Uncle Remus His Songs and His Sayings
That evening, Harris goes on to explain, he heard a few stories he had already included among the thirty-four animal tales in Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. He also heard several that he had previously "gathered and verified" but had not yet published. Yet "the great majority were either new or had been entirely forgotten." Then Harris shares an insight that reflects on the collective psyche of his fellow storytellers and, even more importantly, on his own conflicted self. Harris explains that the darkness that night "gave greater scope and freedom to the narratives of the negroes, and but for this friendly curtain, it is doubtful if the conditions would have been favorable to storytelling." Furthermore, "however favorable the conditions might have been, the appearance of a note-book and pencil would have dissipated them as utterly as if they had never existed." Like a professional folklorist, which he never claimed to be, Harris knew the inhibiting effects on his human sources of introducing the reporter's pad in a natural, unforced, oral-performance setting.