The James T. Callow Folklore Archive

Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Ill humor Ridicule Mockery

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Ethnic Joke: Misc.

One fellow advising another to buy Fisher Price Toy MFG.Co. stock, because they were planning to marker a new item that was expected to go great. It was a boxed jigsaw puzzle made expressly for (Poles, or Italians, or Irish, etc.) with instructions which would eliminate any confusion by saying "open either end."

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Submission located in pile marked [?]

Where learned: BUFFALO ; NEW YORK ; Collection

Keyword(s): BUSINESS ; Entertainments ; ETHNIC ; GAMES ; Investment ; Italian ; Jewish ; Mockery ; POLISH ; RIDICULE ; Stereotype ; Stock

Subject headings:

Menstrual

Menstrual:

Pickling: you can't pickle beans or make kraut while on your period or it will ruin.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P535] crossed out.

Submission card found in pile marked [?]

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): Canning ; COOKING ; FOOD ; MENSES ; MENSTRUATION ; Period ; Pickling ; TABU

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- Custom

Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Ill humor Ridicule Mockery
Filter - Mature Content

Entry filtered.

Ethnic Joke: Black

Negro:

Excited negro bank bandit says "OK you mudder stickers, this is a fuck up."

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Submission card located in a pile marked [?]

Where learned: BUFFALO ; NEW YORK ; Collection

Keyword(s): Black ; DEROGATORY ; ETHNIC ; HUMOR ; Language ; NEGRO ; Offensive ; SLANG ; Stereotype ; TONGUE TWISTER

Subject headings:

Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Ill humor Ridicule Mockery

Ethnic Joke: Hollander

Hollander Joke:

When the Hollanders bury their dead, they bury them standing up with the top half sticking out of the grave. These are used as the tombstones.

Submitter comment:

This joke was told to me by a boy from Flanders.

Hollander jokes are typical in Belgium.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Written in the bottom left of the card: Does this imply that the Hollanders are cheap? A response in different handwriting (probably the collector's): YES!!

Where learned: BELGIUM

Keyword(s): BURIAL ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; GRAVEYARD ; Headstones ; Holland ; Hollander ; Offensive ; Tasteless

James Callow Keyword(s): Hollander

Subject headings:

Language

Slang Expressions:

Dippy, fag, flag, bad, bold, jive, slimey, freaky, chumpy, jivey, cool, rocked, jammed, super, ain't, jolly, looney, goof, goofy, "da," bull, shoo, shy not, why.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs and BN added by TRD

Where learned: SAINT HYACINTH SCHOOL

Keyword(s): Language ; SLANG ; Vernacular ; Vocabulary

Subject headings:

SPEECH -- Vocabulary

Play on Words

Thrones:

IN darkest Africa one time, there were some wicked men who terrorized the natives of the various tribes by exploiting them for their valuables. In fact, these men would go to the chief's hut and steal his throne, because they were usually adorned with gold and diamonds and all sorts of other precious stones.

Well, the word got around to one particular chief that thesemen were coming to his village. Not wanting his throne stolen, he had it hidden up in the attic of his grass hut. When the wicked men arrived, they only found a plain wooden chair as a throne. Thinking that this was not a worthwhile village profitably, they decided to leave. All of a sudden, without warning, the ceiling gave out, and the chief's magnificent throne fell to the ground in front of everybody. discovering this prize, the men packed it up and left the king with no throne.

The moral of this story: People who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.

Submitter comment:

I heard this a few years ago, but I don't remember when. the informant has also slipped my mind. / I don't remember where or whom I heard this from.

Data entry tech comment:

Motif added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [S570] crossed out/replaced with current classification

Written underneath the BN: [Shaggy Dog - Pun Type]

Where learned: UNKNOWN

Keyword(s): DETECTION OF THIEF ; Fable ; JOKE ; PUN ; SHAGGY DOG STORY ; Throne ; WORD PLAY

Subject headings:

PROSE NARRATIVE -- Formula tale

Numerology

If the numerical number of your birthday coincides with your actual age, then you will have good luck that year.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [P686, P800] crossed out/replaced with current classifications

Where learned: HOME ; MICHIGAN ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Birthday, Numerology, Numbers ; LUCK ; OMEN

James Callow Keyword(s): Birthday ; Birthday Belief ; NUMEROLOGY

Subject headings:

BELIEF -- P647
BELIEF -- Use of Object

Mnemonic Device

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

James Callow comment:

Original BN [ C750.534] is crossed out. Replaced with the words Mnemonic Device.

