Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular

Chapter 76: BUH RABBIT AN DE CRAWFISH.

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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.

XXXVI.

BUH RABBIT AN DE CRAWFISH.

Arter Buh Wolf bin lick Buh Rabbit an trow um een de brier patch case eh ketch um der tief water outer him spring, Buh Rabbit faid fuh meet Buh Wolf, an him leff an gone buil ehself new house een Buh Bear settlement. Buh Bear, him hab well, an steader Buh Rabbit fine him own water, eh blan slip ter Buh Bear well an tief water outer um. Buh Bear fine dis out, but Buh Rabbit so scheemy Buh Bear couldnt pit eh han topper um fuh ketch um. So eh git one big crawfish an eh pit um een de well, an eh tell um fuh gard de well, an fastne ebrybody wuh come day fuh tief water.

De nex time Buh Rabbit gone der well long him calabash fuh git some water, de fus ting eh know de crawfish grab um by eh tail. Buh Rabbit holler, an een eh pull way eh leff eh tail een de crawfish claw. An dat de way Buh Rabbit come fuh loss eh tail. Eh tail stumpy tel dis day.