Every Tongue Got to Confess (23 page)

1. Cross-eyed gnat
   
2. “Done make me open my mouf wide”
   
3. One day the wind blowed so hard
   
4. Another time it blowed so hard
   
5. Another time it blowed so hard
   
6. A punkin so big
   
7. School boy and “Mo” on ’lasses
   
8. De biggest apple
   
9. Platform under de calf
   
10. Gun shoot so far
    
11. Fastest colt
    
12. Why there ain’t no women in the army
    
13. De brother in black is lak de monkey
    
14. Why geese holler “Ketch him”
    
15. Red bug, rail, trash in tick’s eyes
    
16. John and de Devil and de Girl
    
17. Why possum ain’t got no hair on his tail
    
18. Rabbit and Fox and same girl
    
19. Ole man, ole woman, and bear in loft
    
20. I know man so hungry
    
21. Down in Ga. ain’t no brooms
    
22. Man with gold penis
    
23. Jack and Mary and father in tree
    
24. Preacher and boys and dirty under hat
    
25. Brother Rabbit and Brother Fox and piece of ham
    
26. “The fun is all over now”
    
27. I was a flying fool
    
28. Lil boy travelling, old man and woman and lil girl and Peas
    
29. Want to be buried in rubber coffin
    
30. I saw a man so ugly
    
31. Man falling on white woman
    
32. Country man and oxen
    
33. Man who fished alligator and took him home
    
34. My brother was so swift
    
35. Sugar cane so large
    
36. Bow-legged biscuits (I saw a man so hongry)
    
37. De biggest cabbage
    
38. Huntin’ rabbit (fast bullet)
    
39. Man and hardheaded son ghost
    
40. Man, son, 2 dogs on coon hunt
    
41. Newlyweds and corn and rooster
    
42. Grandmother, lil boy on train
    
43. Old man and woman and girl and pillow
    
44. How cold have you known it
    
45. 3 boys going with same girl and dynamite
    
46. Lil boy and preacher and bear
    
47. Sawing down the big tree
    
48. “What angel need with ladder?”
    
49. Preacher had his congregation
    
50. “Naw, I ain’t whistlin’—I’m pizen—”
    
51. Woman describing the fiddle
    
52. Woman and ginny-blue calico dress
    
53. Devil, man and gun
    
54. Why wimmen ain’t had no whiskers
    
55. Why woman’s vagina was moved
    
56. “Whut did he die wid Elder,”—
    
57. White man, son and nigger
    
58. How the gopher was created
    
59. Why churches are split today
    
60. Uh hard wind
    
61. Two hoboes and pigeons
    
62. Hawg Under de House
    
63. Uncle Ike in de Judgement
    
64. Uncle Jeff and the Church
    
65. Pig in de Poke
    
66. Gabriel’s trumpet
    
67. The Monticello Legend
    
68. Moufy Emma
    
69. De Animal Congress
    
70. Every Friday…mocking birds
    
71. De Rabbit Wants Uh Tail
    
72. Why de buzzard has no home
    
73. Dirt dauber and bee
    
74. Massa and Jack and rooster
    
75. Prayin’ woman an de banjo man
    
76. God an de devil in de cemetery
    
77. Scissors
    
78. Why de nigger been working hard
    
79. The devil and the daughter
    
80. Why mules have no colts
    
81. Why all animals look down
    
82. The Snake and the Gum Mallimie Tree
    
83. Why the dog has a small waist
    
84. “After all it was only a mouse”
    
85. Adam and Eve
    
86. The Solomon Cycle
    
87. Queen of Sheba, Solomon, and thirst
    
88. ′ ′ ′ and theft of water
    
89. How Man got his moustache
    
90. Devil in Cat Island; God in Bahamas
    
91. The Old Woman and Her Child
    
92. The Cane Field
    
93. The Farmyard
    
94. Brer Bookie and Brer Rabbit
    
95. The Devil And a Horse And Goat
    
96. The Sperrit House
    
97. Dog and Brer Goat
    
98. [number skipped in the original manuscript]
    
99. Why Women Talk So Much
    
100. The Three Sons
     
101. Why de Porpoise’s Tail is on Crosswise
     
102. Why the Cat Has Nine Lives
     
103. How we got tobacco
     
104. Rooster and Fox
     
105. The Flies and God
     
106. Man and de Boy
     
107. Woman Smarter Than Devil
     
108. Cat, man, and ham (bacon)
     
109. How the storm came to Miami
     
110. “It’ll take us all night long, baby”
     
111. Why we say “Unh Hunh”
     
112. De Lying Mule
     
113. The Four Story Lost Lot
     
114. Ole fortune-teller woman and Brer Ishum
     
115. High Walker and Bloody Bones
     
116. High Walker and Bloody Bones
     
117. De Witch Woman
     
118. “I could drink uh quart uh dat—”
     
119. “I bet I go Higher than you” (Bapt and Meth.)
     
