Why Ananse, the Spider, Runs When He Is on the Surface of the Water
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
KWAKU ANANSE, the Spider, went and said to Okraman, the Dog, “I would like that I and you go and build a small village in which to reside.” The Dog said, “I, too, would like that.” Ananse said, “When a Sunday-Adae falls, on the following Monday, go and get a rope-creeper; I, too, will get a rope-creeper and we will set out. Again, I will take a gourd and fill it with water, and you, too, splash some, for perhaps, where we are going, there may not be any water. Ananse splashed some water; the Dog, too, got honey to put in (his) gourd. They were going along, and had reached half-way, when they became tired. Ananse said, “Let us drink some of our water.” The Dog said, “Have some of mine to drink.” Ananse took some, and touched his mouth; he said, “Oh, where did this come from?” The Dog said, “It is in my belly.” The Spider said, “Yes!” As they sat there to get their breath back, Ananse said, “Dog, let us join in play.” The Dog said, “What kind of play?” The Spider replied, “The binding-binding game; you bind me first, then I, too, shall bind you, but when you hear me say, ‘Wui!’ then you leave off.” The Dog said, “No, do you tie me up first.” The Spider said, “Take yourself off, when your elder is telling you something, do you argue about it?” The Dog said, “Well, let it remain (as you wish).” The Spider said, “Come and tie me up.” The Dog took his rope-creeper and bound up the Spider. And he took him up on his head, saying he was going to sell him that he might get something to eat. When Ananse heard that, he raised a lament and said:
“I, Ananse Akuamoa, I have not even got a proper kind of beast to sell me;
Only this fool of a Dog, he is going to sell me.
Whom can I get to save me?
O, Path, save me!”
Ananse could only cry and cry. The Dog carried him until he reached some stream. Now, Odenkyem, the Crocodile, heard the Spider crying. When he came, he asked the Dog
what was the matter. The Dog threw Ananse down, and ran away, and the Crocodile loosed Ananse. And Ananse said, “Father, what kind of thing can I give you to show how grateful I am?” The Crocodile said, “We do not desire anything at all.” Ananse said, If you have children, then to-morrow I shall come and dress their hair for them very becomingly.” The Crocodile said, “I have heard.” Ananse came home; he said, “Aso, go and seek palm-nuts and onions, for to-morrow I am going to kill and bring back a crocodile that we may have a soup stew to eat.” Aso went and got some, and the Spider sharpened his knife and mashed eto, and took it to the stream. He said, “Father Crocodile, the Water-animal, I am coming to reward you.” And he took the pounded yams and put them in the water. The Crocodile came, and he was about to take the pounded yams to eat, when the Spider took his knife and cut at him, gya! but he did not get him (properly), and he went off. Ananse returned home. Aso asked him, saying, “Where is that animal?” Ananse said, “Take yourself off; a person comes off a journey, and hasn’t even got his breath back, and you begin to bother him with questions.” Aso said, “I have seen that you did not get him.” Ananse did not say anything. Next morning, very early, Aso said she was going to the stream. When she got there, there was the Crocodile lying on the river bank, and the bluebottle-flies were buzzing round him. Aso returned home and told her husband. Ananse said, “Now you see how a certain medicine I have, acts; when I kill meat (one day), not until things become visible, the next day, do I go and fetch it, but nevertheless I congratulate you on seeing it.” Ananse cut a stick and took it with him to the stream there, and there he came across the Crocodile. He poked at it with the stick, saying, “Crocodile, are you dead? Crocodile, are you dead?” and he turned it over and over. And the Crocodile lay still, but he was not dead. When Ananse was about to take his hand to touch it, the Crocodile suddenly snapped him, kua! Ananse struggled, petere! petere! and found a way to escape. That is why, when the Spider passes on the water, he hastens along; he is afraid that the Crocodile will come to catch him again.
This, my story, which I have related, if it be sweet, (or) if it be not sweet, take some elsewhere, and let some come back to me.
