Document text
FORM
Personal, History of informant
TATE IWO UMMI
NAME OF tORKER zpving Niels)ism
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
UMW& Ave. pretitiota we To
3.1•446
?ALM qr TIE TM )31)111114 141154 momitt
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
1. Ancestry
Mother awl rather boas la the vest ladies• bat ease here
at sear apes Lived Nest at their lives la restris tot
area of the Nast awe*
2. Place and date of birth
Sera 14199 in West Indies (St. Croix)
3. Family
Three sons, one daughter
4. Places lived in, with dates
Came to kiew York from St. Croix in 1927
5. Education, with dates
Finished highest grade school in St.OrOix
6. Occupations and accomplishments, with dates
7. Special skills and interests
8. Community and religious activities
9. Desctiption of informant
Thevernisi is at a desk Wawa skim there is a basalt hildlibilado
aid aW teekea s& stro eabs gni rus tbsesigh the hair Oda is Issig
end bsh*
10. Other Points gained in interview
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
Foam
Circumstarces cf Irterviw
STATE New York
WM OF WORKER Irving Nicholson
ADDRESS
4507•15th Ave.
DATE 13.4034•38
Brooklyn, N.
SUBJECT TALFS OF HEWF INDLS: MRS, FRANCES DELVITT
1. Date and time of inter7lew
11.3.38 at 12:05 PM
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
2. Place of interview 314 Madison Street, NYC. in the apartment
of the person, top floor front right.
3. Name and addresc cf' kiformaio_
Mrs. Frances Delvitt
314 Madison 81.4 N. Y. C. top floor front
4. Name and addres3 or person, if any, vicl pt you in
touch with informant,
Miss Knepper, Director of the Negro Aotivities
Henry Street Settlement, 263 Henry S. N. Y.C.
5. Name and address of pc7'son, Ix' any, accompanying you
None
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
The house La one of the worst on the East Side, rundown, with
long dark halls, water and garbage on the floor. The apartment
is bundled together with a great deal of brio a break and little
room. In a tiny parlor a family portrait hangs over piano.
There are 4 children in the family and the negro woman complains
about the quarters.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FORM C
text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAVE OF WacEll Irving Nicholson
ADDRESS
4507.15th Ave. Ilklyn* N. Ye
Nov. 3* 1938
TAIA OF TIflS W 17;5 T INDIES* MRS FS MC DHLVITT
DATE
SUBJECT
FOLKLOBE
NEV YORK
In this pleas* in the West Indies* there was an ansiouqc,4
which means a spider. So in that please the law was when the husband
died* the whole family had to be buried with him* husbands* kids*
including the household* so that all the troubles of the family should
die with the man.
Now this annanoy* who was always fighting the law* he didngt
want to be buried with his wife so he get in with the man who /*4
the drum after a funeral from the top of the tree. Under the tree
was the grave. So* when the burial ceremony was over* this man
who supposed to roll the drum like thunder ru tu tu tutu* and this
man* been aware of what was acing to happen* and beinig agreed with
the annanoy* instead of rollinillas drum he said;
"Listen* Father Ood is talking, ii-qe Living is not to be
buried with the dead."
And the people listened. And the men oasis off Uhe tree.
And the annanoy gain victory over that law which he break by his trick.
People %hog believe that story because they gnat thinking*
.2.
short thinkinir. (Mrs. Delvitt meant that the people were very
superstitious and even here in America many think it is beat to bury
all the family troubles with the dead.)
Once, Whew* a lady married a gentleman that his first wife
was dsad, leaving a little girl and a boy. So this husband didn't
know this new wife was a witch. So, one day, she had a bunch of
fi.711 end she was goin' out. So she said to the little girl:
"I'm coin' out, ani you see that the bunch of fig. If you
see a black bird come in, don't let him pick the 1#1g.vt
Well, she went, and, nosooner had she gone, than the bird
came flyin' through the window. The girl look at it and wonder what
she could do to prevent it from pickint the fig. So she begin to sing:
*Do, black bird, do, black bird, don' pick that fig. Por
my mother, she will kill me for the sake of that fig."
She kept on sini;inig. rtut the bird did not listen. Re kept
on piCkin, the fig ttil he had enough and he flew through the window.
Then the mother, the witch)return and as she come ino she look and she
said to the girl:
"Didn't I tell you not to let the bird pick the fit."
"I tol him not to, but he still pick it."
The mother didn't say nothink, she took up somethini end
she slew the kid. So in the garden in back of the house was a large
pepper tree. She pull up the tree and bury the kid beneath and she
plant the pepper tree back in the same spot.
