Popular Tales from the Norse Part 68

'Yes, here I sit, and put st.i.tch to st.i.tch, and patch on patch; for I'm waiting to-day for the king's son from England', said Annie.

'Oh! you mustn't look to have him', said the king's son.

'Nay, but if I'm to have him, have him I shall, after all'; that was what Annie thought.

Well, it was the same story over again with the Prince; only this time, when his bride got up in the morning, the stone said she'd had six bairns.

So the Prince wouldn't have her either, but sent her about her business; but still he thought he'd try once more if he couldn't find one who was pure and spotless; and he sought far and wide in many lands, till at last he found one he thought he might trust. But when he went to see her, little Annie the goose-girl had put herself in his way again.

'Sitting all alone there, you little Annie, the goose-girl', said the Prince.

'Yes, here I sit, and put st.i.tch to st.i.tch, and patch on patch; for I'm waiting to-day for the king's son from England', said Annie.

'Him you mustn't look to have', said the Prince.

'Nay, but if I'm to have him, have him I shall, after all', said little Annie.

So when the Princess came, little Annie the goose-girl told her the same as she had told the other two, if she'd had any sweetheart before, or if there was anything else she didn't wish the Prince to know, she mustn't tread on the stone that the Prince had put at his bedside; for, said she:

'It tells him everything.'

The Princess got very red and downcast when she heard that, for she was just as naughty as the others, and asked Annie if she would go in her stead and lie down with the Prince that night; and when he was sound asleep, she would come and take her place, and then he would have the right bride by his side when it was light next morning.

Yes! they did that. And when little Annie the goose-girl came and stepped upon the stone, the Prince asked:

'Who is this that steps into my bed.'

'A maid pure and bright', said the stone; and so they lay down to rest.

Farther on in the night the Prince put a ring on Annie's finger, and it fitted so tight she couldn't get it off again; for the Prince saw well enough there was something wrong, and so he wished to have a mark by which he might know the right woman again.

Well, when the Prince had gone off to sleep, the Princess came and drove Annie away to the pigsty, and lay down in her place. Next morning, when they were to get up, the Prince asked:

'Who is this that steps out of my bed?'

'One that's had nine bairns', said the stone.

When the Prince heard that he drove her away at once, for he was in an awful rage; and then he asked the stone how it all was with these Princesses who had stepped on it, for he couldn't understand it at all, he said.

So the stone told him how they had cheated him, and sent little Annie the goose-girl to him in their stead.

But as the Prince wished to have no mistake about it, he went down to her where she sat tending her geese, for he wanted to see if she had the ring too, and he thought, 'if she has it, 'twere best to take her at once for my queen'.

So when he got down he saw in a moment that she had tied a bit of rag round one of her fingers, and so he asked her why it was tied up.

'Oh! I've cut myself so badly', said little Annie the goose-girl.

So he must and would see the finger, but Annie wouldn't take the rag off. Then he caught hold of the finger; but Annie, she tried to pull it from him, and so between them the rag came off, and then he knew his ring.

So he took her up to the palace, and gave her much fine clothes and attire, and after that they held their wedding feast; and so little Annie the goose-girl came to have the king of England's son for her husband after all, just because it was written that she should have him.

INTRODUCTION TO APPENDIX

ANANZI STORIES

The Negroes in the West Indies still retain the tales and traditions which their fathers and grandfathers brought with them from Africa.

Some thirty years back these 'Ananzi Stories', as they are called, were invariably told at the Negro wakes, which lasted for nine successive nights. The reciters were always men. In those days when the slaves were still half heathen, and when the awful _Obeah_ was universally believed in, such of the Negroes as attended church or chapel kept their children away from these funeral gatherings. The wakes are now, it is believed, almost entirely discontinued, and with them have gone the stories. The Negroes are very shy of telling them, and both the clergyman of the Church of England, and the Dissenting Minister set their faces against them, and call them foolishness. The translator, whose early childhood was pa.s.sed in those islands, remembers to have heard such stories from his nurse, who was an African born; but beyond a stray fragment here and there, the rich store which she possessed has altogether escaped his memory. The following stories have been taken down from the mouth of a West Indian nurse in his sister's house, who, born and bred in it, is rather regarded as a member of the family than as a servant. They are printed just as she told them, and both their genuineness and their affinity with the stories of other races will be self-evident. Thus we have the 'Wishing Tree' of the Hindoos, the _Kalpa Vriksha_ of Somadeva, and of the German Fairy Tales in the 'Pumpkin Tree', which throws down as many pumpkins as the poor widow wishes. In one story we have 'Boots' to the life, while the man whom he outwits is own brother to the Norse Trolls. In another we find a 'speaking beast', which reminds us at once of the Egyptian story of Anessou and Satou, as well as of the 'Machandelboom', and 'the Milk-white Doo'.

