"
Professor Hartt, in his Amazonian Tortoise Myths, quotes a story
from the Riverside Magazine of November, 1868, which will be
recognized as a variant of one given by Uncle Remus. I venture to
append it here, with some necessary verbal and phonetic
alterations, in order to give the reader an idea of the
difference between the dialect of the cotton plantations, as used
by Uncle Remus, and the lingo in vogue on the rice plantations
and Sea Islands of the South Atlantic States:
"One time B'er Deer an' B'er Cooter (Terrapin) was courtin', and
de lady did bin lub B'er Deer mo' so dan B'er Cooter. She did bin
lub B'er Cooter, but she lub B'er Deer de morest. So de young
lady say to B'er Deer and B'er Cooter bofe dat dey mus' hab a
ten-mile race, an de one dat beats, she will go marry him.
"So B'er Cooter say to B'er Deer: 'You has got mo longer legs dan
I has, but I will run you. You run ten mile on land, and I will
run ten mile on de water!'
"So B'er Cooter went an' git nine er his fam'ly, an' put one at
ebery mile-pos', and he hisse'f, what was to run wid B'er Deer,
he was right in front of de young lady's do', in de broom-grass.
"Dat mornin' at nine o'clock, B'er Deer he did met B'er Cooter at
de fus mile-pos', wey dey was to start fum.
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