The Provenience of certain Negro Folk- Tales. 41 1
ten and if I aint got all you get your ten." And he said,
- ' If I got any in here mark ten you pay me." And when
he look he find the ten dollars and Jack said, " If you don't pay I will report you." And man get scared and pay Jack one hundred poun.' And Jack carry it home. And his father told the king he got a boy will tief his life. And next day he buy one pair of gold slippers and send out Jack. One man was passing with a cart full of money. Jack put one the slipper in the road and hid. The man said, "What a pretty slipper!" He pass it an' Jack come out the bush and pick it up and run another road an' put it in the road and hide. The man said, " What a pretty slipper ! " He jump down and he said he goin' back for the other one. When he was out of sight Jack run and take all the things and carried it home to his father.
It happened that the foregoing variant reached me when I was engaged in collecting tales which had already thrown light on my Bahama collection at large, tales from the Cape Verde Islands. It happened too that I had just heard the following Cape Verde Islands tale of
The Master Thief. ^
Jose goes to a school of thieves. Within thirty days he knows more than the master. One day the master sends one of the best boys out to steal, for they had nothing to eat. The boy returned without anything. Jose said, " You better send me." " No, you don't know enough," said the master. They saw a man coming on the road with an ox on a rope. " I'm going to take that ox away from that man," said Jose. " If you are able to take that ox away from that man," said the master, " you'll
^ I omit the introduction. I omit, too, the continuation which consists of variations upon the pattern. I may say that the pattern in general of being robbed of property you leave to go and look for other things is well established in both the Cape Verde Islands and the Bahamas.