Keyword(s): Christopher Columbus ; MEMORY ; MNEMONIC ; RHYME

Subject headings:

ART CRAFT ARCHITECTURE -- MNEM

Ethnic: Native American

To Pray With the Pipe:

The prayer to use with the Pipe is a pattern of free prayer from the heart. Set and written formulas are not used. I had several old Indians tell me that in the eatrly days the Indian people could not understand why the priest was always reading from a book for in their minds this was insincere and ineffectual. It is quite possible that there was a real cultural conflict that the early missionaries entirely missed. One frequently hears that the Pipe was their Bible and those leading double religious lives say that they live by the Pipe and the Bible. At the end of the Prayer, the Pipe is pointed skyward and earthward as a sign of conclusion. Sometimes the person touches the ground with the Pipe.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: CANADA ; Tekakwitha Conference ; WINNIPEG

Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BIBLE ; CUSTOM ; ETHNIC ; Native American ; Pipe ; PRAYER ; RELIGION

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Native American

Before the prayers, say "remember man that the Pipe of your earthly life" will some day be broken. Then take bowl and stem apart and lay on coffin.

After the prayers in the ritual, then take two parts of the Pipe into your hands and say: "Through the Resurrection of Christ, the life of _____and all of us will be brought together into eternal happiness." Then in the four directions, point the Pipe to the sky and say "I am the Living and Eternal Pipe, the Ressurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me, even if he die [sic] shall live: and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Repeat this in each of the four direction. At the end point the Pipe to the sky and touch the Earth with the bowl.

Submitter comment:

The informant advises that the Pipe be already filled with tobacco. This is the most powerful prayer I have experienced with the Pipe and produces a deep impression on many people.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: CANADA ; Tekakwitha Conference ; WINNIPEG ; MANITOBA

Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BELIEF ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Native American ; PRAYER ; RELIGION ; RITUAL

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Native American

To Smoke the Pipe:

If the Pipe is smoked it is done at the conclusion of the prayers. The idea is the same as the new liturgical emphasis in the social aspect of Holy Communion. It is done for fostering the sense of community and to express the unity there is between all the people present as well as with all mankind and all creation. The Pipe is lit by the leader, smoked and passed clockwise. Women can kiss th Pipe in stead of smoking it. After one kisses or smokes the Pipe, he says "For the sake of our relatives." Relatives primarily include men but animals as well. As far as Holy Communion is concerned this is probably the closest the Plains Indian symbol there is. The point can be made that the Plains INdians were striving for the same religious values as Catholics do when they receive Holy Communion with a sense of community in mind. When the Pipe has been passed around, it is handed back to the leader who smokes it again, empties the ashes and the ceremony is completed. Although the smoking of the Pipe would be done in restricted circumstances, there are times when it could be most powerful.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: CANADA ; Tekakwitha Conference ; WINNIPEG ; MANITOBA

Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BELIEF ; CUSTOM ; ETHNIC ; Native American ; Pipe ; PRAYER ; RELIGION ; RELIGIOUS

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Native American

The Pipe:

The place to start in liturgical adaptation is to use the Sacred Pipe as a prayer instrument. This will probably in time lead to the Pipe as an official sacramental like holy water. The Pipe is a wonderful symbol of Christ because it is the instrument of the mediator in the Sioux Religion just as the Sacred Humanity is the instrument of Christ the Mediator in our Christian Religion. Christ fulfills the Pipe rather than destroys it since He does in a more perfect way what the person praying with the Pipe does in an imperfect way. The Pipe, then, is the great Sioux foreshadowing of Christ in HIs Priestly Office. A person who understands and appreciates the Sacred Pipe will be disposed and not hindered from accepting Christ. I have found this true from experience. The Pipe must be purified, even exorcised if necessary like Holy Water and "baptized." When this is done, it is no longer the same Pipe which the early missionaries condemned. Once a person, whether Indian or non-Indian had this vision, he can no longer pray with the Pipe in exactly the same way as before. This is most important to remember: we are no longer talking about the same exact Pipe as the early missionaries because they did not see it in this way.

The Sacred Pipe is the religious symbol which is at the center of every traditional religious ceremony which all Indians of the Plains performed. It would be well to read one book, The Sacred Pipe, by Joseph E. Brown, Oklahoma Press (republished this year). In this account of Nicholas Black Elk, one of the great Catholic catechists on the Pine Ridge Reservation, we see all that the Pipe might stand for. If we want to grasp and summarize all the true cultural religious values of the Sioux Religion, then we must make our approach to adaptation beginning with the Sacred Pipe. If someone would build a Gothic Church, sing (a) Gregorian chant and wear Roman vestaments and at the same time reject the Sacred Humanity of Christ, this would be faulty acceptance of the Catholic Religion. The same is literally true of adapting the externals of the Sioux Religion such as language, music, beadwork, etc. without the Pipe. Whatever is said of the Sioux Religion is true of all the Plains Indians.