120. Baptizing preacher and deck of cards
     
121. The Frog and the Mole
     
122. Farmer Courtin’ a Girl
     
123. Why the Dog Hates the Cat
     
124. “Come round, Bill”
     
125. Why the Waves have White Caps
     

Storytelling is an essential element of many cultural traditions—especially those that have had to carve their identities in an unfriendly setting and struggle to hold their communities together. The African American storytelling tradition is one of the strongest, yet this astonishing collection of African American folk tales has lingered in archival obscurity for decades—until now.

In the late 1920s, with the support of Franz Boas of Columbia University, a circle of friends that included members of the Harlem Renaissance, and a wealthy patron named Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston set out to collect the folk tales of the rural south. Traveling from Florida, to Alabama, to Georgia, and Louisiana, Hurston spoke with men and women, young and old, domestics and mine workers, housewives and jailbirds, and collected their tales word for
word. She wanted to preserve a language that was unique, pure, and lasting.
“I have tried to be as exact as possible. Keep to the exact dialect as closely as I could, having the story teller to tell it to me word for word as I write. This after it has been told to me off hand until I know it myself. But the writing down from the lips is to insure the correct dialect and wording so that I shall not let myself creep in unconsciously
.”

The result of Hurston’s travels is this unique and extensive volume of nearly five hundred African American folk tales grouped in categories ranging from God to the Devil, from John to Massa, and from school to heaven. The stories poignantly capture the colorful, pain-filled, and sometimes magical world that surrounded them, revealing attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Yet the tales are laced with humor from which no one is spared. In one story God is accused of mistaking a white man for a Negro; in another, a watermelon is so large that when it bursts it floods the river and drowns the townsfolk; and in yet another, the devil tries to make a field of cabbage like God has done, but he can’t quite get it right and ends up with a field of tobacco.

Hurston’s determination to capture the authentic language of
“the Negro farthest down”
is a vital contribution to African American letters. These folktales were not just Zora Neale Hurston’s first love; they paved the way for generations of African American writers.

1. The oral tradition is extremely important—in fact, for many cultures it is the only way of passing on traditions, beliefs, stories, etc. How has modern life infringed upon or altered this tradition? In the media age, does oral tradition have a place in literature?
   
2. Many contemporary African American authors found inspiration in Zora Neale Hurston’s work. In reading these folktales, are you able to recognize their influence? And if so, can you think of any particular authors whose style recalls Hurston’s?
   
3. What does the oral tradition lose in the translation to the written word? Do you think that Hurston succeeds in being true to the stories and storytellers in her rendering of these tales? What sort of images do you conjure about the tellers themselves?
   
4. Do you agree with John Edgar Wideman that
   “translation destroys and displaces as much as it restores and renders available”?
   Discuss how this premise manifests itself in this collection.
   
5. In the Foreword, John Edgar Wideman draws a connection between African American oral tradition, jazz, and hip hop. Do you agree with him that Zora Neale Hurston began a trend the cultural impact of which even she could not foresee?
   
6. In a letter to Langston Hughes, Hurston writes,
   “I am leaving the story material almost untouched. I have only tampered with it where the storyteller was not clear. I know it is going to read different, but that is the glory of the thing, don’t you think?”
   Discuss the balancing act Hurston had to negotiate between the free flowing storytelling tradition of the rural south and her more formal academic training.
   
7. In her introduction, Carla Kaplan suggests that if Hurston had published this volume of folktales during her lifetime it may have “derailed” her career as a novelist. Do you agree? How do you think it would have affected her career? How would it have affected our perception of African American literature?
   
8. Do you feel that the exactness of the dialect in Hurston’s transcriptions—a dialect that can often be difficult to read—contributes to the value of these folktales as a historical document? Discuss the pros and cons of reading the folktales in the dialect they were spoken.
   
9. The title of this collection—
   Every Tongue Got to Confess
   —came from one of the folktales, but Hurston didn’t choose it. Do you think it sums up the essence of the collection? If so, how? And if not, what are some of the other titles you would propose?
   
10. Discuss your favorite tales in this collection. What is it about these particular stories that you especially liked?