Page:Amazonian Tortoise Myths.djvu/21

 — 13 — Coutah at de first mile post, wha de wos to start from. So he call: 'Well, Br. Coutah, Is you ready? Go long!' As he git on to de next mile post, he say: 'Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah say 'Hullo!' Br. Deer say: 'You dere?' Br. Coutah say: 'Yes, Br. Coutah, I dere too.'

"Next mile post he jump, Br. Deer say: 'Hulloo, Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah say: 'Hulloo, Br. Deer you dere too?' Br. Deer say: 'Ki! It look you gwine for tie me; it look like we gwine for de gal tie!'

"When he gits to de nine mile post he tought he git dere first, 'cause he mek two jump; so he holler: 'Br. Coutah!' Br. Coutah answer: 'You dere too?' Br. Deer say: It look like you gwine tie me.' Br. Coutah say: 'Go 'long, Brudder, I git dere in due season time,' which he does, the deer being beaten in the race."

Grimm gives a similar story of a race between a hare and a hedgehog. The latter places his wife at the end of a furrow in a plowed field, while he himself takes up his position at the other end. The hare, mistaking one for the other, acknowledges himself beaten. In Northamptonshire the fox is substituted for the hare, but, in other details, the myth is identical with the German.

Sometimes, in Old World mythology, it is a hare