Jamaica Anansi stories

Chapter 84: 41. Turtle’s Escape. [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]

41. Turtle’s Escape. [Note]

Henry Spence, Bog, Westmoreland.

Turtle fool Anansi one day. Anansi go out one day an’ him catch one turtle,—quite glad of de turtle! So when he go home, Turtle know Anansi gwine eat him an’ said to Anansi, “Brar Anansi, you know me fat? When you put me on, as de water boil up you tak me off, ’cause fat will mash.” So when de water get warm, him blow him nose mak de water boil up. Anansi get frightened, said de turtle wi’ mash! So he lay him down at de pan-side let de fat cool so him no mash. Turtle run away in de pond. Anansi lose him dinner.