Legends of the Old Plantation
XX
XX
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HOW MR. RABBIT SAVED HIS MEAT
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"One time," said Uncle Remus, whetting his knife slowly and thoughtfully on the palm of his hand, and gazing reflectively in the firs -- "one time Brer Wolf --"
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"Why, Uncle Remus!" the little boy broke in, "I thought you said the Rabbit scalded the Wolf to death a long time ago."
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The old man was fairly caught and he knew it; but this made little difference to him. A frown gathered on his usually serene brow as he turned his gaze upon the child -- a frown in which both scorn and indignation were visible. Then, all at once he seemed to regain control of himself. The frown was chased away by a look of Christian resignation.
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"There now! What I tell you?" he exclaimed as if addressing a witness concealed under the bed. "Ain't I done told you so? Bless gracious! if children aren't getting so they know more than old folks, and they'll dispute longer than you and dispute longer than you, excepting their ma call them, which I expect won't be long before she will, and then I'll set here by the chimney-corner and get some peace of mind. When Old Miss was living," continued the old man, still addressing some imaginary person, "it was more than any of her children would dare to do to come disputing longer than me, and Master John'll tell you the same any day as you ask him"
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"Well, Uncle Remus, you know you said the Rabbit poured hot water on the Wolf and killed him," said the little boy.
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The old man pretended not to hear. He was engaged in searching among some scraps of leather under his chair, and kept on talking to the imaginary person. Finally, he found and drew forth a nicely plaited whip-thong with a red snapper all waxed and knotted. FN 1
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"I was fixing up a whip for a little chap," he continued, with a sigh, "but, bless gracious! before I can get her done, the little chap done grown up until he know more than I do."
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The child's eyes filled with tears and his lips began to quiver, but he said nothing; where upon Uncle Remus immediately melted.
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"I declare to goodness," he said, reaching out and taking the little boy tenderly by the hand, "if you ain't the very spitting image of Old Miss when I brought her the last news of the war. It's just like scaring up a ghost that you ain't afraid of."
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Then, there was a pause, the old man patting the little child's hand caressingly.
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"You ain't mad, is you, honey?" Uncle Remus asked finally, "because if you is, I'm going out of here and butt my head against the door jamb."
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But the little boy wasn't mad. Uncle Remus had conquered him and he had conquered Uncle Remus in pretty much the same way before. But it was some time before Uncle Remus would go on with the story. He had to be coaxed. At last, however, he settled himself back in the chair and began:
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"Of course, honey, it might have been old Brer Wolf, or it might have been before he got caught up with, or it might have been afterwards. As the tale was given to me, just that way I give it to you. One time Brer Wolf was coming along home from a fishing frolic. He sauntered along the road, he did, with his string of fish across his shoulder, when first news you know old Miss Partridge, she hop out of the bushes and flutter along right at Brer Wolf's nose. Brer Wolf he say to himself that old Miss Partridge trying for to lure FN 2 him away from her nest, and with that he lay his fish down and put out into the bushes where old Miss Partridge came from, and about that time Brer Rabbit, he happen along. There was the fishes, and there was Brer Rabbit, and when that is the case, what do you expect a sort of independent man like Brer Rabbit going to do? I can tell you this, that them fishes ain't stay where Brer Wolf put them, and when Brer Wolf come back, they was gone.
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"Brer Wolf, he sat down and scratched his head, he did, and study and study, and then it sort of rushed into his mind that Brer Rabbit been along there, and then Brer Wolf he put out for Brer Rabbit house, and when he got there, he hailed him. Brer Rabbit, he don't know nothing about no fishes. Brer Wolf he up and say he was obliged to FN 3 believe Brer Rabbit got them fishes. Brer Rabbit deny it up and down, but Brer Wolf stand to it that Brer Rabbit got them fishes, then he give Brer Wolf leave for to kill the best cow he got. Brer Wolf, he took Brer Rabbit at his word, and go off to the pasture and drive up the cattle and kill Brer Rabbit's best cow.
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"Brer Rabbit, he hate mighty bad for to lose his cow, but he lay his plans, and he tell his children that he going to have that beef yet. Brer Wolf, he was taken up by the patrollers FN 4 before now, and he was mighty scared of them, and first news you know, here comes Brer Rabbit hollering and telling Brer Wolf that the patrollers coming.
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" 'You run and hide, Brer Wolf," says Brer Rabbit, says he, and I'll stay here and take care of the cow until you get back,' says he.
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"Soon as Brer Wolf hear talk of the patrollers, he scramble off into the underbrush like he been shot out of a gun. And he wasn't more than gone before Brer Rabbit, he whirl in and skinned the cow and salt the hide down, and then he took and cut up the carcass and stow it away in the smoke-house, and then he took and stick the end of the cow-tail in the ground. After he gone and done all this, Brer Rabbit he squall out for Brer Wolf.
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" 'Run here, Brer Wolf! Run here! Your cow gone in the ground! Run here!'
