Jamaica Anansi Stories/Notes
Notes.
[edit]Parkes heard this story in St. Ann Parish. Milne-Home, 99-108, tells it of Anansi and "Lion," who takes the place of Tiger in earlier Jamaica story-telling. In a famous Jamaica digging-song, the words "Tiger-Lion" are coupled much as we should say "John Smith."
The story falls into three parts. (1) A bully takes for himself the food-supply of one weaker than himself, who dares not object. (2) The bully is tricked into allowing himself to be tied; when he is tormented or robbed of the food he is monopolizing. (3) He either dies, or he is rescued and (a) falls upon his rescuer, of (b) invites him to dinner, when he is again tricked by his first victim, who personates the animal who has released him and enjoys his hospitality until detected and pursued.
Compare: Callaway, 29; 358; Theal, 110; Jacottet, 20-22; Dayrell, 93-97; Barker, 55-58; Cronise and Ward, 209-213; Ellis, Ewe 274; Rattray, 2:74-82; Smith, 549-551; Lenz, 41; Christensen, 23-25; Harris, Nights, 327-329; Friends, 21-23; Ernst, VBGAEU 20:275; Koch-Grünberg, 2:141; Saurière, 95-100; Lenz, Estudios, 202, 210.
(1) The fish-basket story occurs in Dayrell and in Barker (antelope in a bundle). In Milne-Home, Anansi catches the fish by pretending he is going to give them new life.
(2) The tying trick is variously treated. In Callaway, 29, and Theal, the "cannibal's" hair is plaited into the thatch, in Jacottet, the tail; in Callaway, 358, the tail is fastened into the ground. In Dayrell, the two play at tying each other (as in numbers 16 and 37) and the weaker animal refuses to untie the stronger. In Barker, the stronger animal consents to be hung in order to have his teeth beautifully filed. In Cronise & Ward and in the American versions (Harris, Christensen, Lenz, Ernst), the lying takes place under pretence of storm, but a pretence made plausible by shaking the trees as if a storm were coming. In Jacottet's Story, Lion, whose tail has been thatched into the hut, prays for a storm to kill his tormentor; it comes and destroys Lion himself. In Koch-Grünberg (Taulipang), the story is mixed with the motive of the support of the stone.
Tormenting the tied victim by throwing at him the remnants of the feast occurs in Theal, Cronise & Ward, Dayrell (salt and pepper). In Callaway and Lenz, he is severely beaten.
(3) Release by "White-ants" occurs in Barker, Cronise & Ward, Smith; by "Bush-rat" in Dayrell, where the story ends, as in number 12 c, by the released victim falling upon his rescuer. In Milne-Home, this motive is also suggested. In Ellis, "Bush-rat" is freed by "Snail." Compare Nassau, 46, where the swollen Leopard, freed from his predicament by Crab, turns and eats up his rescuer. The overheard invitation occurs in Barker, Smith, Milne-Home.
The two episodes do not, so far as I know, occur in African collections, and in American collections they belong to a single story,
Compare: (Mexico), Boas, JAFL 25:205; Parsons, Andros Island 82-85; Sea Islands, 40-43; Edwards, 63; JAFL 30:229); Backus, JAFL 13:22-24; JAFL 32:400-402; Harris, Nights, 12-17; 179-185; Uncle Remus 140-145; Hichiti Indians, JAFL 26:214.
In Edward's and Parsons's versions, the two episodes of tying in the garden and tying up while the water is scalding belong together; one is the conclusion of the other. In Mrs. Parsons's version, the boy says when he finds Boukee tied in place of Rabby, "O pa! de leetle man grow beeg!" Edward's version says, "Pa, dey big one here!"--"Don't care if 'e big one or little one, I goin' to scal' him!" is the answer, In Boas's Mexican Rabbit cycle, Rabbit is caught in a woman's chile-garden by means of the tar-baby, is hung in a net while water is heating, pretends he is to marry, and persuades Coyote into his place. The "dear old woman" says "Ah! How did the Rabbit turn into a coyote?"
The story is related to Grimm 8, discussed by Bolte u. Polívka 1:68. In Boas's Mexican cycle, Rabbit escapes from Coyote by leaving him playing the guitar for a marriage couple. Anansi is represented as an accomplished fiddler in numbers 4, 10b, 14, 15, 20, 40, 43, 44, 47 b, 93, 94, 131, 141. See numbers 1 and 21 b and Boas's discussion, JAFL 25:248-250.
