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Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 42: 19. Dog and Dog-head. [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]

19. Dog and Dog-head. [Note]

Richard Morgan, Santa Cruz Mountains.

Hanansi an’ Tacoomah dey goin’ out huntin’ to steal cow. De two of dem have der dog. Dey walk. Hanansi, hungry tak him; he eat de dog body an’ tak de dog-head put into his side-bag. Me’while dey gwine in de bush, Tacoomah dog tackle a cow. Hanansi run drive away Tacoomah dog an’ tak fe him dog-head fasten on de cow an’ call out to Tacoomah, “I tackle one fellah!”

Tacoomah know dat was fe him dog ketch de cow. Tacoomah lef’ him went away get one whip an’ go to clear place. He fire de whip an’ say, “A no me, sah! a pupa, sah!” Hanansi holla, “Brar, wha’ dat?” Tacoomah fire de whip again, say, “Don’ my dog ketch buckra cow, sah! a pupa dog ketch it!” Hanansi call out to Tacoomah, “Tacoomah, you fool! you ever hear so-so1 dog-head kyan ketch cow?” So Hanansi run leave de cow; Tacoomah go an’ clean it up. [23]


1 So-so means “only.”