How Anansi Got the Sky-God's Stories

In the beginning, all the stories in the world belonged to Nyame, the Sky-God. He kept them in a wooden box near his throne, and no one on earth knew any tale at all. Anansi the spider went up to him and said, "I want to buy your stories. Tell me the price."

Nyame laughed. "Many great chiefs have come to ask for these stories and have failed to pay the price. How can you, a small thing, succeed where they could not?"

"All the same," said Anansi, "tell me the price."

The Sky-God said, "The price of my stories is Onini the python, who swallows men whole, and Osebo the leopard with terrible teeth, and Mmoboro the swarm of hornets that sting like fire, and Mmoatia the dwarf-fairy whom no one can see. Bring me these four things, and the stories are yours."

Anansi said, "I will pay the price."

He went home to his wife Aso. "How shall I catch Onini the python?" he asked her.

Aso said, "Take a long stick of bamboo and some creeper vines, and go to the path the python takes when he goes for water. When you walk past the python, talk to yourself. Argue with yourself loudly. The python will hear and ask what you are arguing about. Then you will know what to do."

Anansi cut a long stick of bamboo and a length of creeper. He walked along the python's path muttering to himself. "He is longer than the bamboo. No, he is shorter. He is much shorter. No, he is longer." He went on until Onini called out from where he lay coiled, "What are you arguing about, spider?"

"I am arguing with my wife," Anansi said. "She says you are not as long as this bamboo. I say you are. We cannot agree, so we keep on quarreling."

"Stretch the bamboo beside me," said Onini, "and measure me, and we shall see who is right."

Anansi laid the bamboo down and the python stretched himself along it. "I think you are slipping back when I am not looking," Anansi said. "Let me tie your tail to one end with this creeper, and your head to the other, and then we will measure properly." Onini agreed. Anansi tied him fast at the tail, and crawled up the bamboo and tied him fast at the head. Then he tied him in many places along the middle.

"Now then, Onini," said Anansi, "you are going to the Sky-God." And he carried him up the rope to Nyame.

The Sky-God said, "There remain three more things."

Anansi went home to Aso. "How shall I catch the hornets?" Aso said, "Take a calabash and fill it with water. Cut a hole in a leaf and hold it over yourself like an umbrella. Then go to the hornets' tree and pour the water on them, and pour a little on your leaf, and tell them the rains have come."

Anansi did so. He stood under the leaf and sprinkled water on the hornet swarm, and water on his leaf. "Mmoboro," he called, "the rains are upon us. Why do you not come into this dry calabash that I am carrying, before your wings are wet and you cannot fly?" The hornets, all dripping, flew in a body into the calabash. Anansi stopped the mouth of it with the leaf. "Now, Mmoboro, you are going to the Sky-God."

The Sky-God said, "There remain two more things."

For Osebo the leopard, Anansi dug a deep pit on the leopard's path, covered it with thin sticks and earth, and put leaves on top. Osebo, walking at night, fell in. In the morning Anansi came and looked down. "Father Leopard," he said, "what are you doing in my pit? Have you been drinking palm wine?" The leopard begged to be helped out. Anansi cut two long sticks and let them down, telling Osebo to lay them along the sides. Then he held out a third stick. "Lift up your hands and take this," he said. As the leopard lifted his hands, Anansi struck him on the head and killed him, and tied his body and carried him up to the Sky-God.

The Sky-God said, "There remains one more thing. Bring me Mmoatia the dwarf-fairy whom no man has seen."

Anansi went home and Aso said, "Carve a small wooden doll and rub it all over with sticky latex from a tree. Put a dish of pounded yams beside it under the odum tree, where the dwarf-fairy plays. Tie a string to the doll's head and hide nearby."

Anansi did this. The dwarf-fairy came dancing through the forest and saw the doll sitting with the dish of yams. "Doll, may I eat your yams?" she asked. Anansi pulled the string, and the doll's head nodded. The fairy ate. "Doll, thank you for the yams," she said. The doll did not answer. "Doll, I said, thank you. Why do you not reply? If you do not reply, I will slap you." The doll said nothing. The fairy slapped its cheek. Her hand stuck to the latex. She slapped it with the other hand. That hand stuck too. She kicked it with her right foot. That stuck. She kicked it with her left foot. That stuck. She struck it with her stomach. That stuck.

Anansi came out and said, "Mmoatia, you are going to the Sky-God."

He carried her up. Nyame called all his elders together. "Great kings have come to me, and none of them could pay the price for my stories. Anansi the spider has paid it. From this day, my stories belong to him. Let them be called Anansi tales."

And so it was. From that day until this, every old story we tell is one of Anansi's stories.