Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/106

96 the farmer was sitting, lie cried: "Oh! oh! daddy farmer, I have no money for thee. I will pay thee on the roof top." And he jumped at once into the rafters, where he said, "I shall not come down again."

Since then Spider has not come down from the roof, for he owes the farmer too much, and the farmer is still looking for him.

The eighteenth of Mr. Harris's tales, entitled Mr. Rabbit finds his Match at Last, describes how Brer Rabbit runs a race with the Terrapin, which the Terrapin wins by distributing his wife and children at the different mileposts along the track, and by concealing himself near the winning post, up to which he crawls when Brer Rabbit draws near. In the introduction Mr. Harris mentions a similar tale from the South Atlantic States, where the Terrapin, by the same stratagem, wins a race that he runs against the Deer. In this instance, however, the race is for a bride, who is to marry the winner, and so the tale probably has reference to the once widely distributed marriage custom known as "bride racing." The Gold Coast tale, equally with that of Uncle Remus, has no reference to marriage. It is as follows:

One day the Frog challenged the Leopard to run a race with him from Axim to Accra, and the Leopard answered: "This is foolishness. A little slow-moving creature such as thou art could not race with me"; but the Frog said, "Yes, I will, and we will then see who is a man"; so the Leopard agreed, and they fixed a day for the race.

Then the Frog went to Axim, and he placed frogs all along the road from Axim to Accra. He hid them in the bush, putting here five and there ten; and when the time came, the Leopard came and called the Frog to go and race.

When they started, they started together, and the Leopard at once made one leap and came to Shamah, and when he alighted on the ground he called "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." The Leopard said: "What! such a little creature as that can beat me in a race? No, it is not possible. I will go on again"; and he skipped from Shamah to Kommenda, and when he alighted he called again, "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." Then the Leopard was ready to scream with vexation, he did not know what to do, and it was bitter to think that such a slow creature as a frog could leap as far as he.

The Leopard made another leap, and he leaped from Kommenda to Amkwana, and as he alighted he called "Frog," and a frog answered "Yaow." The Leopard said, "What! art thou here again?" and he was angry, and he made a bound from Amkwana