"black as Caesar's tail"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

       Just a guess:  Maybe the expression referred to "Black Caesar's tale," with "tale" later misinterpreted as "tail." .  A check of Google (http://www.littlebarrestaurant.com/lb50_treasure.html) presents information on him; here's the first paragraph:
 
     "One of the most vicious pirates to rove the Spanish Main and coastal waters of Florida in the early 19th century was Henri Caesar. Familiarly known as Black Caesar, he also styled himself Caesar the Great. While he was wise enough to limit his raids to small ships and defenseless villages, Caesar amassed a great amount of plunder, which historians claim to be still hidden at no less than six different Florida coastal sites"
 
     Otherwise, "black as Caesar's tail" would likely refer not to Julius Caesar but to a cat named Caesar.  
 
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Lee Murrah
Sent: Fri 4/6/2007 8:32 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "black as Caesar's tail"



When I was growing up in East Texas in the 1950s, when something was
very dirty, my mother would say it was as "black as Caesar's tail."
I have searched for an explanation of the term but have never found a
single reference to it.  In that time and place one might suspect
that it had some racial overtones, but I never heard it used in that
sense.  Does anyone have an information on its origins?

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