Trickster tales, in oral traditions worldwide, features a story of a protagonist, often an anthropomorphized animal, who has magical powers and is characterized as a compendium of opposites. Simultaneously an omniscient creator and an innocent fool, a malicious destroyer and a childlike prankster, the trickster-hero serves as a sort of folkloric scapegoat onto which are projected the fears, failures, and unattained ideals of the source culture (Encyclopedia Britannica). The trickster figure predominantly seen in Bahamian folk narratives is B’er Rabbi alongside his companion Bouki whom he consistently takes advantage of in one tale after another (Glinton 1993, Turner 1988).
Again, in the tale of The Master Trickster, an adaptation of a Haitian tale retold by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas in An Evening in Guanima (1993). The story
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When Bouki’s scaling knife breaks, he sends his son Lazy Borin off to B’er Rabbi to borrow another knife. After some expected protest and a thirty minute journey, Lazy Borin approaches B’er Rabbi’s house and smells crabs being prepared for dinner. He tries to trick B’er Rabbi into letting him stay for dinner and although it did not work B’er Rabbi let him stay and have dinner any way on the condition that Borin did not tell Bouki. Of course, Borin disregards B’er Rabbi’s warnings and returned to B’er Rabbi’s house with Bouki, asking to share in the meal. B’er Rabbi consents but decides to teach them both a lesson. The very next day Borin appears at B’ Rabbi’s door again, this time asking to borrow some fire. Borin notices that B’er Rabbi is boiling some eggs and tries to trick B’er Rabbi into letting him stay for dinner again. B’er Rabbi fed the boy and after dinner Borin rushed home and tell his