Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/114

104 that the cow has sunk into the ground. They both pull at the tail, and when it comes out Brer Rabbit winks his eye and says, "Dar! de tail done pull out en de cow gone."

No. XXXIII, Why the Negro is Black, is practically the same as the Gold Coast tale. Why Some People are Black and Some White. In the Uncle Remus variant there is a pool of water in which those who wash become white; but the water is soon used up, and the last comers only find enough to whiten the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet. In the Gold Coast tale the change of color is brought about by means of the blood of a handsome boy, who has committed suicide by casting himself down from a tree.

No. VI, Mr. Rabbit Grossly deceives Mr. Fox, which describes how Brer Rabbit, by a trick, rides Brer Fox to Miss Meadows's house, is like the Slave Coast tale. How the Tortoise rode the Elephant to Town, and the stratagem by which the Tortoise escapes being killed by the Elephant is similar to that employed by Brer Rabbit when Brer Fox is about to kill him (No. IV, How Mr. Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox), and also by the Terrapin when in the same dilemma (No. XII, Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarrypin ). In the first case Brer Rabbit says, "I don't keer w'at you do wid me. Brer Fox, so you don't fling me in dat brier patch," and in the second the Terrapin begs Brer Fox not to drown him, but to burn him. In the Slave Coast tale, the Tortoise begs the Elephant to dash him down upon the stones, but not to throw him into the swamp, as the water and mire would drown him.

In No. XVII—Mr. Rabbit Nibbles up the Butter—where Brer Rabbit rubs the butter upon the mouth of the sleeping Opossum, and causes him to be thought guilty of the offense, we find a more delicate version of an incident in the Gold Coast tale—How the Cat got the Better of Spider—but as this paper has already reached sufficient length, this and the other stories above mentioned can not be given in detail.

points out as a field where thorough geographical explorations may be made with profit and additions to knowledge, the regions of the North Pacific uniting North America by stepping stones with Asia: the Aleutian Islands and peninsula, Bering Sea and Strait, and the peninsula of Kamchatka. "Where two continents approach one another so closely and give evidence of having been united at seemingly no very ancient date; where a connecting land-bridge could not but most effectually influence the distribution of life human, animal, and vegetable upon two hemispheres; there, manifestly, the harvest of exploration must be great, for bound in with the research are problems of deep significance, touching alike the sciences of physical geography, ethnology, geology, and botany."