Anansi and the sticky trap

Richard Morgan: escape from Tiger

Tiger employs Anansi to guard a pea field, but the guard himself steals the crop. Tiger puts a tarred stump in the field and gives it a broad hat. Anansi addresses the silent figure, grows aggressive when it does not answer, and strikes it. Each attempt to free himself attaches another part of his body. By morning he has supplied the evidence of his own theft.

When Tiger proposes punishment, Anansi takes control of the procedure. He recommends burning and then tells Tiger that it must be done in a particular way, with jumps over the fire. Once Tiger begins, Anansi knocks him into it. The tale ends with Anansi returning to finish the peas. The escape is funny in its reversal but does not turn the thief into a model of fairness.

Source: Jamaica Anansi Stories, 21: Anansi and the Tar-baby · No. 21a, “The Escape from Tiger,” Richard Morgan, pp. 23–24

George Parkes: another victim takes his place

In Parkes's account Anansi steals from Tacoomah after consuming his own produce. To fake his presence at home, he rigs water to drip onto a banana leaf, making a sound that answers his neighbour's calls. The silent decoy in the field nevertheless catches him. When Goat passes, Anansi persuades him to push and strike the stump. Each movement releases part of Anansi and attaches Goat instead.

Back at home, Anansi resumes answering in person. Next morning he uses his apparent all-night presence as an alibi and accuses Goat. Tacoomah accepts the claim, and Goat is killed and eaten. This ending preserves the trickster's success at the expense of an innocent substitute. It is substantially darker than a generic summary about a clever spider escaping a powerful enemy.

Source: Jamaica Anansi Stories, 21: Anansi and the Tar-baby · No. 21b, “The Substitute,” George Parkes, pp. 24–25

Credit the tellers, notice the collector

Beckwith's printed arrangement places these accounts beside further variants. The record preserves names and locations, but transcription and editorial grouping still mediate performance. Our prose summarizes the action without imitating Jamaican speech or reproducing the songs. The historical source title uses “tar-baby”; we use “sticky trap” for the atlas heading while retaining the exact bibliographic locator. These tales belong to a living Caribbean storytelling history. A 1924 publication is one witness, not authority to freeze that history or collapse it into all African traditions. Compare what the deception does, and who bears its cost, before calling every trickster the same kind of hero.

Source: Jamaica Anansi Stories, 21: Anansi and the Tar-baby · No. 21a–b; storyteller headings