Hugo Schuchardt Archiv

Dominica. W. I.
October 1884

Dear Sir,

I duly received your letter of 25^th August, which gave me the information that you had written to me on the 15^th March. I regret to say, however, that I did not receive the first letter. I suppose, therefore, that it has been lost in the post.

I was expecting to hear from you, for in June 1883 I received officially copies of your letter to the Earl of Derby,¹ of a letter to that nobleman from the English Ambassador at Vienna,² and of a despatch from |2| the Colonial office to the Governor of this Colony.³ In reply to the letter covering all these documents I wrote to say that I should have pleasure in doing what I could to assist you, but I heard nothing about the matter until I received a short time ago your letter dated 25 August. I am sorry for the delay in replying to this note, but I have been ill, and my correspondence has necessarily suffered.

However, “better late than never”. I will at once set work to collect information for you, and you may possibly |3| get a series of proverbs by the next mail.

As the creole patois can scarcely be said to be a written dialect, I shall have to write the words, as best I can, in accordance with the sounds. There is a creole grammar written by a M^r Thomas⁴ - a creole himself - of Trinidad, but I have never had time to study it carefully, and the few rare works published in ‘creole’ in the French Colonies have not fallen into my hands.

I would here remark that the stories you call “anansi” are here written and spoken of |4| as “Nancy-stories” - probably from the fact that they were frequently related to the old negresses who often rejoiced in the name of Nancy, and, as we know, the old women have most to do with the preservation of folk-lore, traditions, proverbs, etc.

Yours faithfully
H. A. Alford Nicholls

Prof. Hugo Schuchardt.
Graz.