Friday, April 26, 2013

" en don't run no resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's gwyne to git hung." ch.4 p.20. Please help me to understand.

In Ch.4 of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" the
narrator Huckleberry spills some salt,


readability="9">

One morning I happened to turn over the
salt-cellar at breakfast. I reached for some of it as quick as I could to throw over my
left shoulder and keep off the bad luck, but Miss Watson was in ahead of me, and crossed
me off.



and he fears that the
superstition that if one spills salt something evil will happen  to him will come true
in his life. His fears are soon realized when he discovers his abusive and alcoholic
father Pap's footprints on the snow.


He decides to take
protective measure and contacts Jim the negro slave who is famous for predicting the
future with a hair ball taken from the  stomach of an ox. Huckleberry wants to know what
his father's future plans are:


readability="15">

Jim, had a hair-ball as big as your fist, which
had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox, and he used to do magic with it. He
said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything. So I went to him that
night and told him pap was here again, for I found his tracks in the snow. What I wanted
to know was, what he was going to do, and was he going to
stay?



Jim begins to play upon
Huckleberry's fears and after extracting some money from him, he concludes by
saying,


You wants to keep 'way fum de water as much as you
kin, en don't run no resk, 'kase it's down in de bills dat you's
gwyne to git hung."


Jim confuses
Huckleberry by cautioning him to stay clear off water, implying that he will be drowned
and at the same time he tells Huckleberry that he need not fear death by drowning as he
is predestined to meet his death by hanging.


The
phrase, down in de bills in the
Missouri negro dialect means 'predestined' that is 'foreordained
by divine decree'


Needless to
say, this only terrifies and confuses  Huckleberry all the more.

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