African American Folktales

by Roger Abrahams

  Now, the next morning, the king came and said, “Ah, I’ve caught the thief and his meat and bones will make my bread today!” And he took him by the shoulder and he pulled him off the tar-man, and he dragged him by the hair to the palace. He called his servant and said, “I caught the thief who has been stealing my water for many weeks, but he won’t steal from me anymore.” Then he said, “Take him and hold him, and we’ll chain him until we can think of the way we can kill him best.” The servant asked what his sentence would be, so Massa King said, “Maybe we’ll have to burn him,” Buh Nansi never said a word. The servant said, “I think the best death for him is to shoot him.” Still Buh Nansi kept quiet. Then the king said, “The best way to take his life is to drown him.” Then Buh Nansi said,“Oh, Massa King, you mean to pitch me in that blue, blue sea? Massa King, better to shoot me than pitch me in that blue sea water.” But the king said, “No, I wouldn’t. I’ll have you drowned.” And he took a bit of rope and put it around Buh Nansi’s neck and tied a piece of iron to it and took him to the beach. Massa King and his servant took him out in a boat about three miles out to sea, and flung him overboard. And he went right to the bottom, sat down, loosened the iron from around his neck, and floated to the top, just like he knew he would. He was bobbing along even before the boat moved half a mile, and called out, “Ah, Massa King, you couldn’t have done me a better favor than to fling me into this sea water. It’s my home.”

  He dove down again, feeling kind of happy, and he met up with a shark. “Oh, Buh Shark, you’re the very man I’ve been looking for, for three nights and three days now.” Buh Shark asked why. And he said, “I want to get together to catch some small fish and go ashore and cook them up for a big feast this afternoon.” Buh Shark said, “You would invite me to a big feast?” “Yes, I would. Come on, let’s go on and catch some and I’ll show you.”

  Well, they caught plenty, and they went ashore, and Buh Shark said to Buh Nansi, “You must go ashore alone, and leave me in the water, because I can’t live out of the water for more than two minutes. You cook them up and just bring me my share.” Buh Nansi said, “Well, I’ll have them all cooked up then, and I’ll bring you your share. You stay in the water and sing some sweet songs thinking about this feast, while I get some kindling and get this fire going.”

  After the fire was going, he put a big copper pot on it, one that holds two hundred gallons of water. And he filled it with the small fish, and when they were all boiled up and the water was steaming hot, he said, “Buh Shark, come here in the sun for a while, and show me how you can stand on the tip of your tail, and tell some jokes.” Buh Shark said, “I’ll come, but only for half a minute, you know, because otherwise I’ll die.” And as Buh Shark came up and stood on the tip of his tail, Buh Nansi took out a bucket of the steaming water and he killed him.

  Buh Shark had nothing more to say ever again. Buh Nansi cut him in three pieces and put them in the copper pot with the little fishes and boiled it properly with peppers. And after it was cooked, he took it off the fire. He knew he couldn’t eat it all alone, but being so selfish, he was going to throw away what was left over.

  But just as he was beginning, up came Buh Lion. Buh Nansi said, “Ah, you are the man I wanted to see. I want you to help me eat some of my fish here. I have caught plenty and can’t eat them all.” He was afraid of Lion, but just smiled and said, “You just came in time.”

  And they both sat down to eat. When Buh Nansi ate about six pieces of fish, Lion had eaten just about all the rest. Buh Nansi, who didn’t really want to share, grumbled to himself. “I have been here all the time, lighting the fire and straining to put that big copper pot on the fire and here you come just in time to eat.” Lion said, “What are you saying? If you grumble any more, I’m going to kill you and eat you too. You just look at what I’m doing and keep quiet.” Buh Nansi got really scared now, and didn’t say anything until they had finished eating.

