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How and Why Stories, John Casper Branner, President Emeritus 

 of Stanford University, 104 pp., illustrated, Henry Holt & Co. 



If you wish to forget all your troubles and worries and spend 

 a perfectly happy hour, read this little volimie. Dr. Branner 

 explains how he came to know these stories: *'I was bom in 

 the South 'befo'de wah, and as my parents were slave holders,! 

 grew up among the negroes. To me they seemed vastly more 

 interesting and human than white folks. During my early 

 childhood negro women were my nurses and keepers all day 

 long and it required a lot of parental authority and something 

 else I decline to name, to keep me away from their cabins at night." 

 "I am often asked if they are African folk-lore stories brought 

 to this country by the slaves: They are too clearly under the 

 influence of biblical history to have had such an origin." 



The stories deal with the creation of the world and especially 

 the characteristics of the common animals and birds: Why the 

 Snake has no Feet; Why the Owl Stays up Nights; Why the 

 Catfish has no Scales; Why the Pig Grunts; Why the the Craw- 

 fish goes Backwards; Why the Snail is so Slow; Why the Polecat 

 Smells so; Why the Crane is so Long; Why the Wild Geese Fly 

 that Way; How the Turtle came by a Shell; How the Tadpole 

 Lost his Tail; Some of the stories are cosmic as: How the Stars 

 Were Made. Whatever the subject of the story, it always has a 

 very human application; it begins with an admonition and ends 

 with a cogent moral. For instance the story, Why the Birds are of 

 different colors begins "Whateva you rub up against in dis worl' 

 some ofit'sgwine to stick to you, honey. An' what's mo' when folks 

 looks at you deymos' giner'ly knows whai you bin, and who you's bin 

 a'sociatin' wid." Then follows a graphic account of the flood 

 and Noah and the ark and tells how the Lord piled up the clouds 

 and painted a rainbow upon it. "Well, sub, when the Good Lawd 

 got de rainbow all done finished he waved his han'todes de big 

 rainbow, an' he hollered to ole Mr. Noah,"Dah's my promise." 



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