Well, the father return in the evenint end he ask for
the daughter. The mitch tolt bilL that elle had sent her to get
somethint. He waited a long time and the little girl didn't come.
In the meantime he hevn to eat his supper: He thought to himself:
"I could use a fresh piece of pepper"
So he sent the son to the garden to get him that pepper.
The eon vent end as he stretched his hand to pick the pepper a voice
sung out:
"Dos brothers dos brothers don's pick that pepper. For
my mother* the had killed ma for the title of the fig. For my mother,
she had bury me under this tree for the sake of a
So the son went into the ?louse aa1 tpie the father What
he hid hourd. The tether wanted to see himself and he want outside
to the tree, As he was about to t(Judh its again the voice dried outs
"Dear papas dear papas dot* pick that peppers for my
mother she had killed me for the sake of a fig."
The father grew angry and slier the mother.
Accordinz to tiare in 'orzsnt:
Thin story more real because I figure like ells. If you
have e kids you have someone ttke cure of its sn'i if somethint happens
to it, you try to revenge. nowadays we figure we take it to court
but he, the husband, just want ahet-d and do What he think und thet
was the end of that.
BU-ARNANCI, THE SPIDER
Once upon a time annancy had a friend, and' that was a
goat, so his friend came to spend the day with him. The name
for each one was bu-goat and bumnnancy. When bu-goat come the
Rana:Icy say:
"Bu -goat„ you come today ant I haven't got a thing in
the house to eat. I'll tehl you what we'll do. We'll go/ for
a walk down the road, an' I know where a dumplint tree is
This tree was made of flour, salt and sugar. They imag-
ine that this tree was really down the road. So 4 when they got
down, there was the tree an' it appears as they was late cominl
to that tree because other people had passed and picked what ilary
wanted. So only three dumplin's was left.
Bu-annancy went up into the tree an, bu-goat stood under
it to receive the dumplin's when fallin' to the ground. Bu -goat
had eaten two of them when the third was thrown. Bu -goat, be
thought all was for him, so be ate up the third dumplint too.
When the annancy climbed down from the tree he asked: !Hey, bugoa,,
where is my dumplinf?"
The bu-goat became frightened ant be started to fuss with
bu-annancy. He thought that bu-annancy meant to hurt him, so be
run an' run to the sea -shore. So he dug a hole in the sand, ant
he bury himself. So bu-annancy come runnin' behind him an' he
stump his foot on a piece of stump. He didn't know it was the
horn of the bu-goat stickinl out of the sand.
Well, be couldn't get it out so he went home with his mind
all set to chop that stump out. He bring his hatchet an' his ham-
mer ant his chisel, ant he begin to chop, hammer ant chisel.
He keep workinl until at last the sand flew apart an' be
make one big pull on the stumps ant up come the bu-goat. He say
to him:
"Bu -goats I'm goint to eat you --skin, stomachs dumplint
ant all."
So he took bu-goats who vas dead from the poundints ant he
put him in the ovens ant he ate him all up --akin, stomachs dumplint
ant all.
Ey t.!' CcuocTt
STATE NEW YORK
NAME OF ‘!;011.KER Irving Nicholson'
ADDRESS <1507.15th „Ave. Bklyn# N
PATE Iov. 3# 1938
SUBJECT INDILS s tPE3t
FOLKLORE
NE OK
These t ales were told to the informant by her mother
when she was still a small child. She repeets them just is she
herd t hem, and then goes on to explain their significance. There
are many more such tales end the negro women wants me to give her
title for recollection. I will, therefore, see her some time next
week. The tales are important because they r *fleet on the idebs and
ottituder of the negro people living today in the worst sections
of the East Side.
-2
Mrs, Delvitt was indignant about the housing conditions
of the poor negro families. She exploded:
Fight now, the way I look into things is the way we poor
people house. You oan't get a good place to live. Wherever there
good housing raaces too high for you to pay. We are toll there a
lot buildint gnin on, but that don' go down to the poor class of
colored people. When had to move took ma u whole month to get a
place to live. Everyplace we tool' don't want colored people here.
Why? What is the reason? Everyone cak that. And for this particular
need, which mean housin', I would ask that a step be made so that
colored people of the East Side maybe provided withdeoent place
to live. For humanity's sake I'm aslant thit.
She continued:
I never serious as I should about politics, but we don'
want a nitier. In the meantime I wouldn't like there to be a war.
But What they do to the Czech? Look as it it help at that particular
time. it now/ I hoer more talk of different opinions. Now there
more talk. Looks like ritler still not satisfied.
WAhhAdj
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