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Butcher killed it.

Wha' the butcher?
Rope hang him.
Wha' the rope?
Rat gnawed it.
Wha' the rat?
Cat catched it.

Wha' the cat?

Dead an' buried

Behin' de church door.

Fee fo, first um speaks,
Shows his teeth,

Gets a box an' a pinch.1

OLD CHRISTMAS IN GUILFORD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. "Nex' Friday will be Ol' Christmas," said Henry Stockton, a Negro of about forty, before whose fireplace I was at the time sitting. "My gran'mammy used to take a piece of coal an' mark up here each day after Christmas for twelve days," and he pointed to the whitewashed lintel of the fireplace.

By him and by many others, old and young, white and colored, I was told that on Old Christmas "day broke twice," that the Poke (Phytolacca americana L.) stalks and the hop-vines put up early in the morning to go back again when the sun is well up; and that before "sun-up," or more commonly at midnight, the beasts, the cows, and the horses fell on their knees to pray. "We had an' ol' horse called Nellie," said one girl, "an' one year Popper took us out to see her at midnight. She was sure lyin' down." - "I'd like to go out to the barn to see," said an older white woman.

On Old Christmas even to-day the older people will not work. One old colored woman had a story of how one year in her youth her mother had forgotten about the day, and was spinning. Her mother's sister came in, and exclaimed about it. "But it's not Ol' Christmas," said her mother. "Yes, 'tis. I know it is Ol' Christmas, because I saw the hop-vines up." Apart from not working on the day, there seems to be no other way of celebrating.

I may add that formerly in celebrating Christmas, old people told me, the stocking of a naughty child would be filled with switches, and switches only. Aunt Lamy Tatum told me that her mother's threat of these switches made her good before Christmas. Aunt Lamy's great-nephew believed in the filler of stockings, in Santa Claus, until he was eighteen.

NEW YORK.

1 Variants: (a) Whoever grin

Gets a pinch an' a box an' a smack.
(b) Gets nine slaps an' ten pinches.
(Given by a white woman.)

TALES FROM MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA.

BY ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS.

THE first tale was related to me by Georgie Welden of Wayne, Pa. Nos. 2 and 3 were told by Helen Seeny of Maryland, No. 2 having been related to her by her grandmother, a native of Maryland. Nos. 4-7 were told by Mary Smith of Lincoln, Pa.; and Nos. 8-11, by Ruth Holmes, who heard No. 8 from her grandmother from Charlotteville, Va.

I. KEEPING PACE.1

The lion was runnin'

Once upon a time there was a fox and a lion. They were going to have a race. The lion said that he could beat all the fox racin'. The fox said that he couldn't beat him racin'. So they got under the mark. They both started out the same time. so fast that the fox couldn't keep up with him. lion back. And when they got to the place, the fox was there too. So that the way it ended out.

2. OUT OF HER SKIN.2

So he jumped on the

There was a man, an' he had a wife, an' everybody said she was a witch. They would complain 'bout the nightime they would hear a hollerin' an' say it was a witch. So this ol' man he wanted to find out whether his wife really was a witch. So he staid awake one night to watch her. So she got up 'bout twelve o'clock o'night, an' she shook herself, an' her skin all came off. So he was watchin' all the time. An' after she went out, he found the skin all fixed up like a person sittin' in the corner. So he got up an' takin' her skin an' filled it full o' salt. So when the ol' woman came round about four o'clock in the mornin', an' she went to put her skin on, an' she pulled an' pulled, an' so she got it half way on an' couldn't get it any further. So de ol' man he jumped up, an' he frightened her so, she fell down dead with her skin half way on.

(Second Version.3)

Once was a man and a woman, and they was both witches. And once they was out one night and didn't have no place to go. And so

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they went to some man and woman's house. And they give 'em a place to stay for de night. So round about twelve o'clock the old woman got up an' she rubbed her skin, and her skin all fell off. And the man did the same. So when she got ready to go out, she puts a white cap on her head, an' she said, "I cast away." And he said, "I after you." And so they went out, an' they went to some man's store. And they went in there to take things, and they made a bargain they would divide even up. So after they got 'em, the ol' woman seemed to think the ol' man was takin' more than what belonged to him. So when she got ready to go, she wanted to punish him. And she didn't know no other way, so she snatched this white cap off his head. And she said, "I cast away." An' he said, "I after you." But he forgot he didn't have his cap on his head, so he couldn't get out. So de nex' mornin', when de man came down to the store, he found the ol' man couldn't get out thro' the keyhole. When they found him, he didn't have no skin on him. The man said a man like that didn't have no business to be livin' in the world, so they was going to have him hung. So they had this man all in the wagon to take him to be hung. So they looked up in the sky, an' they seen something flyin'. Looked like a big bird, yet too large to be a bird. So what they thought to be a bird lit down on this wagon what the man was in, and it was the ol' woman. So she put this white cap on this ol' man's head, an' she said, "I cast away," an' he said, "I after you." And they both got away free. That's all.

