"Show me where you get your beef!" Anansi told Tacoomah.
Tacoomah took Anansi to a cow.
"Say Open Sesame and go in," Tacoomah explained. "Then Shut Sesame. Take the fat, but don't cut the back-string. Then Open Sesame, come out, and Shut Sesame to close the cow."
Tacoomah went into the cow and came out with a basket of fat.
Anansi went in, but he got greedy and cut the back-string.
The cow died. Anansi was stuck!
Finally the cowboy came and cut open the cow.
When he washed the entrails in the river, Anansi jumped out and ran away.
Inspired by: Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith
Notes: This is story 22 in the book. Beckwith heard this story from George Parkes; additional information in Beckwith's notes. In Parkes's story, Anansi follows the rules once, but cuts the back-string when he goes there alone the next day without Tacoomah. Also, he doesn't just run away in the end. Instead, he gets angry at the woman washing the entrails (it's the daughter of the cow's owner), accusing her of throwing entrails on him, so he demands a cow from her father as compensation.
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