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Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 276: 12. Grace before Meat. [Story]
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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]

12. Grace before Meat. [Story]

The same story is told in Jekyll, 77. For the introduction, compare Tremearne, FL 21: 502, and many Berber trick stories, 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 [240]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.