my fader hitch up de fas'es' horse he got in his stable." An' so dey did, go de twenty mile, get back dat night. When John get back to de do' dat night, de weddin' was goin' on. Dese big man couldn' kill de beas', but dey could have de weddin'. John get mad 'bout dat. John didn' go into de house. John sent his dawg into de house clear 'way de house fo' him. John dawg take all dem big man an' t'row dem outdoor. . . .
The West Indian tales I will give or summarize in the order of, so to speak, their integrity. Least disintegrated and closest to the European version is one of the two Antigua variants, set in a variant of the "Two Brothers," called "Black Jack and White Jack."
"Black Jack heard of a king dat had a daughter. An' every year a lion come dere to destroy dat girl. Any man who could kill dat lion could have the girl to be his wife. So Black Jack made his way to the king palace. . . . The next day the king send his daughter in a coach out to the woods where dis lion was. . . . An' Black Jack was in ambush. When the lion come out after the girl, Black Jack said to his beast, ' Hold on me lion, me unicorn an' me bear.' An' his free beast tear up dis lion. . . . Black Jack told the girl not to tell the fader it was he dat killed the lion. So whiles dey was goin' back, the coachman tell the girl to say to the fader it was he dat kill the lion. He threaten to kill her if she do not. So the girl tell the fader it was the coachman dat killed the lion. So the king agreed to have the girl marry to dis coachman. On da next day Black Jack was passin' by the palace. The girl was looking out of the veranda. She saw Black Jack, an' den she say, ' Ah Papa, Papa, dat was the man who saved me from the lion.' An' the king called him in. An' dey hang the coachman for tellin' a lie. Two days after Black Jack marry to dis girl."[1]
- ↑ Johnson, J. H., "Folk-Lore from Antigua," to be published in the next number of the American Folk Lore Journal.
