Tar-Baby

Joel Chandler Harris collected the story in its original dialect and included it in his 1881 book, "Uncle Remus, his Songs and his Sayings".

[1] His introduction mentions earlier publication of some of his Uncle Remus Stories in the columns of a daily newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution.

In the Journal of American Folklore in 1943, Aurelio M. Espinosa discussed various different motifs within 267 versions of the tar-baby story that were ostensibly 'in his possession'.

[6] The next year, Archer Taylor added a list of tar baby stories from more sources around the world, citing scholarly claims of its earliest origins in India and Iran.

In this version, Anansi creates a wooden doll and covers it over with gum, then puts a plate of yams in its lap, in order to capture the she-fairy Mmoatia (sometimes described as an "elf" or "dwarf").

Mmoatia takes the bait and eats the yams, but grows angry when the doll does not respond and strikes it, becoming stuck in the process.

[11] In a Spanish language version told in the mountainous parts of Colombia, an unnamed rabbit is trapped by the Muñeco de Brea (tar doll).

A Buddhist myth tells of Prince Five-weapons (the future Buddha) who encounters the ogre Sticky-Hair in a forest.

[12][13][14] The tar-baby theme is present in the folklore of various tribes of Meso-America and of South America: it is found in such stories[15] as the Nahuatl (of Mexico) "Lazy Boy and Little Rabbit" (González Casanova 1946, pp.

[18][19] In North America, the tale appears in White Mountain Apache lore as "Coyote Fights a Lump of Pitch".

Thus the famous "tar baby" story has variants, not only among the Cherokee, but also in New Mexico, Washington [State], and southern Alaska—wherever, in fact, the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a ball for [Native American] uses".

[citation needed] In the Tar Wolf story, the animals were thirsty during a dry spell, and agreed to dig a well.