Tale
Barbados Folklore
Elsie Clews Parsons · 1925
Synopsis
About fifteen tales collected in Barbados, transcribed in the speech of the island, followed by more than a hundred riddles. Ber Nancy, the spider Anansi, teaches Ber Rabbit what misfortune is by exposing him to the Tiger; Rabbit rides the Monkey like a horse by pretending to be ill, begs not to be thrown into the bushes, and there is also a magic flight and two versions of the valiant little tailor. Each tale bears the name, age and village of the person who told it.
Context
The text appeared in 1925 in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, on pages 267 to 292 of the April-June issue, alongside articles on St Helena and Bermuda; it remained separate from the large body of work that Parsons devoted afterwards to the French and English West Indies, published from 1933 to 1943. Among the storytellers are Samuel Carrington, of Bathsheba, seventy years old, who had his tales from his father, Louise Lavinia Barrow, of the same village, and sailors from Bridgetown. The notes refer to similar versions from other islands.
Who it is for
Short tales transcribed phonetically, to be read aloud in order to understand them, and riddles.
Prizes and reception
The storyteller Csenge Virág Zalka, lacking a book of Barbadian tales, still relies on this article in her survey of the world's tales.
Sources for this page 6
The pages consulted to check this page.