The story is very common in Jamaica and presents no local variations from the form familiar in America. In Parkes's version, the "two misses" become two "post-mistresses". In a version by Knight, a school-master in the Santa Cruz mountains, Tacoomah is the horse and the story ends, "From that day the saddle fasten on Brer Tacoomah's back." Knight explained that "Brer Tacoomah is a large spider with yellow spots and a broad back shaped like a saddle," and that the story was told to explain this characteristic.
Other Jamaica versions are found in Milne-Home, 51-63; Pamela Smith, 17; and Wona, 19-23. In Wona's version, the story is made to explain "why gungo-peas are always covered with Tacoomahs," a species of spider.
Compare Parsons, Andros Island, 30 and note; Sea Islands, 53; for comparative references.
Tremearne, FL 21: 205, and Tailed-Head-Hunters, 322, tells a Hausa story of a Hyena who has stolen a holy man's horse. Spider offers to bring the Hyena to him in its place, and persuades Hyena, under pretence of taking him to a dead animal, to be saddled and bridled and ridden by Spider to the holy man, who then mounts Hyena and completes his journey.
In Ellis, Yoruba 265, Tortoise rides Elephant into town to sustain an idle boast,
In Smith's Brazil version, the little animal is tied on for safety, and takes care to slip into a hole when he finally dismounts.
In Ernst, VBGAEU 20:277 (Venezuela), Rabbit rides Tiger across a river. The story is coupled here with the murder in midstream.
Parkes heard this story in St. Ann Parish. Wona, 62-67, tells how Anansi steals Monkey's clothes and passes the theft off on "Bone."
Compare: Tremearne, FL 21:352; Harris, Nights; 68-74; Parsons, Sea Islands, 145: JAFL 32:366.
The common theme of teaching to an unsuspecting comrade an incriminating song (as in Parsons, Sea Islands, 145) is here emphasized by a second intrigue, that of the sheep-skin suit. The idea seems related to the next number. In Wona, 30-36, Tacoomah puts on a sheep-skin and bides in the fold from which the sheep are being stolen, Anansi ties and accuses him because he wears the sheep-skin.
The story of the sheep-thief and the disguised watchman is popular in Jamaica, especially in St. Ann Parish, and I have given three versions in order to show the range of variation and the persistence of the essential plot. I have abbreviated White's version without other change except the insertion of the incident of the misunderstood warning, which comes from another version and commonly precedes the episode of the "refugees in the roof." Besides these three versions, Wona has the story, 30-36, and in Jekyll, 88, Tiger puts on a similar disguise at the conclusion of Annancy and Candle-fly (see number 7).
The tale falls into three parts. (1) A flock of sheep disappear one by one. (2) Tiger, or his equivalent, puts on the animal's skin in order to catch the thief. (3) The thief is caught, but escapes his captor; or he provides a substitute; or he is pursued and takes refuge in the roof.
Compare: Tremearne, 214-216; Barker, 131-132; Parsons, Andros Island, 117-119; Edwards, 67-68.
(1) The witty opening of the Jamaica versions based on a compensation motive (see numbers 22 and 63), in which the rascal takes advantage of an open-handedness common to aristocratic wealth, does not occur outside Jamaica. Compare Tremearne, FL 21:213-214. In Parsons, he pleads his wife's illness; in Edwards and Barker, he is a mere thief. In Barker, as in Jamaica, the story accepts the absurdity that all the sheep have disappeared except the last.
(2) The thief-catcher is "head-man" in Edwards as in Jamaica; in Barker he is a man who comes to town; in Wona, he is Tacoomah; in Parsons, a lion gets in with the sheep and is taken as the plumpest of them.
(3) Barker's version has a moralizing tendency; it is the friend who accompanies the thief who, all a flash of lightning, detects the trap and escapes. In Edwards, as in version (b), the rascal shifts the burden to his unsuspecting accomplice and himself escapes, Edwards and Parsons both conclude with the episode of taking refuge in the roof, as in version (c). For references see Parsons,. 117 note 2.
For the incident of the misunderstood warning, compare: Tremearne, FL 21:206; Renel 2:7, 8; Theal, 165; Harris, Nights, 82; Trowbridge, JAFL 9:286.
There can be no doubt that the essential plot is a version of the Sindibad fable of the thief among the beasts, who caught the lion by mistake, told in Comparetti's translation from the Portuguese
in his "Researches Concerning the Book of Sindibad", PFLS 9:144. A rich herder camps beside a village at night. A prowling lion gets among the beasts. A thief comes and, feeling the animals to see which is the plumpest, lays hands upon the lion.
