Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/333

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The Tar-Baby Story.
293

like result, and at last some one says: "We will throw him into the deep water!" Then the turtle cried out lamentably: "Alas! I must die! What shall I do?" And they took him to the river and threw him in. He swam away merrily, singing in triumph:

"In the water is my home!
In the water is my home!"

"Ole man Tarrypin wuz at home, I tell you, honey!"

I was about to add that there is also a Yao version of the Tar-Baby. There probably is, but I am not acquainted with it. It is true that the little book in which the Domasi school-children learn to read contains, along with some (I believe) genuine native tales, one called "Ndano ja Juampache Malilolilo," whereof one word at least will be recognised by listeners devoted enough to have followed this paper attentively. But it is only—so, if my memory serves, I was informed by the compiler of the book—a version of Uncle Remus's Wonderful Tar-Baby, as indeed the words, "If you refuse to take off your hat," sufficiently indicate. But it reads naturally enough, and after all, we may suppose, has only been restored, a little touched up perhaps, to its original home.