Anansi and Tiger went to the river.
"Take out your guts before your bath!" Anansi told Tiger, and Tiger did.
Then Anansi ate Tiger's guts while Tiger took a bath.
"Where are my guts?" shouted Tiger.
"The monkeys took your guts to Monkey-Town," said Anansi.
Tiger ran to Monkey-Town, and the monkeys were all singing: "All the monkeys swallowed them up! We ate Mister Tiger's guts!"
Tiger got mad and started killing the monkeys.
One of the monkeys shouted, "Stop that, Tiger! It's only a song! Anansi taught us this song yesterday."
So Tiger knew Anansi had tricked him again.
Inspired by: Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith
Notes: This is story 10b in the book. Beckwith heard this story from Simeon Falconer; additional information in Beckwith's notes. It's very short in the original, so I'll quote the whole thing here:
Anansi and Tiger bade. So Anansi tell Tiger, "Meanwhile bading, tak out tripe!" Tiger tak out tripe. Anansi firs' come out an' eat Tiger tripe, an' say if Tiger wan' to know how him tripe go he mus, go down to Monkey town. So Anansi go down, go tell Monkey when dey see Tiger coming mus' sing,In Anansi Folktales in the Diaspora, Grannum-Solomon tells a version where Tiger is cooking soup and Anansi urges Tiger to go swimming so the soup can cool off, then Anansi eats the soup, etc.
"Dis time, we eat Tiger gut down!"
So after, as Tiger hear dem all a-singing, kill off all de Monkey. An' catch one of de Monkey an' he say Anansi come down larn him de song yesterday!
Why would Tiger be stupid enough to take out his guts? If you ask me he deserved what happened!
ReplyDeleteI feel so sorry for Tiger, being tricked time and time again is humiliating.
ReplyDeleteOnly someone who has been tricked a lot would find themselves siding with Tiger and not Anansi!
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