  Then Buh Nansi said to Lion, “Let’s play the little game we used to play when we were at school.” And Lion said he didn’t remember any games. Buh Nansi said, “Sure you do. We take a little piece of string, and you put your two hands behind your back, and we tie you to a tree, and take a little switch and touch your back with it, and when you make a rush you break the string and get away, and the other person has to do the same thing.” Lion said to Buh Nansi, “If you let me tie you first, I’ll play.” Buh Nansi said that was all right, and they got a string and a switch, and Buh Lion tied him. And then when Buh Lion hit him with the switch he made a plunge and got away. Buh Nansi said, “Now let me tie you,” and he pulled a cord-rope out of his pocket and tied Buh Lion’s hands behind his back. And he took out a whip from his pocket and really started to lick him hard. Lion made a plunge at Buh Nansi with his paw to kill him, but he couldn’t touch him, Buh Nansi was that quick. And he shouted out, “My wife, my wife, you and all the children come out and get your licks on Buh Lion. A little while ago he ate all my fish, which I was going to bring home.” So all his children started to beat Buh Lion too, until he was half dead. And they just left him there tied to the tree, Buh Lion lying on the ground half beat to death, and they went on home.

  Buh Lion saw a woman coming his way on her way home. So he said, “My good lady, please let me loose or else I shall surely die.” The lady said, “Who put you there, my good lion?” “Buh Nansi, ma’am.” “Why did he tie you?” “He tied me here because we had a little game we played in school and he got me to remember it and play it with him. I tied him first, and he broke the string like we always used to, and he got away. Then he tied me, but not with the same string, but a much stronger cord-rope, and then he licked me, and his wife and children came and licked me and had me completely beaten.” “But if I let you loose, my good lion, you will spring on me and eat me.” He cried, “Oh now, my good lady, if I tried to do that all the trees and stones around here would cry ‘shame.’ ” She said, “All right, then, I will.” And she let him loose, and he immediately tried to spring on her and eat her. And all the trees and all the stones sang out: “Shame, Lion, shame.” So he stopped.

  So he went home and told his wife what Buh Nansi had done to him. And she said, “I always told you to stay away from Buh Nansi’s reach. You are much stronger than he is, but you haven’t got the tricks that he has. But we’ll think of a way to get back at him.”

  So she thought and thought, and finally she said to Lion, “We’ll have a dance tonight. You know how much Buh Nansi likes to dance. We’ll figure out a way to fix him because he will come to the dance—he couldn’t stand to stay away. I know, we’ll get a revolver and shoot him.”

  Well, Buh Nansi heard about how everybody else had been invited to the dance, and he wanted to go. So he told his wife to wrap him up in a white sheet and he would go as a little baby, and she could carry him into the dance. And if anyone notices that it is him, she should just throw him out of the window in the sheet. So said, so done. And the music struck up and they got right into the dancing. And Lion noticed a mother with this baby. And he said, “I don’t think a baby has bones that big. It must be Buh Nansi pulling a trick.” So he found out by pulling on the sheet, and Buh Nansi told his wife to throw him out of the window. But his wife was so taken up in the dancing that she didn’t hear him.

  So Nansi gave a little jig and started to run, Lion behind him. He ran until he saw a crab hole just beside a pepper tree. So he grabbed some peppers and jumped down in the hole. He put the peppers in his mouth and crushed them up. Lion came to the hole and started to dig. He dug until he could just about see Buh Nansi, and then Buh Nansi spat out the mouthful of peppers into Buh Lion’s eyes and made him blind. He rubbed both eyes out of his head with his paws, it hurt so much. And he died from the pain, and out came Buh Nansi and chopped him up and flung him on his shoulder and carried him home, piece by piece, to his wife. He said, “My wife, we can walk out proudly forever, day or night, because I have killed this great king of the woods, and we have Lion to
eat tonight for dinner.” So he got the pot on the fire and got some limes and made a lion soup.

  I went to this feast and enjoyed some of it, and I came directly here to tell you this big lie. That’s why you see that today you must never do evil. You must always do good to your friends, and never do evil. You must always do good to your friends even if they do you bad.

