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Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 221: 137. Monkey hunts Anansi. [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]

137. Monkey hunts Anansi. [Note]

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

Hanansi borrow Monkey money, so him tell Monkey fe come Wednesday. When Monkey come, Hanansi knock in ’tomach, say, “Broad enough you can knock, oh!” Monkey ketch him, beat him. Nex’ day when Monkey come he say, “Mudder Hanansi, whe’ you son?” Him say, “Brer Monkey, fe you murder him yesterday, don’ know if you him dead!” Monkey call one roos’ cock an’ cut de craw an’ tek out Hanansi an’ beat him.

When him gone, Hanansi say, “Ma, you goin’ mek Brer Monkey kill me? You know wha’ you do, Ma? Put on yo’ pot, dig de fire ashes, put me in deh, mek up de fire, put on de pot. I will see if dat fellah, Monkey, wi’ fin’ me when him come!” Nobody knew Monkey was a Obeah man. When Monkey come he say, “Mo’nin’, Mudder Hanansi; wha you son?” Mudder Hanansi said, “Massa, dis two day you beat him, an’ don’ know wha’ he do?” Monkey gwine a kitchen, tek off de pot an’ dig out de fire-ashes an’ tek out Hanansi an’ beat him.

Anodder Obeah woman tell Mudder Hanansi said, “You gwine to let Monkey kill yo’ son? Yo’ can twis’ rope?” De ol’ woman said, “No me trade?”1 She said, “Twis’ one rope. When you look out o’ one en’, you see horse you t’ink o’ ants.” Put Hanansi upon it. When Monkey come, Hanansi deh ’pon de rope. When Monkey go up ’pon de rope, holla till Hanansi cut de rope. Me’while de rope cut, Monkey tumble down broke hi’ neck. So Hanansi come down, clean up Monkey. [166]


1 It is my trade.