Anansi wanted to marry a lady.
"Help me, old-witch!" Anansi said.
"Give me a coin," the old-witch said, and Anansi did that.
Then the old-witch gave that coin to the lady. "Buy me some youricky-yourk in the market."
The lady agreed.
On the way, she met her friend who warned her, "Give it back! The old-witch is trouble."
The lady returned and said, "There wasn't any youricky-yourk at the market."
The old-witch refused to take the coin back, and that gave the old-witch power over her!
So the old-witch caught her and sent her to Anansi to be his wife.
Inspired by: Jamaican Song and Story by Walter Jekyll
Notes: This is story 4 in the book. The story explains: "Now the rule is that anybody take something from old-witch an' can't give it back, it give him power to catch him." Jekyll says "youricky-yourk" is a nonsense word, and that is the only citation for the word in Cassidy and Page's Dictionary of Jamaican English. That dictionary also says about old-witch: "a witch, male or female, old or young."
No comments:
Post a Comment