Browse:Tricky Tale: Ole Coon at Last (Volume 1, entries 785–786)
Tricky Tale: Ole Coon at Last
Volume 1, entries 785–786. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → Tricks. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 785
During slavery my father told me he knew a man who was a cunjure and his master and mistress trust him with everything, and he was boss over the rest of the slaves as well as being a cunjure. And he could tell many tales and never get caught. His mistress lost her gold ring and asked him to find it for her. And he said, "Missus, if you give me three days off from work, I'll find your ring" which he already had by being tricky. So he laid in bed and slept as much as he want, and got the best food from master's table. On the third day he took the gold ring and a fishhook - at first - to work the trick. So he changed off and got a grain of corn and corn meal. And he put the gold ring inside of the meal and the grain of corn and give it to a certain duck, which he had marked that he may know from the rest. And he give the duck that corn meal, grain of corn, all rolled up together, and went to his master's room and said, "Get your madam, for I'm going to find your ring right here this day. Come and go with me to the chicken yard." He told him to kill a duck which he knew did not have the ring, neither the second duck, but the third one which he killed had the ring inside. So he said, "Master, what are you going to give me for this job?" He said, "Anything you ask." He said, "One month off, boss, to court the gals." When he had killed the third duck and opened it, he found the ring. And then he got thirty days off and the ducks which he had killed. So his master after this went coon [racoon] hunting one night and caught a coon. And the other men that went with him got a bet of five-hundred dollars that his nigger couldn't tell what his master had in the bag. So he called his slave John out of bed that night that he might win the five-hundred dollars. So John got up and come indoors with a dozen other men that was in the coon hunt and also had a part in the bet that John could not tell what was in the bag. So his master said, "John, tell these men what is in the bag: So John scratched his head and lit his pipe, knowing not what was in the bag and that his master had caught him this time. So he said, "Well, master, you have got the ole coon at last." [Near Fredericksburg, Va., (71), by hand; supposed to have happened in King George Co., Va.; a folk story.]
Entry 786
Now, let me tell you an old darky story of the Civil War. There was an ole plantation that had a lot of darkies a way up in Oaksville: He claimed that his darkies were more sensible than any other darkies in the country. Other adjoining farmers said they had the smartest and they agreed to put something under a barrel and wanted the neighborhood to come around to see if this smart darky could tell him what was under the barrel. So this farmer went out at night and put a coon under a barrel. When the neighbors gathered to see this wonderful man they put up a five-hundred dollars deposit and told him his master could get it if he could tell what was under the barrel; and tell him his master would lose' it, if he couldn't tell them what was under that barrel. He got up and walked around, all around that barrel, scratched his head and said, "Master, you've got the ole coon now." [Informant born a slave.]