Anansi accidentally killed the king's cow.
Not wanting to be blamed, he put the cow in a mango tree.
"Let's pick mangoes!" he then told Tacoomah. "Whack the tree with your stick."
The cow fell down!
"You must tell the king you killed his cow," Anansi said.
But Tacoomah decided to trick Anansi.
"I confessed," Tacoomah said later, "and the king rewarded my honesty by giving me the beef."
Anansi ran to the king. "I killed the cow! It should be mine to eat!"
The king kicked Anansi, breaking him into thousands of pieces.
That's where little spiders come from!
Notes: This story is 366 in Elswit's index, from Hallworth's book, A Web of Stories. In Hallworth's version, Tacooma and Anansi's wives are both involved in the story, but I did not have room for them here.
Serves him right for tricking Taccomah.
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