Episode Details

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KacheliTV stays in Jamaica, in Martha Warren Beckwith's Jamaica Anansi Stories of 1924 — tales Jamaican storytellers told her, their names kept. Part Eleven gathers the tellings passed and banked from the Modern European Stories and then opens the book's last country, Dance and Song — the stretch of Tales 132 to 149, read in full at the gate.

In "Anansi Claims the Dinner," a name spoken on the road takes the whole dinner. In "Seeks His Fortune," Anansi comes just from heaven — and answers to Mr. Rainy Day. In "Pig from Market," a wee pig will not cross the river until dog, stick, fire, water, cow, butcher, rope, grease, rat and cat have each said "before you" in turn. Then the dances: "In Come Murray" totters in with his pint of water; Tacoomah and Anansi each make a dance; a hungry boy sings out the name of the "Red Yam"; the "Guzzah Man" song covers a rum theft; "Pretty Poll" is invited to chapel; an old couple dance "The Cumbolo" on the road home; a stolen baby is won back by a song "At Court"; Cock hunts the hidden "Ping-Ping"; and "Animal Talk" closes the book's tale-telling with what every creature says.

Passages stand as told at the book's own summary weight: in "Tacoomah's Dance" a broken neck stands inside Jock's sung verse only, never enacted; and in "Animal Talk," White Belly, who will not come down from his tree to eat, falls and dies in the closing clause, by no hand — both disclosed here. Held for the owner's ruling: "The Pannier-Jar," passed over in this stretch as it stands, and "The Fifer," newly held at this gate. Excluded in the earlier sweep of this stretch and named again for the record: "Anansi Kills His Grandmother," "White Belly and Anansi," and "Monkey Hunts Anansi" — each turning on an enacted killing. No completeness is claimed for this stretch.

Storytellers, kept with honour: Edward Daley of Mandeville ("Anansi Claims the Dinner"); Stanley Jones of Claremont ("Seeks His Fortune"); Moses Hendricks of Mandeville ("Pig from Market"); William Forbes of Dry River ("In Come Murray," "Tacoomah's Dance," "Anansi's Dance"); Mary Jane Roden of Brownstown ("Red Yam," "Guzzah Man," "Pretty Poll"); Sarah Findley of Santa Cruz Mountains ("The Cumbolo"); Susan Watkins of Claremont ("At Court"); Matilda Hall of Harmony Hall ("Ping-Ping and Cock"); and James Anderson Hilton of Maroon Town ("Animal Talk").

Chapters:

01:27 Anansi Claims the Dinner

01:55 Seeks His Fortune

03:20 Pig from Market

07:31 In Come Murray

07:58 Tacoomah's Dance

09:10 Anansi's Dance

10:38 Red Yam

12:37 Guzzah Man

13:20 Pretty Poll

13:49 The Cumbolo

14:25 At Court

15:00 Ping-Ping and Cock

15:29 Animal Talk

Source: Martha Warren Beckwith, Jamaica Anansi Stories, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, Vol. XVII (1924); public-domain 1924 edition (Project Gutenberg eBook #72735). Our telling is a fresh in-house rendering of the 1924 text. Music: opening and closing theme, "The River's Dying Vision 2".

Thank you for listening.

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Jamaican folk tales, Anansi stories, Jamaican folk tales audiobook, Jamaican folklore, Martha Warren Beckwith, Caribbean folk tales, world folk tales, free audiobook