Suriname folk-lore

4.

Ba Tigri na Ba Kɔnkɔni bɛn dɛ. Dą' Ba Todotodo bɛn sidǫ' na pasi. Dą' Ba Tigri bɛn pasa. Dą' Ba Todotodo hakisi ɛ̨ŋ tai̯gi ɛf' a no wąn' lɛni ɛ̨ŋ wą' pikin mɔni? A tai̯gi hɛm taki, a sɑ pai̯ ɛ̨ŋ te a kɩsi bɩgi. Tigri tai̯gi ɛ̨ŋ taki, ‘ai̯.’ Dą' Ba Kɔnkoni tai̯gi Tigri nowa, taki, Ba Todotodo a n'e go pai̯ ɛ̨ŋ, bikasi Ba Todotodo no sɑ mąŋ wroko mɔni. A no habi fō bɩgi mɔro. 'A so a pikin, 'a so a sɑ tą. Na so hɛm mama na hɛm papa. Dą di 'a Ba Tigri miti Ba Todotodo, a tya' ɛ̨ŋ gowe, bikasi na hɛm nɛ̨ŋgɛre. A kɔm teki hɛm bikasi a nɛ̨ŋgɛre fō pai̯mąŋ.

4. Outwitting Creditors: How Slavery Began.¹

There were Ba² Tiger and Ba Rabbit. Then Ba Toad was sitting on the road. Then Ba Tiger was passing. Then Ba Toad asked him, said, if he wouldn't loan him a little money? He said to him, said, he would pay him [back] when he grew up. Tiger said to him, said, ‘Yes.’ Then Ba Babbit said to Tiger now, said, Ba Toad isn't going to pay him, because Ba Toad won't be able to earn money. He won't grow up any more. Little as he is, so he will remain. His mother and his father are like that. Then when Ba Tiger met Ba Toad, he took him away [with him], because he was his slave. He took him because he was a slave for the debt.

1 Told by 9. Compare, for Dahomey, Herskovits, M. & F. (IV), MS No. 32.

2 Ba Tiger, that is, Brother Tiger.