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Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular cover

Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular

Chapter 109: LIII.
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About This Book

This collection assembles short folktales and tall tales drawn from the coastal rice- and swamp-region oral tradition, rendered in local vernacular speech. The pieces range from animal trickster episodes—featuring a clever rabbit, alligator, wolf, turkey, and other creatures—to human-centered anecdotes about conjuring, superstition, plantation life, and humorous misadventures. Arranged as many brief numbered stories, the volume preserves regional expressions, rhythm, and humor while alternating fables, jokes, and supernatural accounts. Recurrent themes include cunning over brute strength, community memory, survival in marshland settings, and the interplay of practical wit and folkloric belief.

LIII.

DE DYIN BULL-FROG.

One time er ole Bull-Frog bin berry sick an spectin fuh dead. All eh fren een de pon collec roun um an eh fambly, fuh nuss um an tek dem las look at um. Dat ole Frog bin hab er noung wife an heap er leely chillun. Eh berry trouble een eh breas bout who gwine mine eh fambly arter eh gone. Wen eh woice biggin fuh fail um, an dist befo eh dead, eh say: “Me fren, who gwine tek me wife wen de breaf leff dis yer body?” Eh fren all holler out at de top er dem woice: “Me me. Me me. Me me.” Den eh quire: “Who er you gwine mine me leely chillun?” Fuh some time eh yent yeddy no answer; an den de answer come back ter um one by one from all ober de pon, an een er deep woice: “Yent der me. Yent der me. Yent der me.”

Heap er people willin’ fuh notus er pooty noung widder, wen dem no want bodder long narruh man chillun.