Mr. Harris. But I have
been fortunate enough recently to secure direct evidence that one of the
American Negro stories recorded by Mr. Harris came from Africa.

While collecting our Rhymes, I asked Dr. C. C. Fuller of the South
African Mission, at Chikore, Melsetter, Rhodesia, Africa, for an African
Rhyme in Chindau. I might add parenthetically: I have never seen
pictures of a cruder or more primitive people than these people who
speak Chindau. He obtained and sent me the Rhyme "The Turkey Buzzard"
found in our Foreign Section. It was given to him by the Reverend J. E.
Hatch of the South African General Mission. Along with this rhyme came
the following in his kind and obliging letter: "We thought the story of
how the Crocodile got its scaly skin might be of interest also":

"Why the Crocodile Has a Hard, Scaly Skin."

"Long ago the Crocodile had a soft skin like that of the other animals.
He used to go far from the rivers and catch animals and children and by
so doing annoyed the people very much. So one day when he was far away
from water, they surrounded him and set the grass on fire on every side,
so that he could not escape to the river without passing through the
fire. The fire overtook him and scorched and seared his back, so that
from that day his skin has been hard and scaly, and he no longer goes
far from the rivers."

This is about as literal an outline of the American Negro story "Why the
Alligator's Back is Rough" as one could have. The slight difference is
that the direct African version mixes people in with the plot. This
along with Mr. Harris's evidences practically establishes the fact that
the Negro animal story outlines came with the Negroes themselves from
Africa and would also render it practically certain that many animal
rhymes came in the same way since these Rhymes in many cases accompany
the stories.

Then there are Rhymes, not animal Rhymes, which seem to carry plainly in
their thought content a probable African origin. In the Rhyme, "Bought
Me a Wife," there is not only the mentioning of buying a wife, but there
is the setting forth of feeding her along with guineas, chickens, etc.,
out under a tree. Such a conception does not fit in with American slave
life but does fit into widely prevailing conditions found in Africa.

Read the last stanza of "Ration Day," where the slave sings of going
after death to a land where there are trees that bear fritters and where
there are ponds of honey.