Mules and Men

For the student of cultural history, Mules and Men is a treasury of black America's folklore as collected by a famous storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery. As Zora Neale Hurston writes about her trip to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, where she went to gather material: "It was a hilarious night with a pinch of everything social mixed with the story telling....Some of the stories were the familiar drummer-type of tale about two Irishmen, Pat and Mike, or two Jews as the case might be. Some were the European folk-tales undiluted like Jack and the Beanstalk. Others had slight social variations, but Negro imagination is so facile that there was little need for outside help." Set intimately within the social context of black life, the stories, "big old lies," songs, voodoo customs, and superstitions recorded in these pages capture the imagination and bring back to life the humor and wisdom that is the unique heritage of American blacks.