Folk-lore from the Dominican republic / by Manuel J. Andrade.

Folk-Lore from the Dominican Republic

343

In order to give a more complete characterization of each form, I
shall analyze their general aspect from the point of view of the
usual divisions of literary types of composition, namely, descriptive, narrative, and expository. This division, if applied strictly,
leaves a miscellaneous group consisting of some in which these types
are variously combined, and others which cannot without violence
be classified under these heads. The descriptive and narrative
styles may appear without any conventional pattern, but the
conventional patterns are found more frequently in one style than
in the others. This has no particular significance, since some forms
lend themselves more readily for certain trends of thought.
The narrative style takes the peculiar aspect of a traveller's
story in 14 riddles. The object of the theme is personified, and says
that it is coming from some imaginary place, most frequently
expressed by the formula De tierra morena vengo. Examples of the
narrative style are 151, 170, 179, 211, 219.
In the expository style there is frequently an account of the
origin of the object, with an occasional use of the formula En el
monte fui nacido. Illustrations are: 39, 87, 106, 276, 312.
The outstanding characteristics of the nine forms in which these
stylistic aspects find expression may be now described:
Form I. The object is personified and describes itself, or tells of
its deeds, and less frequently tells how it came to be where it is
used. Examples: 79, 119, 152, 204, 217, 294.
Form II. The person reciting the riddle speaks of himself, telling
what he did with the object, using the preterite tense of the verb to
imply that he has one particular occasion in mind. Frequently he
says that he possesses the object he describes, as though it were
the only one of its kind (25, 71, 116, 139, 287). Occasionally, the
object is said to belong to a member of his family, preferably his
father. In a few instances he addresses the object (apostrophe),
as in 91, 114, 146, 61, 120, or speaks to some imaginary person,
as in 209, 208, 9, 235, 255.
Form III. This is exclusively descriptive. It may seem arbitrary
to set this small group apart from Form VIII, but we are justified
in doing so by the specific device of contrasting opposite concepts
based mainly on puns, and by the bluntness of its diction, which
approximates to that of Form IV. Its structure may be formulated
thus: Es... y no es.... This form is illustrated by numbers 16, 27,
53, 100, 234, 242, 267.
Form IV is also descriptive, excepting 13 riddles, some of which
are narrative, and some expository or mixed. This form shades
gradually into VIII. It is distinguished from the latter by its
sketchy diction. The majority consist of an incomplete sentence.
In an extreme instance, 102, the riddler aptly depicts the woodpecker with the onomatopoetic syllables ta, ta, followed by the
disconnected phrase "red head". In tabulating these nine forms, I