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Show , ANIMAL FOLK TALES. At the Big House Whore Aunt Nancy and Aunt 'Phrony Held Forth on tho Animal Folks. By Anno Virginia Cul-bertson. Cul-bertson. Illustrated by K. Warde Blnls-dell. Blnls-dell. The Bobbs-Mcrrlll Company, publishers, pub-lishers, Indianapolis. Those stories wcro collected from the negroes of southeastern Virginia and tho Cherokee Indians of North Carolina-Thore Carolina-Thore arc twenty-two negro stories nnd twenty-seven Indian. Botli sets of stories are told In tho negro dialect, in order to more strongly emphasize the resemblance between them; which Is so great that tho suggestion Is plausible that' each race borrowed from Iho other. Tho negro stories sto-ries aro represented as bolng told to tho children by Aunt Nancy, and tho Indian stories by Aunt 'Phroney, and a Jealous rivalry is represented as existing between tho two. The stories, tho author tolls us, were all collected from persons woll on In years, uneablc to read, and without opportunity op-portunity of access to books. They are a distinct "crowding" on to "L'nclo Be-mus's" Be-mus's" preserves, and the author says: "In the mountains of North Carolina, the writer listened to stories wonderfully llko those of 'Uncle Remus,' falling from the lips of vencrablo Indians with a strange effect of familiarity. Hero was 'the Rabbit,' Rab-bit,' tho same merry, tricks', iosourccful, rpiite rcpresenslble and utterly irresistible fellow as In Mr. Harris's delightful negro tales. It seems odd that the two races, so different In temperament nd characteristics, characteris-tics, should assume exactly the same attitude, at-titude, distinctly a humorous one, toward tho timorous rabbit, perhaps tho scariest 'll'l fool creature' of them all, and glorify him as the most valiant of heroes. It may be somewhat easier to understand In tho light of the fact that the rabbit was an Important hero-god In the mythologies of both races." At all events, here they aro, side by side, and as like as a panfull of peas. The plan of 'the whole work Is at once simple and ingenious, and it Is wvll carried out In humorous composition. The artist has made twenty-two appropriate appro-priate illustrations, and the publishers have mado it all Into a handsome, substantial sub-stantial book. |