KacheliTV stays in Jamaica, in Martha Warren Beckwith's Jamaica Anansi Stories of 1924 — tales Jamaican storytellers told her, their names kept. Part Ten closes the book's third country, the Modern European Stories — the last stretch, Tales 119 to 138, read in full at the gate.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In "The Grateful Dead," Jack pays the debts of three beaten dead men and buries them, and the dead repay him — three pelicans carry him home over the sea. In "Boy and His Master," a boy who learned the Old Witch's magic turns pig, mare, dove, ring and grain of corn, and learns one mark more. "Three Pieces of Advice" trades a year's wages for three sentences — and every one pays. "Skilful Brothers" settles thirty pounds three ways for a mother saved from an eagle. "The Three Sillies" sends a young man to find three fools foolisher than that family — and he finds them. "A Misunderstanding" is a fortune of whiskers and a pocket handkerchief. "Big-Head, Big-Belly, Little-Foot" tells its three brothers twice over. In "Goat in the Lion's Den," the lion asked to baptize two kids names them Dinner, Breakfast Tomorrow, and Dinner Tomorrow. "The Lion's Head" counts one head up to twenty and frightens two lions home. And "Molly May" eats Anansi's whole turkey and sets master and guest running.
Passages stand as told at the book's own summary weight: in "The Grateful Dead" the man who threw Jack overboard is hanged by the point of his tongue in the closing clause; in "Boy and His Master" the duel ends as the grain of corn, turned cat, wipes off the rooster's head in one clause; and in "Big-Head, Big-Belly, Little-Foot" the brothers' name-deaths befall them in single clauses, by no hand. Excluded at the gate, recorded plainly: "Three Brothers and the Life-Tree"; "Dancing to Anansi's Fiddle"; "Anansi Kills His Grandmother"; "White Belly and Anansi"; and "Monkey Hunts Anansi" — each turning on an enacted killing or mutilation. Held for the owner's ruling: "The Language of Beasts" and "The Pannier-Jar." Passed and banked for Part Eleven: "Anansi Claims the Dinner," "Anansi Seeks His Fortune," and "Anansi and the Pig Coming from Market." No completeness is claimed for this stretch.
Storytellers, kept with honour: Richard Morgan of Santa Cruz Mountains ("The Grateful Dead," "Boy and His Master," "Three Pieces of Advice," "Skilful Brothers"); Charles Roe of Maroon Town ("The Three Sillies"); Florence Tomlinson of Lacovia ("A Misunderstanding"); Arthur Brown of St. Ann's Bay and James Smith of Claremont ("Big-Head, Big-Belly, Little-Foot"); Henry Spence of Bog, Westmoreland ("Goat in the Lion's Den"); Joseph Macfarlane of Moneague ("The Lion's Head"); and Emily Alexander of Mandeville ("Molly May").
Chapters:
01:33 The Grateful Dead
05:38 Boy and His Master
08:55 Three Pieces of Advice
11:44 Skilful Brothers
12:49 The Three Sillies
15:46 A Misunderstanding
17:08 Big-Head, Big-Belly, Little-Foot
18:26 Goat in the Lion's Den
20:36 The Lion's Head
21:35 Molly May
Source: Martha Warren Beckwith, Jamaica Anansi Stories, Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, Vol. XVII (1924); public-domain 1924 edition (Project Gutenberg eBook #72735). Our telling is a fresh in-house rendering of the 1924 text. Music: opening and closing theme, "The Cello's Unfinished Promise 2".
Thank you for listening.
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Jamaican folk tales, Anansi stories, Jamaican folk tales audiobook, Jamaican folklore, Martha Warren Beckwith, Caribbean folk tales, world folk tales, free audiobook
