Anansi was roasting a hog when he heard something hit the ground: PLOP.
Anansi thought it was a coconut. He picked it up: it was Dry-Head!
"You picked me up," Dry-Head said. "Now carry me!"
Dry-Head saw the hog. "I'm hungry!" he said.
Dry-Head ate the hog.
Anansi only got a bone. "The bone's sweet, sir!" said Anansi.
Then Petchary-Bird flew by.
"Come pick up this good coconut!" said Anansi, pointing at Dry-Head.
Petchary picked Dry-Head up, but he wasn't strong enough to carry him.
Dry-Head fell down and smashed.
Anansi ate him up. "I'm eating my hog after all!"
Inspired by: Folklore from Contemporary Jamaicans by Daryl C. Dance
Notes: This is story 14C in the book. It starts off with the trick of Anansi disguised as a doctor to get the hog to begin with. Dry-Head appears in other Anansi stories as a weird creature that must be carried if you pick him up. I like imagining him as some kind of weird head like a coconut without a body! It's not clear in the story Dance collected just how Anansi gets the petchary bird to pick up Dry-Head, so I had him try to fool the bird as he had been fooled himself, thinking it was a coconut.
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