African Tales

41. Vai (Liberia) Spider

217 41 Spider 146 Vai (Liberia)147 There was a spider. And a great famine came into the country so that there was no rice, no cassadas, no plantains, no palm-cabbage, no meat, no victuals: a great famine had come into the country. The spider and his wife had been begetting children for a long time: a hundred children. There was no food in the country for them to give to the children. The spider became sick—it was a feigned sickness.148 He said to his wife, “I shall die.” And his wife said, “Do not die. We will work.” The spider said, “No, I shall die.” And he said to his wife, “When I have died, do not place me in a reclining position. Instead, set me upright in the hole and lay boards on me, then put earth on the boards.” His wife consented. The spider died. The woman said to her children, “Dig a hole.” And they dug a hole, and they set the spider in the hole: they did not place him in a reclining position, they set him in the hole. With boards, they covered the hole. Then, when evening came, the spider came out of the hole and went to a marsh far away. He was still alive: he had not died. He went and met a great woman, a chief. The woman possessed very much rice, very much rice was in her farm, and very much was in the store, and there were very many cassadas in the farm. But the woman was barren; she had no children. The spider asked, “My mother, where are your children?” She said, “I have no children.” He said, “I have a medicine. I will give it to you. Drink it, and you will become with child and give birth.” The woman said, “Give me the medicine. When I give birth, if I give birth to a child, I will give you a whole shed full of rice, two farms of cassada, and a great many plantains.” The spider, because of the famine, agreed. He went away to take out the medicine by the way, and then he returned to the woman. She killed a goat and cooked rice for the spider and said, “Spider, here is rice for you.” The spider ate the rice; he was satisfied. Then he put the medicine into a bowl, put water into the bowl, mashed the medicine into a bowl, put water into that bowl, then mashed the medicine. He said to the woman, “Bring a strip of cloth.” He tied it around the woman’s eyes and said, “Drink the medicine. And when you have drunk the medicine, you will see me no more. I am going far away. In six months, you will give birth to a male child. Then I shall return so that you can give me my rice and all my victuals.” The woman agreed. She took the bowl and drank the medicine. The spider jumped into the bowl, and the woman swallowed the spider. The spider was inside the woman. And the woman brought forth a child: it was the spider himself. The woman gave him water to drink; she cooked excellent rice and gave it to the spider to eat. The spider had been within her: her baby was the spider. The woman did not know that her baby was the spider. There is an animal in the forest, his name is deer. He is cunning. The deer said, “I shall go and see the woman’s child; he has been eating the woman’s rice for six months.” The deer arrived and said, “My mother, I have come to see your child.” The woman handed her child to the deer. The deer looked at the child, and he saw that it was a spider. He handed the child to the woman. The woman took the child and laid it within cloths. The deer went far away to a town, took a switch, returned, then took the cloth from on the baby and flogged him well. The baby ran and went far away. The deer said to the woman, “It was a spider, it was no child. The spider was an impostor.” The spider went to his wife, hear! All his wife’s rice had become ripe, she had very many fowls, she beat rice, and her children killed animals for meat. The woman cooked the rice, she cooked the...