Simon Too-Too

DESCRIPTION: Simon Too-Too sets bird traps instead of going to Sunday School. He catches a snake which is a spirit. The snake tells him to take it home, kill it, eat it, serve it to company. One bone is left and tells Simon to go to bed. He dies, a Sabbath violater
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Parsons)
KEYWORDS: sin death hunting magic food religious animal ghost
FOUND IN: West Indies(Bahamas)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)),d #11 pp. 461-462,482, "Simon Tootoos"; #12, pp. 462-462,482-483, "Time-an'-Tootoo" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Tales of Andros Island Bahamas (Lancaster: American Folk-Lore Society, 1918 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), #30, pp. 62-65, "The Sunday Bird" (2 texts, 1 tune)
NOTES [75 words]: In the Beckwith version Simon begins to violate the Sabbath after his mother dies; the spirit that he catches is his mother, and she kills him. In the Palmer version Simon lives with his grandmother who thought she was sending him to Sunday school every week, but every week "De boy ain' goin' to school. Gone in de bush settin' bud trap." - BS
I find it interesting that it is a snake -- the tempter in the Garden of Eden -- which led Simon astray. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.8
File: SSSiToTo

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