Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/224

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214
The Provenience of

broke wind like a blast, he discovered himself. Then Ti' Ganga killed him.[1]

The central tale in this group of tales is familiar to and very popular among all the Cape Verde islanders. Were they to give it a name it would probably be, Ti' Ganga. One has only to mention Ti' Ganga to prompt the tale. A close variant to it is the following tale from the Bahamas.[2]

Now this day b'o' Rabby came to b'o' Boukee, and said, "Man, you know I could carry you to a house where plenty food." Anyhow, next day they start. When they got there, they said, "Open, ca-banger, open!" The door open. When they got in, "Shut, ca-banger." The door shut. Now they start to steal. Now some tamaring (tamborine?) was there. Now when they had their bag half full, b'o' Rabby gone to the tamaring, took it up an' beat.

Sting bow, sting, you bellee full go long.

He gone now. Bo'o Boukee gone, take up one and start.

Sting bow, sting, you bellee full go long.

He throw that down, he pick another.

Sting bow, sting, you bellee full sit down.

So he start to get again. So when he listen, he heard, "Open, ca-banger, open." The door open, an' b'o' Boukee

  1. For other African variants see Sierra Leone, Cronise, F. M., and Ward, H. W., Cunnie Rabbie, Mr. Spider and the other Beef, pp. 233-4, London and New York, 1903. Yoruba, Eilis, A. B., The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa, pp. 271-4, London, 1894. (This tale appears to be a translation of a tale originally reconled in French. Basset, R., Contes Populaires d' Afrique, pp. 217-20, Paris.) In the Yoruba variant Lizard lakes Tortoise to a rock full of yams. "Rock, open," is the pass-word, and "Rock, shut." The plantation owner, a man, catches Tortoise, who had put yams on his back, yams on his head, yams on his arms, and ynms on his legs.

    There is a Banto tale of opening a rock by magical formula during flight. See, for example, the Herero tale of "The Fleeing Girls and the Rock," in Folk- Lore Journal [South Africa], ii. ]88o, pp. 80-85, which appears in a measure reminiscent of "The Pass- word."

  2. Parsons, Elsie Clews, "The Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas," 5, ii. Memoirs American Folk-Lore Society, xiii. 1918.