They say that once a great hunger came, and that Kwaku Ananse, the spider, said he would go and search for meat and vegetable food and bring it that his wife Aso might eat. He went into a certain stream and there he met certain people. Now these people whom he met, excuse my saying so, were spirits. When Ananse met the spirits, they were standing in the water and splashing the stream-bed dry to catch the fish. Kwaku Ananse said, “Brothers, may I come and splash a little too?”

The spirits said “Come.”

Ananse went, and he saw that they were using their skulls to splash the stream dry. The spirits said to Ananse, “You have seen that which we take to splash the stream dry. Will you allow us to remove your skull in order that you may splash too?” Ananse said, “I will permit you, take it off for me.”

Of a truth, the spirits removed it and gave it to him. Kwaku Ananse and the spirits joined together in splashing the bed of the stream dry. As they splashed, the spirits raised a song:

“We, the spider, when we splash the river-bed

dry to catch fish, we use our heads to splash the water.

O spirits, we are splashing the water.”

Since the Creator made things,

do we take our heads to splash the water?

O the spirits, we are splashing the water.

I take my head to splash the water dry today O,

O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”

Ananse finished singing, and the spirits told him, saying, “We have splashed, we have got fish, your share is a basketful. Take it and go and eat. Take your skull, join it on your body, and go off. But what we have to say most particularly is this – the very day you sing any of that song, your skull will open and fall off.”

The spider said, “Fish in abundance, which you have given to me, is all that I desire, and as for a song – for what reason should I sing it?”

The spirits said, “That is well, go off.”

So the spider set off. The spirits, too, got everything together and they, also, went away. When the spirits had reached yonder, as it were, then they raised their song:

“We, the spirits, when we splash the river-bed dry

to catch fish, we use our heads to splash the water.

O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”

And the spider heard the song and he, too, took it up:

“Since the Creator made things

Have we taken our heads to splash the water?

O the spirits, we are splashing the water.”

No sooner had he finished than his skull opened and dropped off. Ananse lifted it up and held it against his chest. He said, “spirits, spirits, my head has fallen off.”

The spirits heard, and they said “That’s the spider. He hasn’t listened to what we told him, and he is calling us. Let us all go back and hear him.”

Almost immediately, Spider came hastening along. He said, “Puo! Children of my father! My head has opened and fallen off, so I beg of you, if I have done you any harm, forgive it. You are in the right, but take my head and put it in its place for me.”

The spirits took it, and replaced it. They said to him, “Now, if you sing this song again and your head falls off again, we shall not answer when you call us. So get along with you!” The spirits set off again.

As they were going they sang their song. Then Ananse began to sing again, and his head became detached and fell off, kutukum! And he lifted it and, excuse my vulgarity, clapped it against his anus, and leaped to the side of the path. Sora! was the sound of the grass parting as he entered it. He said, “Path, save me! When the day dawns that I am rich, I shall give you some.”

That is why you will see Ananse with a small head and a very big bottom. It all comes from the hardness of his ears.

[ ASHANTI ]