A Riddle
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
THERE were once three young men; they all loved one girl. Now these three young men left Bontuku to go to Cape Coast, saying they were going to buy things. When they reached Cape Coast, one of them had a mirror. He picked the mirror up, and he plucked some (magic leaves) and put them on the mirror, and he looked in it. He beheld their lover was dead, and that she lay in an open veranda-room. He said, “Friends, our lover is dead.” One of them said, “I shall cause us to reach Bontuku immediately that we may go and bury her.” The next one, too, said, “If you can manage to make us reach there, I shall immediately cause her to awake.” Now one went and plucked medicine, and put it on their knees, and they set out. At once they arrived there. Another, too, went and got medicine and put it in a brass bowl; and he took his cow-tail and dipped it in the medicine, and sprinkled the corpse with it. He said, “Corpse, awake; corpse, awake!” and it awoke. Now of these three people, which of them did the best?
You Are as Wonderful as Ananse, the Spider
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
ANANSE, the Spider, was once living there, when Nsia, the mother of the Sky-god, became ill. They went and fetched a medicine-man to come and attend her. When he came, he claimed a deposit of a pereduan of gold dust (i. e. £8) for attending to her sickness. Now, Ananse went and told the Sky-god, saying, “This fellow is taking your gold dust for nothing; he is not able to look after her, so let me look to her for you, and if I do not look after her, my head can be forfeit.” Ananse took an asuanu’s-worth of gold dust (i. e. £4), and he said to the Sky-god, “If I should be unable to cure this sickness, I shall give you a live lion.” Next morning, when things became visible, Nsia, the mother of Nyankonpon, the Sky-god, had departed. They said, “Ananse, what about it?” Ananse left that place; he has fled. Now, speech and its left-behinds (i. e. I forgot to mention that) Ananse’s greatest friend was Okusie, the Rat. He told the Rat what had happened, saying, “That is what I have seen, so now you must help me.” The Rat replied, “In what way can I help you?” (Ananse) replied, “I want you to go and dig a tunnel until it reaches under the raised mound upon which the Sky-god sits.” The Rat said, “I shall do it for you.” So he made it. The Rat came and informed Ananse, saying, “I have finished.” Ananse went and called his son, Ntikuma; and he cut a horn for him; and he told him to go into the tunnel and sit beneath the raised mound, and, when he saw that the Sky-god had seated himself on the raised mound, he must sound his horn and say:
“When you kill Ananse, the tribe will come to ruin!
When you pardon Ananse, the tribe will shake with voices
Ntikuma went and sat down beneath the reception seat, and Ananse set out, saying he was going to Nyankonpon, the Sky-god, there of his own accord. When he went, then the Sky-god’s executioners caught hold of him; they took him before the Sky-god. Then the spokesman said to him, “You, Kwaku Ananse, you said to Nyankonpon, the Sky-god, that if his mother, Nsia, died, that he might kill you; so because Nsia has departed, therefore we shall kill you.” Ananse said, “You must allow me to state my case.” But the executioners seized hold of him in order to go and kill him. Ntikuma raised (his voice):
“When you kill Ananse, the tribe will come to ruin!
When you pardon Ananse, the tribe will shake with voices!”
They said, “Listen, listen!” And again the horn sounded:
“When you kill Ananse, the tribe will come to ruin!
When you pardon Ananse, the tribe will shake with voices!”
Then the Kontirehene chief rose up to inform the Sky-god, saying, “This tribe belongs to you, Sky-god, and to Ya, Old-mother-earth. To-day you have got Ananse and are about to kill him. Ya, Old-mother-earth, says, ‘Let him go,’ so if you let him go, it will be well.” Then the Sky-god made the executioners release him. That is why there is a saying, “You are as wonderful as Ananse.”
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.
There Is Nothing Anywhere (That We Fear)
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
THEY say that there once lived a Leopard and his wife, and that they had two children. Now the mother and the father of these children used to go to the bush every day to catch meat to bring to them. One day their mother and father said to them, “When you rise up, you must cry out and say, ‘There is nothing anywhere (that we fear), there is nothing anywhere (that we fear).’” Then they went off to the bush, leaving their children there. Then Dankwanta, the Night-jar, came along, and the children cried out:
“There is nothing anywhere (that we fear),
There is nothing anywhere (that we fear)!”
