Anansi was drowning. "Help!" he yelled.
A mermaid rescued him.
"I knew you'd rescue me," said Anansi, "since we're cousins."
"I doubt that," said the mermaid. "Prove it by drinking this hot sand." She pulled a pan of sand from the fire and gave it to Anansi.
"I like it hotter," said Anansi. "Put it in the sunlight to get really hot."
So the mermaid put the pan of sand in the sunlight.
It wasn't getting hotter there; it was getting cooler.
Then Anansi said, "Now it's hot," and he swallowed the sand.
"We really are cousins!" said the mermaid.
Inspired by: Jamaican Song and Story by Walter Jekyll
Notes: This is story 40 in the book. The phrase is "sea-mahmy" which Jekyll glosses as mermaid. Sherlock tells this story about Anansi and being cousins with the alligators by drinking hot water; it's part of his story "Anansi and the Crabs."
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