Mr. Monkey, the Bridegroom
There was a monkey, which fell in love with a beautiful young girl. He dressed as a man and went to call on her. He was so well received that one day he took his best friend with him to see his lady-love. The young girl's father asked Mr. Monkey's friend some questions about his daughter's lover. The friend said that Mr. Monkey was good and rich, but there was a secret about him. The father wanted to know the secret, but the friend said he would tell him another day.
Mr. Monkey was finally engaged to the young lady, and the night of the wedding he invited his friend to the supper. The latter was jealous of Mr. Monkey, and at the end of the supper he began to sing. This was a song that made all monkeys dance, whether they wished to or not, so Mr. Monkey looked at his friend and beckoned him to stop singing.
He continued, however, to sing, and all at once Mr. Monkey got up and began to dance. He jumped about so wildly that his tail came out of his clothes, and everyone saw that he was a monkey. The father understood the secret, and beat him dreadfully. His friend, however, ran off, dancing and singing. --Collected from Méranthe, colored nurse, Hospital Street, New Orleans.
The Singing Bones
Once upon a time there lived a man and a woman who had twenty-five children. They were very poor. The man was good, the woman was bad. Every day when the husband returned from his work the wife served his dinner, but always meat without bones.
He asked, "How is it that this meat has no bones?" "Because bones are heavy, and meat is cheaper without bones," she said. "They give us more for the money." The husband ate, and said nothing.
"How is it you don't eat meat?" he asked. "You forget that I have no teeth. How do you expect me to eat meat without teeth?" she said. "That is true," said the husband, and he said nothing more, because he was afraid to grieve his wife, who was as wicked as she was ugly.
When one has twenty-five children one cannot think of them all the time, and one does not see if one or two are missing. One day, after his dinner, the husband asked for his children. When they were by him he counted them, and found only fifteen. He asked his wife where were the ten others. She answered that they were at their grandmother's, and every day she would send one more for them to get a change of air. That was true, every day there was one that was missing.
One day the husband was at the threshold of his house, in front of a large stone. He was thinking of his children, and he wanted to go and get them at their grandmother's, when he heard voices saying:
Our mother killed us,
Our father ate us.
We are not in a coffin,
We are not in the cemetery.
At first, he did not understand what that meant, but he raised the stone and saw a great quantity of bones, which began to sing again. He then understood that it was the bones of his children, whom his wife had killed, and whom he had eaten. Then he was so angry that he killed his wife, buried his children's bones in the cemetery, and stayed alone at his house.
From that time he never ate meat, because he believed it would always be his children that he would eat. --Collected from an old negress, 77 Esplanade Avenue [New Orleans].
Source: Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folk-Tales in French [Creole] Dialect and English Translation. Boston and New York: Published for the American Folk-Lore Society by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895. Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts