JAMAICA 233 



O is for Oliphant ;' him have a big mouf. 



P is for Potto ; 2 when night conic he go out. 



Q is for Quattie ; :i I beg you one, massa, please. 



K is for Katta; him tiptoe 'pon cheese. 



S is for Snake ; him crawl in de grass. 



T is for Toad, so farr'ard an' fast. 



U is for Uncle. Boy, you tell him howdee ! 



V is for Ver vine ; 4 make very good tea. 



W, X, Y. Hi ! I really forget. 



Z is for Zebedee, mending his net. 



The men, if you can gain their confidence, will tell you 

 queer stories of the donkey who would go hunting like the 

 tiger, and how his courage failed ; or other tales of African 

 folk-lore in which the rabbit, lion, tiger, and elephant, or 

 other animals which they know only through inherited 

 tradition, are always introduced. These are allied to the 

 Uncle Remus stories which Joel Chandler Harris has made 

 familiar to American readers, and which are told wherever 

 the African race is distributed. 



The Jamaican negroes are also much given to proverbs, 

 and they have one ready for every occasion. These prov- 

 erbs are essentially the same as those told by all West 

 Indian negroes, and no doubt represent in modified form 

 the lore of their ancestral country. Some of them are 

 pointed and amusing. 



Three groups of islands are attached to Jamaica for 

 administrative purposes, although not related to it in 

 natural affinities. The largest of these are the Turks ami 

 Caicos Islands of the Bahama group, situated nearly five 

 hundred miles to the northeast. Why they are politically 

 controlled by Jamaica, and not by the Bahamas govern- 

 ment, which surrounds them on all sides, is one of those 

 inexplicable problems of the British colonial system which 

 we cannot explain. They will be discussed witli the 

 Bahama gronp, to which they naturally belong. 



' Elephant (this word is from the old Scotch Bottlers). 

 ' >wl. 3 A fourth of a farthing. 4 A plant. 



