Jamaica Anansi stories

The trick to save a mother in time of famine from a mutual agreement of sacrifice to hunger, has a great vogue in Jamaica. I got two versions, and Pamela Smith tells it as “Parrot, Tiger and Anancy,” 52–54.

Compare: Dayrell, 86–90; Dennett, 85; Harris, Nights, 233–236; 237–241; Fortier, 109; Parsons, Andros Island, 116–117; JAFL 30: 230–231.

Only in the Jamaica versions and in Parsons does the trick consist in teaching a hidden name. In P. Smith, after saving his mother by teaching her the new name, Anansi hides her in a tree and the story follows 17 a. Dayrell, and Harris 237–241, tell the tree story. In Dennett, she is hidden in a cave, where she is discovered by treachery and killed. In Harris 233–236, Wolf’s mother is taken first to market and sold, and Rabbit tricks Wolf out of horses, wagon and provisions by the familiar device of burying the tails; but the story is incomplete, as it does not explain how Anansi got out of the bargain. In Fortier, the two mothers are tied, one with a rope, the other with a cob-web, and one mother escapes. The tying trick precedes the tail-burying in Parson’s Portuguese version, JAFL 30: 230–231.

In Chatelain, 141–145, four brothers-in-law refuse food to their brother’s wife because she does not know their names. A bird sings them to her as follows:

For the hidden name theme which forms the basis of this story, see note to number 69.