io 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that the cow has sunk into the ground. They both pull at the 

 tail, and when it comes out Brer Rabbit winks his eye and says, 

 " Dar ! de tail done pull out en de cow gone." 



No. XXXIII, Why the Negro is Black, is practically the same 

 as the Gold Coast tale, Why Some People are Black and Some 

 White. In the Uncle Remus variant there is a pool of water in 

 which those who wash become white ; but the water is soon used 

 up, and the last comers only find enough to whiten the palms of 

 their hands and the soles of their feet. In the Gold Coast tale 

 the change of color is brought about by means of the blood , of a 

 handsome boy, who has committed suicide by casting himself 

 down from a tree. 



No. VI, Mr. Rabbit Grossly deceives Mr. Fox, which describes 

 how Brer Rabbit, by a trick, rides Brer Fox to Miss Meadows's 

 house, is like the Slave Coast tale, How the Tortoise rode the 

 Elephant to Town, and the stratagem by which the Tortoise es- 

 capes being killed by the Elephant is similar to that employed by 

 Brer Rabbit when Brer Fox is about to kill him (No. IV, How Mr. 

 Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox), and also by the Terrapin when 

 in the same dilemma (No. XII, Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarry- 

 pin). In the first case Brer Rabbit says, " I don't keer w'at you 

 do wid me, Brer Fox, so you don't fling me in dat brier patch," 

 and in the second the Terrapin begs Brer Fox not to drown him, 

 but to burn him. In the Slave Coast tale, the Tortoise begs the 

 Elephant to dash him down upon the stones, but not to throw him 

 into the swamp, as the water and mire would drown him. 



In No. XVII Mr. Rabbit Nibbles up the Butter where Brer 

 Rabbit rubs the butter upon the mouth of the sleeping Opossum, 

 and causes him to be thought guilty of the offense, we find a more 

 delicate version of an incident in the Gold Coast tale How the 

 Cat got the Better of Spider but as this paper has already 

 reached sufficient length, this and the other stories above men- 

 tioned can not be given in detail. 



PROF. ANGELO HEILPRIN points out as a field where thorough geo- 

 graphical explorations may be made with profit and additions to knowl- 

 edge, the regions of the North Pacific uniting North America by stepping 

 stones with Asia : the Aleutian Islands and peninsula, Bering Sea and 

 Strait, and the peninsula of Kamchatka. " Where two continents approach 

 one another so closely and give evidence of having been united at seem- 

 ingly no very ancient date ; where a connecting land-bridge could not but 

 most effectually influence the distribution of life human, animal, and 

 vegetable upon two hemispheres; there, manifestly, the harvest of explo- 

 ration must be great, for bound in with the research are problems of deep 

 significance, touching alike the sciences of physical geography, ethnology, 

 geology, and botany." 



