Andros Island is the largest of the Bahama islands, and it is the nearest to Florida; many Seminoles and enslaved Africans escaped there from the U.S.
Here is a list of the titles and links: Playing Godfather /
Mock Sunrise: The Password: The Threat Midstream /
The Password: The Tree Closes /
The Password: In the Sky /
Mock Sunrise: The Password: Under the Bed /
The Password: In the Cow's Belly /
Mock Sunrise: The Password: In the Cow's Belly: Shoes in the Road /
Playing Dead Twice on the Road /
The Master Thief: Shoes in the Road /
Tar Baby /
Tar Baby: Mock Plea /
Tar Baby: Take My Place /
Pans with Switches /
The Good Child and the Bad /
Pick Me, Pick Me! /
Bull-Calf /
Cinderella /
The Sleeper /
Rabby makes Boukee his Horse /
The Companions /
Father Found /
The Witch Spouse /
The Four Brothers /
The Forbidden Room /
The Chosen Suitor /
The Flight /
Greenheart-er-Knowledge /
The Sickly Bird /
The Fish Lover /
The Sunday Bird /
Jack Transforms /
The Old Witch and the Dogs /
Incriminating the Other Fellow /
Tug of War /
Man from God /
The Frightened Guest /
The Husband in the Bag /
The Hidden Lover /
The False Message: Take My Place /
The Mock Killing /
The Beheaded Mother /
Mock Funeral /
The Broken Bargain /
Playing Dead /
The Killing Hot Bath: Over the Robbers' Cave /
The Rainy Day /
On the House-Top /
Witchman and Thief /
B'o' Elephant Tusk /
Fasting-Trial /
Reaping-Trial /
Flying-Trial /
Running-Trial /
Bone for a Stump /
The Horn-Tribe Party /
The Faithful Girl /
Diving for Bananas /
Mock Rain /
At the Cross-Roads /
The Man and his Pig /
Rock with Beard /
From Bad to Worse /
The Plug /
Back in the Same Hole /
Fishing on Sunday /
She Sends for her Husband /
Guessing a Name /
Refugees in the Roof /
Dancing at the Well /
Playing Poisoned /
Rabbit and Frog Go Fishing /
The Dinner-Party /
The Predatory Eagle /
The Lard Girl /
Maddy Glassker /
The Princess who would not Laugh /
The Sillies /
The Fig-Tree /
Changing Children /
Jack Bean /
The Brave Little Tailor /
The Dog, the Cat, the Donkey, and the Rooster /
The Escape /
The Dancing Witch /
Working Witch /
A Man Turns into a Monkey /
The Fisherwoman /
Woman and Fish-Devil /
A Fish Turns into a Baby /
Feeding the Family /
Pot and Whip /
The Housekeepers /
A Stone Substitute /
The Magic Birth /
The Devil Schoolmaster /
The Tiger caught /
B'o' Big-Gut, B'o' Big-Head, and B'o' Stringy-Leg /
Forbidden Fruit /
The Grateful Spirit /
The Gold Hand /
Jack Makes Fools of Them /
The Dead Mother /
The Maid Freed from the Gallows /
The Deserted Family /
The Disobedient Boy /
The Singing Shoes /
The Fifer /
The Bastard /
The Outcast /
The Cruel Friend /
The Gold Ring /
A Man of Travel /
The Faithless Widow /
The Baboon's Sister.
As I explained in yesterday's post, Parsons creates compound titles for the stories that are composed of separate episodes, so you can see how the same motif figures in the sequences of different stories, like the "mock sunrise" here in one story, Mock Sunrise: The Password: The Threat Midstream, and another, Mock Sunrise: The Password: Under the Bed, and another, Mock Sunrise: The Password: In the Cow's Belly: Shoes in the Road.
There are lots of rabbit tricksters here, usually going by the name Rabby (you can search for all the references to Rabby in the book), often accompanied by his foolish sidekick, Boukee. The name Boukee is from the West African (Wolof) name for the hyena, Bouki. The storytellers don't identity "Boukee" as a hyena, but he lives on in name!
As Parsons explains in the introduction, she discovered many parallels between the stories she heard in the Bahamas with stories she was collecting from African immigrants from Cape Verde to Rhode Island in the United States, so I'll turn to her publications of stories from Cape Verde storytellers next time! Meanwhile, enjoy the stories she has collected here, just a click away at the Internet Archive:
by Elsie Clews Parsons
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