We find here the woman who washes the dirty head rewarded, and the man who refuses to wash it punished, in the very words used in 'The Bushy Bride'. We find, too, in 'Nancy Fairy', the same story, both in groundwork and incident, as we have in 'the La.s.sie and her G.o.dmother'; and most surprising of all, in the story of 'Ananzi and Quanqua', we find the very trait about a trick played with the tail of an ox, which is met with in a variation to 'Boots who ate a match with the Troll'. Here is the variation: 'Whilst he was with the Troll, the lad was to go out to watch the swine, so he drove them home to his father's house, but first he cut their tails off, and stuck them into the ground. Then he went home to the Troll, and begged him to come and see how his swine were going down to h.e.l.l. But when the Troll saw the swine's tails sticking out of the ground he wanted to pull them back again, so he caught hold of them and gave a great tug, and then down he fell with his heels up in the air, and the tails in his fist.'

They are called 'Ananzi Stories', because so many of them turn on the feats of Ananzi, whose character is a mixture of 'the Master-thief', and of 'Boots'; but the most curious thing about him, is that he ill.u.s.trates the Beast Epic in a remarkable way. In all the West Indian Islands, 'Ananzi' is the name of spiders in general, and of a very beautiful spider with yellow stripes in particular. [Footnote: Compare Crowther's _Yoruba Glossary_, where _Alansasa_ is given as the Yoruban for _spider_. The change of _n_ into _l_ is not uncommon, even supposing the West Indian word to be uncorrupt.] The Negroes think that this spider is the 'Ananzi' of their stories, but that his superior cunning enables him to take any shape he pleases. In fact, he is the example which the African tribes from which these stories came, have chosen to take as pointing out the superiority of wit over brute strength. In this way they have matched the cleverness and dexterity of the Spider, against the bone and muscle of the Lion, invariably to the disadvantage of the latter.

After this introduction, we let the Tales speak for themselves, only premising that the 'Jack-Spaniard' in the first story is a very pretty fly of the wasp kind, and, like his European brother, very small in the waist; that the 'Cush-cush', is a little red yam which imparts a strong red dye to everything with which it is boiled; and that the 'Doukana' is a forest tree which bears a fruit, though of what kind it is hard to say.

APPENDIX

WHY THE JACK-SPANIARD'S WAIST IS SMALL

Ananzi and Mosquito were talking together one day, and boasting of their fathers' crops. Ananzi said his father had never had such a crop in his life before; and Mosquito said, he was sure his father's was bigger, for one yam they dug was as big as his leg. This tickled Jack-Spaniard so much, that he laughed till he broke his waist in two. That's why the Jack-Spaniard's waist is so small.

ANANZI AND THE LION

Once on a time Ananzi planned a scheme. He went to town and bought ever so many firkins of fat, and ever so many sacks, and ever so many b.a.l.l.s of string, and a very big frying pan, then he went to the bay and blew a sh.e.l.l, and called the Head-fish in the sea, 'Green Eel', to him. Then he said to the fish, 'The King sends me to tell you that you must bring all the fish on sh.o.r.e, for he wants to give them new life.'

So 'Green Eel' said he would, and went to call them. Meanwhile Ananzi lighted a fire, and took out some of the fat, and got his frying pan ready, and as fast as the fish came out of the water he caught them and put them into the frying pan, and so he did with all of them until he got to the Head-fish, who was so slippery that he couldn't hold him, and he got back again into the water.

When Ananzi had fried all, the fish, he put them into the sacks, and took the sacks on his back and set off to the mountains. He had not gone very far when he met Lion, and Lion said to him':

'Well, brother Ananzi, where have you been? I have not seen you a long time.'

Ananzi said, 'I have been travelling about.'

'But what have you got there?' said the Lion.

'Oh! I have got my mother's bones--she has been dead these forty- eleven years, and they say I must not keep her here, so I am taking her up into the middle of the mountains to bury her.'

Then they parted. After he had gone a little way, the Lion said, 'I know that Ananzi is a great rogue; I daresay he has got something there that he doesn't want me to see, and I will just follow him'; but he took care not to let Ananzi see him.