Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 343: 80. The Witch and the Grain of Peas. [Story]

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

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]

80. The Witch and the Grain of Peas. [Story]

There are two parts to this story. (1) The witch step-mother discovers that the girl has eaten food in her house and threatens to drown her. (2) The lover comes to rescue her and fights the step-mother.

(1) Compare Jacottet, 166–175, and Lewis, 253–255.

(2) For the fight, compare numbers 69, 79, 88, 89, 90. For the fight with eggs see number 79 and compare Fortier, 11–13. Eggs are used as propitiatory offerings to a water monster, as in Dayrell, 130, and are among the most useful objects employed for conjuring. In Zeltner, 1–6, eggs are used for magical purposes in the fight with a witch, but arrows serve as the actual weapons.