3. TABLECLOTH, DONKEY, AND CLUB.1

Once upon a time there lived a woman an' a boy in a house together, Jack an' his mother. An' Jack's father was dead. So Jack's mother planted some barley. An' she told Jack to get the barley. Jack was lazy, an' he didn't want to gather it. So one day she whipped him with a broomstick, an' made him go to gather it. An' Jack made up his mind then that he would go an' gather the barley. So when he went to gather the barley, the wind had blown it away. There was an oak-tree standin' in the field where the barley had been, so Jack picked up a club an' commenced to beat on the tree. So there came along a little old man while Jack was beatin' on the tree. An' he said to Jack, "Jack, my son, what are you doin'?" An' I said, "I'm beatin' the wind for blowing my barley away." So the little man reached in his pocket, an' he took out something that looked to be a handkerchief to Jack. An' instead of being a handkerchief, it was a tablecloth. An' so the old man said, "Spread, tablecloth, spread!" An' so it spread, and there was a lot of all different kinds of food on it. So the ol' man said to Jack, "Take this home, an' it

1 Informant Helen Seeny.

will pay your mother for the barley." But instead of going home, Jack went to a half-way house to play, an' he staid there all night. An' he said to the people when he went to bed, "Do not tell this tablecloth to spread." But as soon as he was in bed, they told the tablecloth to spread. So in place of Jack's tablecloth they put their own, an' kept Jack's. So the next mornin' Jack got up overjoyed, an' took the tablecloth an' ran home. So he says to his mother, "Mommer, I have something to pay for all your good barley, even though the wind has blown it away." He says, "Just tell this tablecloth to spread." An' they told the tablecloth to spread, an', instead of spreading, it lay still. So his mother whipped him an' sent him out again. And he went down the field an' beat the same oak-tree. And the little old man came along again, an' he said, "Jack, my son, what are you doing to-day?" So he says, "Didn't the tablecloth repay your mother for the barley?" An' Jack said, "No, when I told it to spread, it lay still on the table." So by this time there. came a donkey up. So the little old man he said, "Tell this donkey to shake." An' Jack told the donkey to shake. An' he shook a pack of gold out of one foot, and a pack of silver out of the other. But, instead of going home this night, he went back to the half-way house again; but he cautioned them to be sure not to tell the donkey to shake. But it wasn't long before he had gone to bed but they went to the stable and told the donkey to shake. And when they found out that he shook a pack of gold out of one foot, an' a pack of silver out of the other, they put their donkey in place of his. So the next mornin' he got up an' rode the donkey home to his mother; an' he said to her, "Now, this time, mother, I really have got something that will pay you for your barley." He says, "Let's tell this donkey to shake." But the donkey stood still. So the old lady beat him an' sent him away again. So this time, while he was beatin' on the tree, the little old man came along again. So he says, "Jack, my son, what are you doin' this mornin'?" Jack says, "I'm still beatin' the wind for blowing my barley away." So this time the little old man gave Jack a club. An' he told Jack whatever he wanted the club to beat, to tell it, "Beat, Club, beat!" So Jack went to the half-way house again with the club. So he said to de people before he went to bed, "Be sure and don't tell this club to beat." So Jack went upstairs, but he didn't go to bed this time; an' wasn't long till he heard the old man say, "Beat, Club, beat!" an' the club commenced to beat on the man. And the old man stood it as long as he could, an' the woman told it to beat her. So they couldn't stand it no longer, so they called for Jack. When Jack came down, he asked them what was the matter. And the man said he had told the club to beat, an' it beat on him. So Jack says, "Give me my donkey an' tablecloth,

and I'll stop the club from beatin'." So, to keep from gettin' beat any more, they give Jack his donkey and tablecloth. So Jack took the donkey an' the tablecloth an' the club, all three, home to his mother. So Jack says, "Mother, I am quite sure this time I have more than enough to pay you for all the barley you have planted." So he says, "Tell this tablecloth to spread." So he says, "Tell this donkey to shake." An' then he says, "Tell this club to beat." An' it beat her. And he says, "That's the way it felt when you beat me." So, after it beat her a while, he told it to stop. An' after the club had stopped beatin', they lived happy together always after, by the use of the tablecloth, club, an' donkey.1

4. JACK AND THE BEAN-POLE.2

Jack an' his mother lived together, an' they had planted some beans. And it seemed that one bean had strayed off from the rest, an' it grew up right alongside of the house. Their house was right below a hill, and Jack had always wondered what was on top of the hill. So one day Jack climbed a bean-pole to get up to the top of the hill. So, when he had got to the top, he saw a palace, an' he went to this place to see who lived there.. So, when he had got there, he found it was a giant's castle, but the giant wasn't at home. But his wife was. Jack was tired and hungry. So he asked the lady to take him in and give him something to eat. So she did so. But she told him not to let her husband catch him there. So, while Jack was eating, the giant came to the door. She told Jack to hide, an' Jack hid in the chest behind the door. So the giant came in. He said,

He said,

"Fe, fi, fo, fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishmune."

"Be he alive or be he dead,
Fe, fi, fo, fum!"

But his wife told him that he didn't, that it was only some mutton that she was cooking. So the giant sat down to eat his supper; and after he had finished eating, he called to his wife, and told her to bring him the wonder-box, which he was supposed to have taken from Jack's father before Jack's father died. So, while the giant was sitting there looking in the box, he fell asleep. An' Jack slipped out of the chest behind the door, an' took the wonder-box home to his mother. So it wasn't very long till Jack made up his mind to make another trip back to the castle of the giant. So, when Jack went back this time, he tried to put on like another poor little boy 1 Compare Parsons, LXXXVIII; Smith, 29-30. 2 Informant Mary Smith.

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