  —St. Vincent

  44

  THE FEAST ON THE MOUNTAIN AND THE FEAST UNDER THE WATER

  It was Anansi’s birthday, and he invited all the animals to come to his feast and eat with him, and Tortoise came along too. But Anansi didn’t want him, and before they went to eat, Anansi suddenly said that all the animals who were going to eat must wash their hands before they came to the table. Now Tortoise went to wash his hands, but as he walked back, his hands got dirty again. He tried over and over, but he could not walk any other way. So he never got to eat at Anansi’s table.

  Tortoise went away. He said, “Anansi tricked me, but I am going to get even with him.”

  Tortoise decided he would also have a big feast, and he sent a call to all the animals to come and eat with him. He knew that Anansi would come, of course. When they arrived he said his feast would be under the water; he knew Anansi was too light to swim down to where they were eating. But Anansi borrowed a pair of breeches and a coat, and he dressed himself in that. He picked up stones and put them in his pockets so that he might swim below. Now, when he was heavy enough, he went down into the water. The table was set and all were beginning to eat. Tortoise looked and saw that Anansi had put stones in his pockets. Immediately Tortoise said to them all, “Before you come to the table, you must all take off your coats,”

  Anansi was troubled when he heard this. He thought about it and said to himself, “If I take off my coat, then I am going to float up to the top again, because the stones that are in my pockets hold me.” So he kept his coat on. But when Anansi came to the table, Tortoise at once said, “When you gave a feast, you did what you liked. When I give mine, I can do what I like too. You have to take off your coat.”

  So Anansi took his coat off. No sooner did he do so than he rose to the surface of the water. So he did not get any food that day.

  Greed caused this to happen to him. So when you eat, you must eat with others.

  —Surinam

  45

  HIDE ANGER UNTIL TOMORROW

  There was a man who had to go off to town to work. In town he met this old man who was wise in all things, and who said to him, “I am going to tell you the two things you need to know: When you get angry, hide it until tomorrow; and all that your eyes see, you must not believe.”

  Now, this man had a wife at home, but they had no child. He had to remain away from home for a long time, but finally he was able to return. But when he came home, he found a man in bed with his wife and they were both asleep. He drew his revolver to shoot the man, but suddenly he remembered what the old man had said to him: “Hide your anger until tomorrow.” So he didn’t shoot him.

  When the morning came and they were all awake, his wife told him of their good luck; for when he left she was pregnant, and this was their boy who was sleeping with his mother. The child had grown so big! If he had shot him, he would have killed his own child.

  That is why it is well to listen to a person who says, “Hide your anger till tomorrow, and all that you see you must not believe.”

  —Surinam

  46

  BUYING TWO EMPTY HANDS

  Well, once upon a time, Massa King built a great, large building and sent all over the West Indies for great men to come to look at it to see if there was anything wrong with it. He was proud of that building, so proud that he wanted it to be perfect. And all those men went into it, and no one could find any fault with it at all. But still the king worried.

  Now, Anansi heard about this and he thought he would just look into it and see what he could see in the building. So he went down there and paid his manners to Massa King. He said, “Good morning, Massa King.” He said, “Good morning, Anansi.” Anansi said, “Well, sir, I heard you had a great building built down here.” King said, “Oh yes.” Anansi said, “I heard that you had a lot of important people come and look at it, and they all said it is beautiful, and no one could find any fault with it.” He said, “Well, I came to look at it, too, if I could?” King said, “Go in the building and look around, for I am very proud of it.”

  Well, Anansi went in and sat down and he looked around and he thought about Massa King and how proud he was and he began working out a plan. He went up to Massa King and said, “Well, Massa King, the building is very beautiful and well built, but I did find one fault that worries me.” Now, Massa King was surprised and asked him what the matter was. He said, “Massa King, the only thing missing in this building is two empty hands.” King said, “Well, how can I get them?” Anansi said, “Well, Massa King, I know a gentleman at Sion Hill who always has empty hands to sell so I could probably get some for you.” And Massa King said, “Well, what do you think he would charge me?” Anansi said, “They are going to cost you sixteen cents. If you give me that, I am already on my way to get them and bring them to you.”

  So Massa King gave Anansi sixteen cents. And Anansi took the money and went to the shop at Sion Hill, where he bought a quarter-pint of strong rum for eight cents and a loaf of bread and some fried fish for the other eight cents.

