PREFACE * xv INTRODUCTION * 3 PART I. Getting Things Started: How the World Got Put Together That Way * 37 1. Never Seen His Equal * 41 2. The Man Makes and the Woman Takes * 42 3. Bringing Men and Women Together * 45 4. The Fight Over Life * 46 5. The Wind and the Water Fighting * 47 6. The Word the Devil Made up * 48 7.
The Knee-High Man Tries to Get Sizable * 49 8. Pig''s Long Nose and Greedy Mouth * 50 9. Getting Common Sense * 52 10. Hankering for a Long Tail * 53 11. The Devil''s Doing * 62 12. The John Crows Lost Their Hair * 63 13. Tadpole Loses His Tail * 65 14. The Owl Never Sleeps at Night * 66 15.
Why Hens are Afraid of Owls * 68 16. The Gifts of Dipper and Cowhide * 69 17. Buh Nansi Scares Buh Lion * 72 18. Testing the Good Lord * 74 19. Mr. Possum Loves Peace * 75 20. Get Back, Get Back * 77 21. No Justice on Earth * 78 PART II.
Minding Somebody Else''s Business and Sometimes Making It Your Own * 81 22. Meeting the King of the World * 85 23. Mr. Bamancoo Gets Dropped * 87 24. The Tug-of-War between Elephant and Whale * 89 25. Tiger Becomes a Riding Horse * 91 26. The Telltale Pepper Bush * 94 27. Making the Stone Smoke * 97 28.
The Latest Song * 99 29. The Signifying Monkey * 101 30. The Singing Bones * 105 31. A Boarhog for a Husband * 108 32. The Woman Who Was a Bird * 111 33. My Mother Killed Me, My Father Ate Me * 113 PART III. Getting a Comeuppance: How (and How Not) to Act Stories * 115 34. What Makes Brer Wasp Have a Short Patience * 119 35.
Between the Fiddler and the Dancer * 121 36. Being Greedy Chokes Anansi * 122 37. The Doings and Undoings of the Dogoshes * 123 38. Spreading Fingers for Friendship * 124 39. Don''t Shoot Me, Dyer, Don''t Shoot Me * 125 40. Little Eight John * 128 41. The Poor Man and the Snake * 130 42. The Little Bird Grows * 132 43.
Tricking All the Kings * 136 44. The Feast on the Mountain and the Feast Under the Water * 140 45. Hide Anger Until Tomorrow * 141 46. Buying Two Empty Hands * 142 47. Cutta Cord-La * 144 48. Brer Bear''s Grapevine * 147 49. A Foolish Mother * 149 50. Old Granny Grinny Granny * 151 51.
You Never Know What Trouble Is Until It Finds You * 153 52. He Pays for the Provisions * 159 53. The Cunning Cockroach * 163 54. Little Boy-Bear Nurses the Alligator Children * 164 55. The Girl Made of Butter * 167 56. Poppa Stole the Deacon''s Bull * 169 57. The Trouble with Helping Out * 173 58. The Rooster Goes Away in a Huff * 175 PART IV.
How Clever Can You Get? Tales of Trickery and Its Consequences * 177 59. Why They Name the Stories for Anansi * 182 60. Brother Rabbit Takes a Walk * 183 61. The Lion in the Well * 185 62. A License to Steal * 192 63. The Race between Toad and Donkey * 194 64. Crawling into the Elephant''s Belly * 197 65. A Strange Way to Sleep * 199 66.
Goobers Gone, Rabbit Gone * 200 67. Assaulting All the Senses * 202 68. Brer Rabbit''s Riddle * 203 69. The Horned Animals'' Party * 206 70. Anansi Plays Dead * 207 71. Anansi Climbs the Wall * 210 72. Dancing to the River * 211 73. "Trouble" Coming Down the Road * 214 74.
No Chicken Tonight * 216 PART V. The Strong Ones and the Clever: Contests and Confrontations * 219 75. Golden Breasts, Diamond Navel, Chain of Gold * 223 76. The Flying Contest * 230 77. Loggerhead * 232 78. Trying to Get the Goldstone * 234 79. Stackolee * 238 80. Escaping, Slowly * 240 81.
Turning into Nóuna-- Nothing * 241 82. The Old Bull and the Young One * 244 83. Fasting for the Hand of the Queen''s Daughter * 251 84. Weak in the Day and Strong at Night * 253 85. Jack Beats the Devil * 255 86. Three Killed Florrie, Florrie Killed Ten PART VI. Getting Around Old Master (Most of the Time) * 263 87. They Both Had Dead Horses * 270 88.
You Talk Too Much, Anyhow * 274 89. Making the Eyes Run * 275 90. Making a Wagon from a Wheelbarrow * 276 91. The One-Legged Turkey * 277 92. John Outruns the Lord * 278 93. A Flying Fook * 280 94. Horses Stay Outside * 281 95. The Sinking of the Titanic * 282 96.
Competition for Laziness * 283 97. John Outwits Mr. Berkeley * 284 98. Black Jack and White Jack * 288 99. Philanewyork * 291 100. The Barn is Burning * 293 PART VII. In the End, Nonsense * 297 101. Big-Gut, Big-Head, Stringy-Leg * 300 102.
A Chain of Won''ts * 300 103. Animal Talk * 301 104. A Comic Conversation * 302 105. A Smoking Story * 303 106. The Things That Talked * 304 107. Endings * 305 APPENDIX: Sources, Annotations, and Index of Tales * 307 BIBLIOGRAPHY * 321 PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS * 325.