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"When old Brer Wolf got there, which he come a-scooting, there was Brer Rabbit holding on to the cow-tail, for to keep it from going in the ground. Brer Wolf, he caught hold, and they begin a pull or two and up comes the tail. Then Brer Rabbit, he wink his off eye FN 5 and say, says he:
"When old Brer Wolf got there, which he come a-scooting, there was Brer Rabbit holding on to the cow-tail, for to keep it from going in the ground. Brer Wolf, he caught hold, and they begin a pull or two and up comes the tail. Then Brer Rabbit, he wink his off eye FN 5 and say, says he:
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" 'There! the tail done pulled out and the cow gone,' says he.
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"But Brer Wolf he wasn't the man for to give it up that way, and he got him a spade, and a pick-axe, and a shovel, and he dig and dig for that cow until digging was past all endurance, and old Brer Rabbit he sat up there in his front porth and smoke his cigar. Every time old Brer Wolf stuck the pick-axe in the clay, Brer Rabbit he giggle to his children.
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" 'He diggy, diggy, diggy, but no meat there! He diggy, diggy, diggy, but no meat there!"
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"Because all the time the cow was laying piled up in his smoke-house, and him and his children was eating fried beef and onions FN 6 every time their mouth watered.
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"Now then, honey, you take this here whip," continued the old man, twining the leather thong around the little boy's neck, "and scamper up to the big house and tell Miss Sally for to give you some of it the next time she find your tracks in the sugar-barrel."
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FN 1 Plaited whip-thong. Whip. The leather whip-thong, loop handle, stick and top stinger, has long been part of proper mounted fox-hunting gear, with the pack of dogs, see one whip thong maker now using nylon, see http://www.nylonhuntingwhipthongs.com// Long whip thongs, some braided for strength, become useful in carriage whips, to reach the pulling animal(s) see the history and evolution of uses of goose quill and whale bone; in the late 1800's, early 1900's, some 90% of all whip thongs were made in the US, see http://www.gladstonedriving.org/History/gea_whip.html. It also has an unsavory history as an instrument of punishment, inflicting a slight or greater cut, scroll down to whip at http://www.archive.org/stream/lincolnshiredane00stre/lincolnshiredane00stre_djvu.txt
Whip as enforcer. The whip was also used to control, punish, slaves, see http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASwhipping.htm; http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215086/slave_punishment_&_manipul.htm.
- In the story, Uncle Remus sends the little boy back to his mother, Miss Sally, with the whip wound around his neck.
- A whip wound around a child's neck? A white child? Son of the owner?
Danger, threat. All is not playful here.
- Conjecture, given Uncle Remus' strong personality: Was he, as a slave, whipped with just such a whip, and did Miss Sally, growing up on that Plantation, witness it and make no protest. Or otherwise know.
- Is Uncle Remus saying, in his way, that the whipping time is not forgotten and that he himself holds some power in that regard, even if he refrains from using it as it was perhaps used against him. More mildly, a reminder: What if it were her son in those days. What was Uncle Remus' relationship to Miss Sally? He would have been of her mother's generation, "Old Miss" who is now dead.
FN 2 Word given is "toll" -- as in toll him away from her nest. See 13th Century Old English, tollen for draw, lure or decoy. Think of a bell toll, a single stroke, a lure to come to church, perhaps says http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=toll
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FN 3 Phrase given is "bleedzd to" -- as in, we think, "obliged to." Bleedzd to and other forms are also earlier researched in other stories here. This time, we find Harper's Round Table at page 667 (in Harper's Young People 1882), where the phrase is used so that the sense of "obliged to" makes sense -- I am obliged to do this or that. See Google book, Harper's Round Table, usage of "bleedzd to" (in sense of obliged to)
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FN 4 Word given is "pater-rollers" - The word is also seen as paterrollers, bands of whites out looking for slaves out without a pass, see page 75 at Weevils In The Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves by Thomas L. Purdue and Thomas E. Barden, 1976, fair use quote:
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"I know something about the paterrollers. There were three sets of dem in slavery working like shifts -- 1 set go 'round 'bout six O'Clock 'til nine O'Clock. Nine O'Clock 'nother set travel, and the third ones, see, had to stay wid the horses when they left 'em, 'cause niggers would cripple 'em -- sometimes steal 'em -- so paterrollers was [s] (sic) keered to leave 'em in road by demselves. Paterrollers would whip you if they caught you dout a pass. Ef you had a pass, didn't whip you, jes' would git in touch wid your marster and tell him dat they had one of his niggers, den he'd let him go."
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Read further about a beating by the paterrolers, and the Nat Turner insurrection; and if a slave were caught with a piece of paper with a letter on it, the slave would be beaten.
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FN 5 "Wink his off eye" - the wink is an ancient signal of deceit, see http://bible.cc/proverbs/6-13.htm.
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The "off eye" could mean the eye on the other side of a profile, that could not be seen by the other character at the time. Speculative, but common sense.
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FN 6 Word given is "Inguns" - find a recipe for an omelette where the "inguns" appears to be onions, as the only ingredient otherwise not accounted for -- http://dailyburn.com/recipes/omelette_hang_and_cheese_with_inguns Inguns as onions also appears in http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/l/24022-a-letter-of-credit-by-susan-warner?start=229; and affirmed at page 351 in the English Dialect Dictionary, by Joseph Wright 1903.