By adapting the Pipe we are getting at the natural starting point in their own minds. When you have taken the Pipe into the Catholic Church, you have taken in the essential good of their religion. Does this mean that we need to take in all their religious values without careful examination? No, some of these must be purified or even rejected. The advantage of starting with the Pipe as a prayer instrument (which it always was in their tradition) is that it creates a frequent occasion for dialog with the Indian people and for becoming involved in conversations which were closed to one before. It is most important to talk to the Indian people in an atmosphere of sympathetic acceptance to learn what the Pipe really means to them.

There will be good Catholic Indians who will not want to accept the Pipe because it has been condemned by some Fathers. It is important here to give time for new ideas to seep in. It took three or four months for one of my good Catholic full bloods to accept the use of the Pipe by the priest because of past condemnation. But when the idea finally got across that we are "baptizing" the Pipe, he said with great joy that he "wanted to be the godfather." It wasn't that he did not love the Pipe, but rather he rejected whatever the Fathers told him was bad regardless of how dear it was to him. A person could have taken his first reaction to the Pipe during those first several months as an argument against using the Pipe. But as it turned out, just the opposite is true. In fact, the injustice on our part for denying him the use of his own religious culture which he valued becomes evident. That is why the only way we can continue to discuss liturgical adaptation of Indians culture and make decisions concerning it, is to actually use the Pipe, begin a dialog and give sufficient time for honest reactions to become known.

One great advantage to using the Pipe for many communities is that it does not necessarily involve the Lakota language or Indian language of any Plains Tribe. If a community is almost entirely Indian speaking, using the language is good. But if the community is split, then the Indian language drives the full blood and the mixed bloods into the disunity of the ghettos. I don't think it is advisable to have a Mass just for Indian speaking people and one for non-Indian speaking people. This will never create the Christian Community. On the other hand, the Pipe is a symbol and a symbol can mean different people. [sic] To many full bloods it still has a very literal appeal because they are still living in some way in the traditional world. These people have often been leading double lives. There are probably more Indians going through the sweat lodge and making a fast or vision quest on top of the hill than most people realize.

However, to the non-Indian speaking mixed blood the Pipe should be a symbol of his Indian identity and help enable him to accept his Indian identity with pride. Fr. Bryde's thesis is that there is a social pathology involved in today's Indian Culture and the place to start for everyone, full and mixed blood alike, is to build a pride in their Indian identity. This is what the use of the Pipe in the liturgy can do as well as to unite a fragmented community. In comparison to the above approach, the singing of a white man's son[g]s translated to the Indian was a useful but very weak approach to adaptation. It served its purpose in its own time.

In conclusion, the starting point is to use the Pipe as a prayer instrument and be prepared for open dialog with the Indian People. This use is in complete conformity with our Catholic Faith and should requite [sic] the permission of a local superior only. Eventually, it may become an official sacramental requiring the permission of the Bishop. Thus we are putting the Pipe in a very precise place that we can easily defend and explain so that we can have confidence that we know what we are doing. This is a small beginning since we can hardly do less. If we never go any further than this, we still have enriched the Catholic Church with a wonderful cultural gift and we have allowed the Indian people to accept their Indian identity at least to some extent when they become Catholic. However, when this step is taken, other developments will appear. I use the Pipe as a prayer instrument because I pray with more meaning and greater sincerity. The prayers and rituals will follow.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: CANADA ; Tekakwitha Conference ; WINNIPEG ; MANITOBA

Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BELIEF ; CATHOLICISM ; Colonialism ; Essay ; ETHNIC ; Native American ; RELIGION ; RELIGIOUS ; SYMBOL

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Moravian

Burial Custom: Moravian:

Every Easter, headstones are brought to uniform whitenes and flowers bedeck virtually every grave of deceased Moravian members at Old Salem, North Carolina. At sunrise, approximately half a dozen bands march into the graveyard to celebrate the risen lord.

Submitter comment:

Read in National Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1970

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: Myself ; Magazine

Keyword(s): BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; Easter ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Moravian

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Native American

Lakota Burial Custom:

The Lakota Indians place the deceased bodies of their tribe not in the ground but upon poles until the corpses are either disintegrated or eaten.

Submitter comment:

The informant supposes that the practice places the body close to the Great Spirit, prevents other tribes from taking over Lakota Territory, and expresses the belief that the Lakotas - if they wandered away - would eventually return to this special area.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): AMERICAN INDIAN ; BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Lakota ; Native American

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Korean

Korean Death Custom:

In Korea, a male will straighten the tongue of the person who just died while female members of the family would have to leave the room.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: MICHIGAN ; UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT ; DETROIT

Keyword(s): BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Korean

Subject headings:

Ethnic: Moravian

Moravian Burial Custom:

Moravian cemetary headstones are kept flat to show humility; their uniform size reflects the democracy of death. Burial is not by families but by choirs - grouping by age, sex, and marital status.

Submitter comment:

Read in National Geographic Magazine, Dec. 1970

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: Myself

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; BURIAL ; CUSTOM ; DEATH ; ETHNIC ; Funeral ; Moravian

Subject headings: