In Parkes’s version, the substitution of the human for the fish victim
not only spoils the wit of the story but obscures its relation to the
story of Anansi’s visit to fish-country as it appears in number 39. The
identity of the two is proved by the structure of the story, which
falls into two parts. (1) Anansi, pretending to cure a sick relative,
eats her instead. (2) The mule offers to avenge her and plays dead
outside Anansi’s door; when he attempts to make use of her for food,
she drags him into the water and drowns him, as in number 6.
For (1) compare Cronise and Ward, 226–230, where Rabbit pretends to
cure Leopard’s children and eats them up; Nassau, 125–126, where
Tortoise pretends to bring children out of Crocodile’s hundred eggs,
and eats them all.
(2) In Parsons’s Portuguese negro story, JAFL 30: 231–235, Lob escapes
from the island where the indignant birds have abandoned him, by
bribing Horse-fish to carry him across. He promises to pay her well,
but abandons the horse-fish as soon as he touches shore. She remains
weeping on the shore. Lob thinks her dead and starts to cut her up. She
drags him into the sea and drowns him. There are small touches in the
story which prove its identity with the Jamaica version. When Lob’s
wife weeps, Lob says, “She is just playing with me, she is not going to
do anything.” In Parkes’s story, Anansi says to the mule who is
dragging him into the sea, “A little fun me mak wid you, no mean i’.”
In both Jamaica versions, Mule turns Anansi over to the vengeance of
the fishes; in the Portuguese, he is drowned.
In Jekyll, 135–137, an old lady meddles with a jar she has been told
not to touch and which, as soon as she gets her hand in, drags her to
the sea and drowns her.
In Jekyll, 125, “Cousin Sea-mahmy” makes his son Tarpon carry Anansi to
shore, and Anansi gets him into the pot by the trick of taking turns
weighing each other, as in number 16.
In Pamela Smith, 44–46, Anansi eats the sick mother under pretence of
cure, and bribes Dog to carry him across the river, but there is no
vengeance; Dog himself is swallowed by Crocodile.