The Elders Say, “Be It Your Kinsman, or Husband, or Any One at All Who Has Work to Do, If He Ask You, Help Him”
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
ANANSE, the Spider, said to Aso (his wife), “Let us go and make a garden.” Aso said, “I shall not go.” Ananse went to clear the ground. When he came back, he said to her, “Is it really true that you will not go (to help me)?” Aso replied, “A woman taboos clearing the ground.” Ananse said, “To-morrow let us go and burn the garden weeds.” Aso said, “A woman taboos burning garden weeds, and as for me, shall I go for the fire to burn me?” So Ananse went and returned. Next day, when things became visible, he said, “Aso, I beg you, let us go together and plant things.” She said, “I said, I would not go.” Ananse said, “I have seen misfortune.” Then he went and planted everything finely. Now there they were, and the crops came. One day Aso went to the farm there. She came and told Ananse, saying, “Kwaku, the crops have come in the garden, and when shall we go there (to gather them in)?” Ananse said, “Ho! what that Mohammedan fellow said, I can’t understand it at all.” Aso said, “What’s that; speak out that I may understand you.” Ananse said, “I am going and returning.” Ananse went there to the garden, and there he stood long, and he said (to himself), “I, Kwaku the Spider, here I am, and am I to live and allow this, a mere woman, to make a fool of me?” Ananse took a knife, an axe, and a hoe, and dug a great big hole. He took all the produce in the farm and put it inside, and turned back home. He said, “Aso, come hither, that I may tell you the news.” Aso came. He said, “I went to consult a certain Mohammedan fellow about my fortune; he says that there remain eight days for me before I die, so I am not going to the farm any more, nor are you going there any more, and when I die, there will you go and bury me. I have dug a great hole there, and in it you will bury me.” Eight days were fulfilled; Ananse pretended to die. The people lifted up the Spider and went and buried him there in his garden. They returned home and made a very fine funeral custom. Aso, too, performed the rites of widowhood. When they were holding the eighth-day funeral ceremony, Aso said, “Ah, let me go and look at my husband’s garden.” Aso went; there lay the garden, dadwa! Aso said, “Oh, the garden which my husband made and upon which my eyes were resting (to supply me;
with food), some people have come and eaten up everything in it.” Then she wept and uttered a curse (upon them), saying, “(I call on) the ghost of Kwaku Ananse, all the produce in your farm which you left to me, people have come and eaten.”
Kwaku Ananse lifted up (his voice and sang):
“Cease (complaining)! I have only eaten what is my own! Cease (complaining), Aso taboos clearing weeds.
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what is my own!
Cease (complaining), Aso taboos burning (the garden weeds). Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what belongs to me!
Cease (complaining), Aso taboos planting.
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what is my own!”
Thereupon, Aso stood still, and was afraid. She went home and called Adanko, the Hare, to come that he might hear some words which were at her husband’s farm there. The Hare and she set off. Aso reached the farm there, and she raised (her voice) again and cried:
“My husband was Kwaku, the Spider,
And he died and left me his farm,
And people came and ate up the food in it.
Ghost of Kwaku, the Spider, I kneel to you, I implore you,
Kill them for me.”
Kwaku Ananse lifted up his voice:
“Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what was my own!
Cease (complaining), Aso taboos clearing weeds.
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what is my own!
Cease (complaining), Aso taboos burning (the garden weeds).
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what belongs to me!
Cease (complaining), Aso taboos planting.
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what is my own; cease (complaining)!
Since the Creator made (things), have you seen a woman who doesn’t help her husband?
Cease (complaining), I have only eaten what is my own; cease (complaining)!” The Hare said, “I have finished listening, let us go home that I may tell you what it is all about.” He and Aso went home. Hare said, “Ananse said, he told you, saying, ‘Let’s go and clear a garden’; you said you would not go; ‘Let’s go and burn (the dry weeds)’; and you said you would not go; ’Let’s go and plant’; and you said you would not go; therefore you may stop weeping, for he is eating (only) what is his own, for, since the Creator created, he has not seen a woman who did not help her husband; so cease lamenting (he says), for he has only eaten all that belonged to him.” That is why we say, “When any one at all is engaged on any work and he asks you, help him.”
This, my story, which I have related, if it be sweet, (or) if it be not sweet, take some elsewhere, and let some come back to me.