For the first breakfast trick, compare number 57a; for the second, 43. For Tiger's revenge, see number 38.
Jekyll tells the same story in Annancy and Candle-fly, 86-89, Wona, in Anancy and Fire-fly, 24-29; Pamela Smith, in Anancy and Ginger-fly. Milne-Home, 35-39, contains the scorpion episode, Compare Tremearne FL 21:360.
The plot is in two parts. (1) Anansi goes on an egg-hunt at night with Fire-fly as guide, but is deserted because of his greed. (2) He stumbles upon Tiger's house at night, and tries to steal back the eggs which Tiger has set Scorpions to guard. The parallel of this story with number 39 is obvious. Jekyll's version takes on elements of the sheep-stealing story, number 5. A Mandeville version reads much like Milne-Home's:
Bra Anansi an' Bra Tiger went out to go an' steal some eggs. Bra Anansi took a rubber bag an' Bra Tiger took a canvas bag. When Bra Tiger bag full, Bra Anansi jus' half. Bra Tiger would not wait any longer. He leave him an' he go away.
Anansi was filling the bag, there he see a light coming, think it was Bra Tiger an' cry out, "Lor', Bra'r, Bra'r, yo' jus' coming to meet me?" But it wasn't Tiger; it was the man watchin' the eggs.}}
An' when he went up to hol' him he said, "Do, sah! do, sah I don' carry me to massah to-night. Tie me to yo' bed-side to-night till a mawnin'!" An' when the man was sleeping, he call to Bra Rat, "Bra'r Rat, run come here let me tell you somethin'!" When Bra Rat come he said, "Jes' loose me, I hev some egg here to give you!" An' he loose him, he simply went right away,--never give Bra Rat anything.
The popular story of the bone-hole is better in action than on paper. A lad in Ballard's Valley gave me a similar story of John-Crow's bone-hole, ending with the dash of boiling water which has rendered John-Crow permanently bald (see number 47). After dictating the story he said, "Now I will tell it so as to make it funny", and he proceeded to retell the tale in rapid dialogue, changing his voice to imitate the speakers and representing in pantomime the action of eating and throwing the bones, of ducking to escape them, and of playing the fiddle. As in this case, the dictated stories often only approximately render the style of actual oral delivery.
Compare Cronise and Ward, 214-218. For negro ideas about the "bone-heap" see Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, 275-283.
The Jamaica version of this wide-spread tale (Grimm 3, discussed in Bolte u. Polívka, 1:9-13), has no local peculiarities. Compare Parsons, Sea Islands, 5-9 and references; also Frobenius 3:13-16.
It consists of two parts. (1) A rascal excuses himself three times for leaving his companion, on the plea of a summons to a christening, in order to rob a tub of butter which the two hold in common. (2) By smearing the innocent companion with the butter, he makes him appear the guilty one.
The first part is the distinguishing feature of the tale. A stolen food-supply is one of the commonest episodes in negro trickster stories and common tests to detect the thief occur:--(a) Taking a purge to detect stolen food as in Dennett, 92. (b) Jumping over a fire, as in Harris, Uncle Remus, 84; Nights, 253-254; JAFL 30: 193; 32: 394; and numbers 21 a and 36. (See Bolte u. Polívka 1:39). (c) Jumping over, or walking, a string, as in Theal, 115; Junod, 105; Boas and Simango JAFL 35:193; Compare also Monk Lewis's story of the test in crossing a river, 253-254, illustrated in number 80.
The trick to "incriminate another fellow" is, regularly, to smear the innocent victim with food while he sleeps. Compare: Bleek, 18; Callaway, 169; Theal, 93-97; Junod, 102; Dayrell, 53-54; Harris, Uncle Remus, 83; Parsons, Sea Islands, 8-14; also, Haida Indians, Swanton 113 (Bur. of Am. Ethn. Bull. 29).
The blood-smearing of the innocent victim in Leopard's Marriage Journey, Nassau, 85-95, is a particular instance of the same motive. The sheep-skin suit and the song in the mouth of the unsuspecting victim, serve as witty substitutes for this common device for the incriminating of an innocent person by the guilty.
In Arcin, 473, the common food-supply is stored in a granary of which Rabbit steals the key, eats the food, and scatters the remains in the house of the guardian Hyena.
