Snake Baked a Hoecake

DESCRIPTION: "Snake baked a hoecake, left the (frog) to mind it. Frog he went a-nodding, lizard came and stole it. 'Bring back my hoecake, you long-tailed ninny!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Brown; reportedly found in Washington Irving's notebooks in 1817)
KEYWORDS: animal theft thief food
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE) West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 185, "Snake Baked a Hoecake" (3 short texts)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 238, "Snake Baked a Hoe-cake" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 104, "Wake, Snakes!" (1 text, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Elsie Clews Parsons, "Spirituals and Other Folklore from the Bahamas," Vol. 41, No. 162 (Oct-Dec 1928), Toasts and other verses: Cat Island p. 469, ("Snake take de hoe cake") (1 text)
Roud #3622
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come, Butter, Come" (lyrics, some versions?)
NOTES [53 words]: Roud places some butter churning lyrics -- including one version of a Jean Ritchie text -- here, while others (including other Ritchie versions) go with #18167 ("Come, Butter, Come"). Personally, I'd lump them all, and split them from this song. But I guess, even in song titles, butter doesn't always come easily. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Br3185

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