40. Goat’s Escape. [Story]
The story of Goat’s Escape is a favorite in Jamaica. See Milne-Home, 58–60; 65–66. It falls into two parts. (1) Goat and Dog are pursued and Dog escapes over a river which Goat cannot [258]cross. (2) Goat transforms himself into a stone, which the pursuer himself throws across the river. The introduction to the flight varies but (2) remains constant.
Compare: Jacottet, note page 262; Parsons, Andros Island, 103 and note; Jones, 121–123; 133–136.
Version (a). Compare Jones, and Milne-Home, 58–60.
Version (b). In Jekyll, 46–47, Puss gives the rats a ball and only those members of the family escape who attend to little Rat’s warning, for he has heard the cat’s song. Compare Chatelain, 189–191, and see note to number 86, where the little brother or sister discovers by the words of a song a treacherous intention.