Jamaican Song and Story: Annancy Stories, Digging Sings, Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes, and Appendices on Traces of African Melody in Jamaica and on English Airs and Motifs in Jamaica.
London: David Nutt for the Folk-lore Society, 1907. First Edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. xl + 288pp. Original brown publisher's cloth with black borders and gilt device to boards, and gilt titling to spine, black endpapers, appendix, musical scores. From the introduction: "A delightful collection of tales and songs from Jamaica.... which presents a network of interwoven strands of European and African origin", and considers the region from which the "transplanted African folklore" originates. The book is in four parts: the first part (190 pages - over half the book) is devoted to Annancy stories: Anancy being an important character in West African and Caribbean folklore who is a trickster who often takes the form of a spider, and has been likened to Legba, who is also both a trickster and a deity in West African Voudun. Some of the titles reference the supernatural: "Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl", "Devil's Honey Dram", "Devil and the Princess." The remaining three Parts are devoted to the different types of traditional song and the folklore and myth they preserve. Ex-library as evidenced by one small ink stamp to reverse of title page and small label with call nos on front pastedown - otherwise no library marks. Spine darkened and somewhat chafed with a few small snags to cloth at mid-spine, spine ends and corners lightly bumped and rubbed, page edges darkened, unmarked. Overall a tight, clean VG copy of this unusual work. Item #62689
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