the Indian Territory from James Wafford, who said he had repeatedly
heard it in boyhood about Valley river, in the old Nation, from
Cherokee who spoke no English.
The second version, from the Cherokee Advocate, December 18, 1845,
is given, together with the story of "How the Wildcat caught the
Gobbler," with this introduction:
"Indian Fables. Mr William P. Ross: I have recently stumbled on the
following Cherokee fables, and perhaps you may think them worth
inserting in the Advocate for the sake of the curious. I am told
that the Cherokees have a great many fables. If I understand the
following, the intention seems to be to teach cunning and artifice
in war. Æsop." The newspaper paragraph bears the pencil initials of
S[amuel] W[orcester] B[utler].
Other Indian versions are found with the Jicarilla ("Fox and
Rabbit," Myths of the Jicarilla, by Frank Russell, in Journal of
American Folk-Lore, October, 1898) and Sioux (S. D. Hinman, cited in
Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington, I, p. 103,
Washington, 1882). The southern negro variant, "The Wonderful Tar-Baby
Story," is the introductory tale in Harris's Uncle Remus, His Songs
and His Sayings. A close parallel occurs in the West African story of
"Leopard, Monkey, and Hare" (Chatelain, Folktales of Angola).