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Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 100: 54. Why Crab is afraid after Dark. [Note]
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About This Book

A collection of Jamaican folktales gathers short animal and trickster narratives centered on the spider Anansi alongside tales about tigers, monkeys, goats, and birds. Stories account for curious animal traits, stage comic reversals, and probe themes of cunning, justice, and social order through episodic plots and origin motifs. The volume also presents riddles, dance and song materials, and field-recorded music, arranged in thematic sections that compile variants, brief notes, and folkloric context for each tale.

[Contents]

54. Why Crab is afraid after Dark. [Note]

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

Crab go to God to gi’ him head. God tell him he mus’ go back, “Tomorrow come, I will give you head.” After Crab gwine home, he rej’ice into him, he singin’,

“T’ank God, tomorrow God a’mighty gi’ me head!

T’ank God, tomorrow God a’mighty gi’ me head!”

He dance until he muddy de water. Nex’ day he went to God a’mighty fe get head. God tell him say, “Stop! after you don’ get head yet you go an’ muddy water; den if you get head you will do worse. So you mus’ carry your head upon your shoulder all de days of you life.” So when Crab returning home, when him ketch Orange Bay1 an’ stan’ der call Daniel name, said him wouldn’t trust a shadder after dark, for him don’t know when dey pick him up t’row him into his basket.


1 A local place-name.