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Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 198: 114. Jack and the Bean-stalk. [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]

114. Jack and the Bean-stalk. [Note]

Clarence Tathum, Mandeville.

Jack’s father died an’ leave he an’ his mother. And all them money finish an’ they didn’t have more than one cow leave. An’ the mother gave him to go to the market an’ sell it. When he catch part of the way, he swap it for a cap of bean.

When he get home, the mother get annoyed and t’row away the bean, so he get dread if the mother beat him. He went away an’ sat by the roadside, an’ he saw an old lady coming, ’he beg him something, ’he show him a house on a high hill, an’ him tol’ him de man live up dere is de man rob all him fader riches an’ he mus’ go to him an’ he get somet’ing. An’ so he went home back.

An’ so in de morning, he see one of de bean-tree grow a large tree outside de window, an’ ’tretch forth over de giant house; an’ he went up till he reach to de giant house. An’ when he go, de giant was not at home an’ he ax de giant wife to put him up an’ give him something to eat. De wife tell him she will give him something to eat, but she can’t put him up, for anywhere him put him de giant will find him when him come home. He said to de giant wife him must tek a chance. De wife put him into a barrel. When de giant come home, de giant smelled him. He ax him wife where him get fresh blood. So she told him she have a little somet’ing to make a pudding for him tomorrow. Said ’he mus’ bring it. Said no, better to have fresh pudding tomorrow than to have it tonight. After de giant finish his dinner, started to count his money. He fall asleep on de table, an’ Jack went down take be bag of money an’ went away to his house. He climb on de bean-tree right outside his window an’ went home back an’ gave his mother the money. [150]