The people of Appalachia have a long history of storytelling. Entertainment has always been key to the distinct style of storytelling that comes out of the mountains, as stories were often one of the main ways of occupying time and distracting rambunctious kids when they were penned up inside during harsh weather and on cold winter nights. One such entertaining story is the saga of Sody Sallyraytus, in which a family’s heroic pet squirrel has to save the day when a marauding bear eats the family one by one, all because they just wanted some sody biscuits.
Sody Sallyraytus is a common story in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. The story focuses on an old man and woman, their little boy and girl, and their pet squirrel. One day the woman wants to make some biscuits, but she was out of sody sallyraytus, or baking soda as it is known today. She sends the little boy to the store to get some, so she can make her biscuits. After picking up the sody, the boy comes back to the bridge where he encounters a bear who says, “I’ll eat you up, you and your sody sallyraytus,” then gobbles up the boy and his sody. After a while, they send the little girl to see if something has happened to the boy. She goes to the store and asks the storekeeper if he had been there, and learning he had bought the sody and left, she starts home across the bridge, where a similar fate befalls her. The story continues, and both the father and mother fall prey to the bear as they go looking for the children. Finally, the pet squirrel takes off after getting worried when no one returns home. He goes to the store like the others and asks the shopkeeper if he has seen the family, then takes off toward home to search. When the bear confronts him, he chirrs at the bear, then scampers up a tree, dodging the bear’s attacks, where he hatches a plan. As the bear climbs after him, the squirrel runs out on a thin branch and jumps to the next tree. When the bear sees this tiny squirrel jump, he thinks he can do the same as he is so much bigger and stronger than the squirrel, so he tries to follow, and he falls to the ground, releasing the family, and they walk home chanting, “Sody, sody, sody sallyraytus,” as the bear wanders off in pain. Finally making her biscuits, the woman doles out one to each family member, feeding the squirrel pieces until he has eaten nearly two whole biscuits by himself.
The story is told in the traditional style of Appalachian storytelling, with obvious exaggeration, accompanying sound effects, and exaggerated gestures, as it was generally considered a children’s story. Each family member going to town is identified by different sound effects or ways of singing the song. The daughter skips, “a’skip, a’skip, a’skip.” The old man walks, “karumpf, karumpf, karumpf.” The woman ahunchety-hunches, “A’hunchety hunchety, hunch.” The squirrel frisks, “a-frisk, a’frisk, a’frisk.” In some tellings, the members stop to eat berries along the path instead of at a bridge. The bridge variation was likely modeled after the traditional troll stories, such as “Billy Goat’s Gruff” from Europe.
The term sody sallyraytus comes from the period following the introduction of baking soda in the 1860s. In 1840 Saleratus was introduced as a baking agent, replacing pearlash, and was then replaced widely when baking soda came on the market. After baking soda was introduced, many people called it soda saleratus, as they were used to the older ingredient and likely at many stores in remote areas, the two were interchangeable ingredients. In the mountain vernacular it would often be changed to “sody sallyraytus.” This places the story’s origins around the mid-nineteenth century, at least after the introduction of baking soda.
The story’s first publication appears in Richard Chase’s Grandfather’s Tales in 1948. It also appears as “The Bad Bear” in South from Hell-fer-Sartin’: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales (1955) and as a variation in Old Greasybeard: Tales from the Cumberland Gap (1969). The story has since been published as a children’s book or in collections of children’s and Southern stories by several authors since 1990 and was recorded by storyteller Richard Chase in 1977 for a video of Appalachian stories and humor. There is also a Cajun variation of the story known as “Epossumondas Saves the Day,” involving a pet possum and a snapping turtle instead of a bear.
Jonathan Byrn
See also Babes in the Woods; Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present; Hoe Handle, Snake, and Barn; Storytelling
Further Reading
Chase, Richard. 1948. Grandfather Tales. Boston: Houghton.
Roberts, Leonard W. 1955. South from Hell-fer-Sartin’: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Roberts, Leonard W., and Leonard Epstein. 1969. Old Greasybeard: Tales from the Cumberland Gap. Folklore Associates.
Salley, Coleen. 2006. Epossumondas Saves the Day. New York: Harcourt.
Sloat, Teri. 1997. Sody Sallyratus. New York: Dutton.