[Contents]
31. The Yam-hills. [Story]
The yam-hill story is very common in Jamaica. Parkes learned it in Kingston. Pamela Smith tells it, page 59 and JAFL 9: 278. Sometimes a song accompanies the story. The number of Yam-hills varies.
Compare Cronise and Ward, 167–171; Parsons, Andros Island, 109. [254]
The story depends upon the idea that it is unlucky to reveal to others a marvel one has seen oneself, or to repeat certain taboo words. A lad in the Santa Cruz mountains explained the taboo by saying that Anansi had “six” legs. Another said that Anansi’s mother’s name was “Six.” So in Pamela Smith (JAFL 9: 278), the Queen’s name is “Five.” Compare Rivière, 177; Krug, JAFL 25: 120; Schwab, JAFL 32: 437, and the next two numbers in this collection.