The "Just so" story, number 51, is another version of the diving plot, which is popular in Jamaica. Jekyll tells it, 7-9, in form (b).
Compare: Chatelain, 205; Junod, 208; Renel, 254; JAFL 32:395; Nights, 373-377; Parsons, Sea Islands, 40.
In all these cases, the trickster proposes diving and eats a store of food while his companion is in the water. The grotesque idea of bodily dismemberment coupled with the diving episode, I do not find in any of the parallels noted. In Parsons, Andros Island, 73, Boukee and Elephant go out bird-hunting. Boukee shoots Elephant and brings him home to the family. Boukee is brought to justice because the children are overheard singing,
"Me an' Mamma'n Pappa
Eat my belly full o' pot o' soup
Bo'o' Elephin got (gut), oh!"
For the incriminating song in version (b), see number 4.
The story furnishes a good instance of local setting for an old tale, the pine-apple being well known in Jamaica. It takes two forms, that of leaving behind an implement necessary for the enjoyment for some food-supply, and that of throwing it: away, in both cases under the impression that the adviser has done the same, as in number 13.
Compare, for both spoon and knife episodes, Theal's Hlakanyana cycle, 105-107; for the knife, Nassau, 85; 90; for the spoon, Chatelain, 17 (incomplete); Tremearne, 231-233. In Dayrell, 51, the abandoned implement is a drinking-horn. In the Bahama versions of the same story (Parsons, Andros Islands, 70-74; Edwards, 80-82) the episode does not appear.
The same story is told in Jekyll, 77. For the introduction, compare Tremearne, FL 21:502, and many Berber trick stories, I e. g. Basset 1:1, 3; 2:12, 18, 76, 87. A version from Henry Spence, the Bog song leader, exactly follows the Aesopic model of Grimm 75 discussed in Bolte u. Polívka 2:119-121.
De Fox ax de cat how much trick him got. Puss say, "I have one." De Fox say him have ten time ten. So one day Dog start de Cat an' de Fox. So after de Cat run fe de tree, never miss de tree at all, run to de top an' sit down look upon Fox now an' de dog. An' all de trick de Fox got, de Dog ketch him.
For Monkey's helping Tiger out of the hole and Tiger's ingratitude, compare Tremearne, FL 21:362.
For the escape by saying grace, compare: Bleek, 23; Jones, 109-110; Harris, Nights, 152-153 and see number 59b.
The complete story is made up of three parts. (1) Some inexperienced animal wants to know "what trouble is". (2) The rascal gets him into difficulty; (3) and helps him out again.
Compare: Zeltner, 105-107; Tremearne, FL 21:499-500; Jones, 107-109; Parsons, Sea Islands, 59-61.
(1) Only Jones, Parsons and the Jamaica version (a) have the introduction, which suggests the story (Grimm 4) of the lad who did not know what fear was.
(2) One of three plots is employed to teach wisdom. In Jones (see number 30c and Gerber's Great Russian Animal Tales, 12, 16) the rascal gives his victim a bull-dog in a bag and bids him let it out in an open field. In Parsons, he sets on fire the deep grass in which his victim lies sleeping. In Zeltner, Hyena and Hare catch four lion cubs; Hare pretends to kill his two, and Hyena follows his supposed example. In Tremearne, Hyena and Jerboa on a wedding journey are lodged in the goat-house and the fowl-house respectively. Jerboa proposes they have a feast, then counsels the host to count the fowls and the goats. None of his fowl are missing, but Hyena has eaten a goat. In Ferrand, Madagascar, 207, it is proposed to kill mothers. One pretends to, the other thinks it real and does it. See number 136.
In Gerber's Great Russian Animal Tales, 13, the Fox, having placed some chickens under her, pretends to be tearing out and eating her own entrails. Bear tries to do the same and kills himself.
(3) The escape into a hole is very common. The usual method of rescue is to throw dust, pepper or spit into the eyes of the watcher at the hole. Compare: numbers 5c, 23, 27 a, and Zeltner, 107; Nassau, 45, 46; Smith, 549; Harris, Uncle Remus, 52; Nights, 285; Fortier, 115; Jones, 108; JAFL 30:178; Parsons, Andros Island, 118 and note for references.
The "sweet" eye-water suggests such a tale as Tremearne, FL 21:364, where Goat smears honey upon Hyena's sinew, with which he is doing some mending for Lion, and by giving Lion a taste of it provokes an attack upon Hyena,