Story: House in the Air: Tracking Anansi
Storyteller: Simeon Falconer (Santa Cruz Mountains, Jamaica)
Book: Jamaica Anansi Stories
Author(s): Martha Warren Beckwith
Published: 1924
Internet Archive link.

Notes: I have removed the eye-dialect, along with editing for punctuation and paragraphing. Beckwith includes three other versions, one where Anansi sneaks into Rabbit’s house, one where Anansi seeks into a Duppy’s house, and one where Anansi sneaks into Carencro’s house. In this version, however, it is Tiger and Tacoomah who want to sneak into Anansi’s house. Because the storyteller drops Tacoomah after the first mention, I have left him out here, so the story is all about Tiger.

Anansi’s House in the Air

Anansi live into a tree with wife and children, then go about and robber the others and they can’t find where he live.

So Tiger dog him and see when he send down the rope and swing up whatever he provide for the family.

So Brother Tiger go to a tin-smith to give him a fine voice and went to the tree and him sing,
Mama, mama, send down rope,
Send down rope, Brer Anansi there ground-a!

Then the mother find out it was not Brother Anansi from the coarseness of the voice.

So Brother Tiger go to a gold-smith now, and he come back again and sing again. Now he get a voice same as Brother Anansi.
Mama, mama, send down rope,
Send down rope, Brer Anansi there ground-a!

Then the mother let the rope down to receive him.

Brer Anansi coming from a distance see the mother swinging Tiger up in the tree now and say,
Mama, cut the rope! Mama, cut the rope!

And she cut the rope and Brother Tiger fell and broke his neck. Brother Anansi take him and have him now for him dinner. Tiger couldn’t eat Brother Anansi at all; him was the smartest one of all.

Brown barn spider at Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/insect-cobweb-spider-spider-s-web-3734/