The Night-jar said, “Who told you to cry out such a thing?” They replied, “It was father and mother who said it.” The Night-jar said, “They are wrong; you must cry out, “Times soon change, times soon change.” Now, as for those infants, their mother and their father returned, and heard their children crying: “Times soon change,
Times soon change!”
They said, “Who told you to cry out such a thing?” They replied, “A certain man told us.” Then their mother and their father said, “You must not call out that, you must call out, ‘There is nothing anywhere (that we fear), there is nothing anywhere (that we fear).’” They gave the infants meat and went off. The Night-jar came back, and he had made two spears. Now at the place where the infants lay stood two trees. When the Night-jar came, he broke the two trees, and he stuck the spears in the stumps. He said to the infants, “You must cry, saying, ‘Times soon change, times soon change,’ and when your mother and your father return you must say that it is I, who have told you.” The Night-jar flew and alighted on the point of one of the spears. Not long after, the mother and father of the infants returned. They said, “Who told you to cry out this?” The Night-jar answered, “I (did).” The male Leopard was leaping upon him to seize him, when the Night-jar flew off and the Leopard impaled himself on the spear. The Night-jar flew on the second spear. When the female Leopard would have leaped to catch him, she, too, was impaled on the spear. The Night-jar said to the children, “Now, you see you will not get any more meat to eat. That is what I meant when I told you, ‘times soon change ’.”
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.
We Do Not Leave an Elephant Behind, to Go and Throw a Stone at Aserewa, the Wren
We do not really mean, we do not really mean, (that what we are going to say is true).
ANANSE, the Spider, was living there, and one Sunday Adae, he went to bid good morning to the Sky-god. He (the Sky-god) gave him a section of a lime. Ananse set out with it and went on. As he went, there were women in the stream beating their clothes. Ananse told them to accept the section of lime and give to their child. They received it and gave the child. Ananse said, “Give me something and let me go.’” Then they splashed water into a gourd, gave him, and he went off with it. As he went, there were some people making earth mounds in which to plant yams, and Ananse gave them water to drink. The people gave him a yam. He went on and he met a blacksmith, and he was chewing charcoal. He gave him the yam, saying he must accept it and eat, for to eat charcoal was not good. And Ananse said, “Give me something and let me go.” He gave him a soso (hoe), and he took it and went off. He went and saw a man, who was using his penis to cut down palm-nuts. And Ananse gave him the soso (hoe), and he in turn gave Ananse palm-oil, one water-pot, full. And he set off. And he went on, and met a woman who had borne ten children, and she was oiling their skins with her own spittle. Kwaku Ananse took the oil and gave it to the woman, that she might oil her children with it. The woman gave him one child, and he set off with it, and went on, and met a woman. She had not any child, and she had taken a wooden spoon and fastened beads upon it. Then Father Ananse gave the child to the woman, and the woman in turn gave him the wooden spoon, and he set off with it. He went on, and met some one who was grinding corn-flour with her elbow. Ananse gave her the spoon, and she in turn gave Ananse corn-flour. He went off with it, and came across a herd of Elephants. The herd of Elephants were drinking at a mud hole. Ananse said, “Accept this corn-flour to eat, for this muddy pool is not good.” Then the herd of Elephants accepted it and drank it. When they had finished drinking, the Spider said, “Give me something and let me go.” They said, “We have not anything, but this stream which lies there, let us all jump and leap over it, and the one who falls in, you can take him.” Now, one of the Elephants was about to have a child. All the beasts jumped, but the one that was in “the family way” fell into the water, and Ananse went and got her, and he fastened a rope of palm fibre to the Elephant’s leg, and held it. Now he saw that an aserewa bird was passing. And Ananse said, “This is a beautiful bird, I shall go and catch it and give it to my child, Ntikuma.” And Ananse followed the aserewa bird; he threw stones to hit it; he did not get it. When he came back, the Elephant had gone off. That is why we have a saying which runs, “We do not leave an Elephant behind to go and throw a stone at an aserewa bird.”
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.