between the tar barrel set for the thief and the tar figure similarly set.[1]
Joseph Jacobs found, he thought, the pattern of Tar Baby in the Jataka, "The Demon with the Matted Hair."[2] In this tale the essential part of Tar Baby, the incident of hitting and sticking, appears, but it does not appear as a thief-catching episode. Such an episode it is, however, in a Santal tale[3] which is very close to the familiar African or American versions. It may well be that the pattern of Tar Baby is Indian and that already in India it was a detachable pattern.[4] That it may have travelled from India to Europe attached to the Master Thief cycle is all I would suggest. That it reached Africa not only by way of Portugal, but more directly from Asia[5] is likewise a tenable hypothesis, in fact, a very likely hypothesis.
7 East 76, New York City, U.S.A.
A Tongan Theogony.
In the far-off ages before Tonga was, the sea's surface was diversified only by masses of floating weed and mud, which at last came together and drifted away to the isle of Total in Bulotu. Thereafter, however, the mud and the weed again drifted apart, and between sprang up an iron-streaked rock whose name was Touia-a-Futuna. But one day the rock was seized with violent trembling and strange rumblings were
- ↑ In one of the versions of the Cape Verde Islands Tar Baby tale proper, Tubinh starts to set fire to the image or figura de breu. Lob begs Tubinh not to set fire to him. "If you burn him, you'll kill your uncle too." "I can't help it, my Uncle," says Tubinh, "I can't get you two apart, I've got to burn you both."
- ↑ Indian Fairy Tales, p. 9, London, 1892.
- ↑ Bompas, C. H., Folk-Lore of the Santal Parganas, cxii. London, 1909.
- ↑ Among the Kabyles a full variant of the Rhampsinitus-Master Thief tale has been recorded (Rivière, J., Recueil de Coutes Populaires de la Kabylie du Djuidjura, pp. 13-19, Paris, 1883).
- ↑ Dähnhardt, O., Natursagen, iv. 27, 30, Berlin, 1912.