  Then he took a little of the rum and he rubbed down his skin all over and he went where he knew Compé Lion always passed. And he lay down on the road and played drunk. Compé Lion came down the road toward him carrying a great load of wood on his head. When he saw Anansi lying there he threw down the wood and stooped down and said to Anansi, “Compé, what are you doing here?” Anansi said, “Compé, I was drinking all night, and I tried to get home, and Compé, I just couldn’t make it. If you think I am telling you a lie, look in my pocket there, you will see the bottle.” Compé Lion took out the pint and he held it up to his mouth and he tried and tried but he couldn’t get even one drop out of it. This made Compé Lion angry, because he loves rum, you know. So when he passed he kicked Anansi again and again, and Anansi just lay there on the ground, rolling in the dust and mud until his whole skin got mudded up.

  Now he went to Massa King. And with big tears in his eyes. And Massa King said, when he got there, he said, “Well, Compé Anansi, what’s wrong now?” Anansi said, “Compé Massa King, I went to the shop and when I got there the shopkeeper wasn’t there. And they told me he was leaving on the boat, so I ran down and caught him just as he was getting on the boat to go away. And he sold me the last empty hands that he had, sir. I was bringing them to you, and on my journey coming back, Compé Lion beat me up and took away the two empty hands, sir.” So Massa King said, “Well let’s get Compé Lion here.” And off Anansi went.

  When Compé Lion came, he said, “Good morning, Massa King,” because he didn’t know what was happening. Massa King greeted him back, “Good morning, Compé Lion,” he said, “and how are you?” And so they talked for a while like that. Finally, Massa King said, “Well, come in and get a little supper with us.” He said, “Well, Massa King, I just had some supper, but I wouldn’t want you to be ashamed by me not eating anything. So I will take a little bit.” When he finished, Massa King called in Compé Anansi and said, “Well, Compé Lion, do you know this man?” He said, “Sure I know him well.” He said, “Did you see him this morning?” He said, “Yes, sir, when I was going home from the forest with a load of wood, I met him on the road.” He said, “Well, did he have anything with him?” Compé Lion said, “No.” Compé Anansi got up and said, “Compé Lion, I had nothing with me?” Compé Massa King said, “Compé Lion, I sent this man to buy something for me and he told me that you took it from him.” Lion said, “ Oh, Compé, I did not take anything from this man. When I was coming, I met this man with nothing but two empty hands.” Massa King said, “Well, that’s just what I sent the man to buy.” He said, “Hand
my gun to me.” Compé Lion ran away when he heard that, and went to the forest.

  And he lives in the forest from that day on until today.

  —St. Vincent

  47

  CUTTA CORD-LA

  One time, food got very scarce. The rice crop made nothing and the fish were swimming too low to catch and the birds too high to shoot. Really hard times had come on every day—all the animals got really hungry way down in their bellies, and that’s the truth. Brer Rabbit and Brer Wolf decided to put their heads together to see if they couldn’t figure out what to do.

  After a while, Brer Rabbit, weeping bitter tears, said that they would just have to kill and eat their grandmothers. Brer Wolf, he just kept on crying. Brer Rabbit said, “If you’re going to take it so hard like that, Brer Wolf, it would be better for you to kill your grandmother first and get it over with so that way you’ll be done with your grieving fastest.”

  Brer Wolf dried his eyes and killed his grandmother. And together they went off and they ate and ate day and night until it was all gone. Soon after, Brer Wolf went visiting Brer Rabbit and said, “Brer Rabbit, I am hungry through and through. Let’s kill your grandmother so we can have something to eat.”

  Brer Rabbit lifted up his head and he burst out laughing. He said, “Brer Wolf, you think I’m going to kill my own grandmother? Oh no, Brer Wolf, I couldn’t do that!”

  Now, this made Brer Wolf so mad, he tore at his hair with his claws and he howled like an Indian. He said that he was going to make Brer Rabbit kill his grandmother somehow. Brer Rabbit said they would see about all this nonsense later.