Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/63

Rh as her grandmother; asks him a series of questions somewhat like those just referred to, and beginning, "But what great eyes you have, grandmother!" "The better to see you with, my dear." Indeed, this tendency for inquiry is prominent in most English legends, and I think there is ground at least for the surmise whether Mr. Harris's negro has not unconsciously transplanted into his own legend the characteristics of the legends belonging to the race which he served.

One other factor of moment remains to be noticed, and this, I think, is more important than all, and is due to the change in the national life of the people whose legend it was i. e., from a state of freedom to one of slavery. One example will suffice, I think, to show plainly what I mean. In the first version of the story, which was originally told by a negro born free, the laws of cause and effect are carefully observed throughout. The hunter is attacked by the white cows because he destroys them, and in his death they recognize their safety. Now, in the second version of the story, which Mr. Harris must have obtained from a Georgia negro whose ancestors from whom he had received the legend had been slaves for three or four generations, there is no logical sequence of events, and an apparent ignorance displayed of the same law of cause and effect. Here the panthers merely appear, and attack the little boy, for no assignable reason whatsoever. It might be argued that their desire for food was a sufficient cause, but it is not the custom of panthers to disguise themselves for the purpose of entrapping their prey. According to the unwritten canons of all legends, these disguises may only be assumed on important occasions. This, however, does not affect the significance of the change. In a free tribe, whose members were dependent on their own unaided efforts for support, the laws of cause and effect would naturally be clearly understood, and a legend which disregarded these would be held in contempt: for these people believed their legends to be true. They must, therefore, of course, conform to the laws of their existence, so that they might possess the semblance of truth. When the story comes to be repeated years after in a state of slavery, and by one who heard it from slaves, the laws of cause and effect are disregarded, and very naturally; for why should the negro trouble himself about such matters, when food and clothing were provided for him by his master, and he was looked after in his old age?

Another alteration due to this change may be noted in the difference of the persons of the actors already mentioned. In Africa, it was a national legend, and the hero was accordingly a man; in Georgia, the heroic period of the race had passed away, and the legend had degenerated into a story told to please a child, and in which a child held the prominent part.