the Dutch, is a point we can not de- 

 cide, in the absence of more ample material for comparison. 



The most interesting point in the present investigation, and one 

 that connects it with the recent discussions on the subject of folk-lore, 

 is that, if our explanation be true, it shows that popular tales are more 

 readily diffused than has heretofore been supposed. Professor Hartt 

 ("Amazonian Tortoise Myths," p. 5) says : "The question has arisen, 

 whether many of the stories I have given, that bear so close a resem- 

 blance to Old World fables, may not have been introduced by the 

 negroes ? But I see no reason for entertaining this suspicion, for they 

 are too widely spread, their form is too thoroughly Brazilian, they are 

 most numerous in just those regions where negroes are not and have 

 not been abundant, and, moreover, they occur, not in Portuguese 

 but in the lingua geraV The first objection would simply show the 

 extent of the diffusion, the second what would naturally take place on 

 the introduction of stories from a country with a different fauna, and 

 the final objections were overthrown, we believe, by Professor Hartt's 

 hearing these same stories from the negroes in Rio. He gave up the 

 hypothesis of an Indian origin, and did not continue his collection. 

 Mr. Smith (p. 548) makes about the same objections, which are invali- 



