Read Online Latin American Folktales by John Bierhorst - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: John Bierhorst
Tags: Fiction
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required especially during the wake, or
velorio,
proper— that is, the first night—and during the ninth night, or
acabo de novena,
the end of the novena. In Colombia, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, there may be visiting, with storytelling, on each of the nine nights, though guests do not stay past midnight except during the first and final nights.
Various foods are served at intermissions, as well as black coffee and, especially in southern South America, the herb tea
mate,
or, in Central America, cups of chocolate. Cigars and hard liquor may also be available.
Since the wake, either in its one-night or nine-night form, is the most typical occasion for formal storytelling, the selections that follow, instead of being grouped thematically, have been arranged as if told in this most natural of settings. That is, each tale suggests the next one, either picking up its theme or offering a contrast. The only group that has been tightly structured is Part Six, which has the folk-Bible cycle in the traditional order beginning with the Creation and ending with the Resurrection. Each of the other groups gravitates toward a particular theme but without observing a strict program. Part One centers on courtship and marriage, Part Two on the afterlife. A selection of folk prayers follows the last tale in Part Two, which itself is a prayer in the form of a narrative.
Part Three (romantic intrigue) and Part Four (wit) are followed by riddles. Riddles, too, are told at wakes, though they are reported in this context much less regularly than folktales. Manuel J. Andrade, describing his folklore-gathering tour of the Dominican countryside, writes, “Twice I heard riddles in what seems to be their natural setting. One of the occasions was at a wake on a farm near Higüey, where no one expected a stranger, nor did any one know as yet that I was interested in riddles.” Two of the riddles Andrade obtained, XVIII and XX, are reproduced here.
Tales of salvation and rescue, mostly without religious overtones, are in Part Five, leading into the Bible stories of Part Six. As noted in the introduction to this book, the Mazatec episodes given here were actually heard at a wake by the anthropologist Robert Laughlin.
For contrast, Part Seven turns to nonsense, with the final tale in this group exhibiting one of the most excessive of the storytellers’ opening formulas:
If I tell it to know it you’ll know
how to tell it and put it in
ships for John, Rock, and Rick
with dust and sawdust, ginger
paste, and marzipan, triki-triki
triki-tran.
At least some of these strange storytellers’ formulas derive from patter-chants used in parlor games. The example shown above, from Chile, can be compared with an old Spanish rhyme chanted while dandling a child on one’s knee:
Ah serene, ah Sir Ron,
Ah the ships of St. John;
And what’s with John’s? Eats a roll.
And Peter’s? Eats the cheese.
And Rick’s? It eats the ginger paste.
Niki-niki {and so forth}
Patter-chants often take the form of endless nonsense quizzes, or chain riddles as they might be called, that also escape into storytelling, either as closing formulas or as odd little tales complete in themselves. Several examples are given following Part Seven.
Part Eight then turns to the subject of greed, a necessary element everywhere in international folklore, with or without the moralizing that helps to wipe the curse away. Part Nine, finally, focuses on marriage and family, now in a darker key and with stories mostly from Indian narrators. These, strangely, suggest the ambiguity of the modernist short story rather than the transparent morality of the medieval folktale, even though the plots are basically Old World. Some are startlingly open-ended, transporting the reader or listener into another, untold story rather than winding up with a neat conclusion. The best examples are “The Bad Compadre,” “Black Chickens,” “Doublehead,” and “A Day Laborer Goes to
velorio,
proper— that is, the first night—and during the ninth night, or
acabo de novena,
the end of the novena. In Colombia, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, there may be visiting, with storytelling, on each of the nine nights, though guests do not stay past midnight except during the first and final nights.
Various foods are served at intermissions, as well as black coffee and, especially in southern South America, the herb tea
mate,
or, in Central America, cups of chocolate. Cigars and hard liquor may also be available.
Since the wake, either in its one-night or nine-night form, is the most typical occasion for formal storytelling, the selections that follow, instead of being grouped thematically, have been arranged as if told in this most natural of settings. That is, each tale suggests the next one, either picking up its theme or offering a contrast. The only group that has been tightly structured is Part Six, which has the folk-Bible cycle in the traditional order beginning with the Creation and ending with the Resurrection. Each of the other groups gravitates toward a particular theme but without observing a strict program. Part One centers on courtship and marriage, Part Two on the afterlife. A selection of folk prayers follows the last tale in Part Two, which itself is a prayer in the form of a narrative.
Part Three (romantic intrigue) and Part Four (wit) are followed by riddles. Riddles, too, are told at wakes, though they are reported in this context much less regularly than folktales. Manuel J. Andrade, describing his folklore-gathering tour of the Dominican countryside, writes, “Twice I heard riddles in what seems to be their natural setting. One of the occasions was at a wake on a farm near Higüey, where no one expected a stranger, nor did any one know as yet that I was interested in riddles.” Two of the riddles Andrade obtained, XVIII and XX, are reproduced here.
Tales of salvation and rescue, mostly without religious overtones, are in Part Five, leading into the Bible stories of Part Six. As noted in the introduction to this book, the Mazatec episodes given here were actually heard at a wake by the anthropologist Robert Laughlin.
For contrast, Part Seven turns to nonsense, with the final tale in this group exhibiting one of the most excessive of the storytellers’ opening formulas:
If I tell it to know it you’ll know
how to tell it and put it in
ships for John, Rock, and Rick
with dust and sawdust, ginger
paste, and marzipan, triki-triki
triki-tran.
At least some of these strange storytellers’ formulas derive from patter-chants used in parlor games. The example shown above, from Chile, can be compared with an old Spanish rhyme chanted while dandling a child on one’s knee:
Ah serene, ah Sir Ron,
Ah the ships of St. John;
And what’s with John’s? Eats a roll.
And Peter’s? Eats the cheese.
And Rick’s? It eats the ginger paste.
Niki-niki {and so forth}
Patter-chants often take the form of endless nonsense quizzes, or chain riddles as they might be called, that also escape into storytelling, either as closing formulas or as odd little tales complete in themselves. Several examples are given following Part Seven.
Part Eight then turns to the subject of greed, a necessary element everywhere in international folklore, with or without the moralizing that helps to wipe the curse away. Part Nine, finally, focuses on marriage and family, now in a darker key and with stories mostly from Indian narrators. These, strangely, suggest the ambiguity of the modernist short story rather than the transparent morality of the medieval folktale, even though the plots are basically Old World. Some are startlingly open-ended, transporting the reader or listener into another, untold story rather than winding up with a neat conclusion. The best examples are “The Bad Compadre,” “Black Chickens,” “Doublehead,” and “A Day Laborer Goes to
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