Abstract
Miss Maynard, who told me 'Brer Goat and Brer Lion', was at that time a teacher in a Trinidad school where special attention is paid to traditional dances and customs. She sang the air in telling me the story, but afterwards spoke of the tune as that of 'Nuts in May'. Like 'Clementine', it is not, I believe, native to England or America, but is said to have a Mediterranean origin. A Spanish tune is very likely to turn up in Trinidad. The story from Carriacoo (one of the Grenadine group of small islands), is to my mind very African in tone. My schoolmaster informant (who, like Miss Maynard, normally spoke standard English) told it at my request in modified dialect, but offered no explanation of its peculiarities. Circumstances prevented me from asking questions later. A Jamaican friend with a fair knowledge of Obea whom I afterwards consulted suggested that the man who came courting may have feared that a 'stay-home' spell had been put on the food by the girl and that, if he ate it, 'he would be caught.' It seems to belong to the 'Robber Bridegroom' group and is possibly a fragment.
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