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You may already know that Anansi is a spider, an
impudent spider, full of tricks and suprises, but did you know that Anansi
is responsible for the fact that everyone - or almost everyone - has a
little bit of common sense? This is how it happened.
Anansi was feeling full of importance one day, and thought the cleverest thing he could do was collect up all the common sense in the world and keep it safe in one place. So he scuttled here and scuttled there, gathering it up in a great calabash. He then plugged the calabash with a roll of dried leaves. "There," he said to himself, "is all the common sense in the world. Whenever I need it I shall be able to help myself, and my enemies will have none. I shall have fun for I shall always get the better of them." He was really pleased with himself. "Hey, wait a minute though," he thought, "where can I keep it safe? Everyone will want to steal it from me. I know, I'll put the calabash at the top of that great coconut tree. None of the other animals will ever find it." So Anansi got a long rope and tied it around the calabash, and then he looped the other end of the rope around his head. The calabash hung down in front of him, leaving all his legs free to climb the tree. |
| Well, Anansi started to climb the tree, but it was
not easy as the calabash kept bumping around between him and the trunk
of the tree. Slowly he inched up on his eight legs until, suddenly,
when he was about halfway up, he heard laughter below on the ground.
Now there is nothing Anansi hates more than being laughed at. Looking down he saw a small boy and the small boy was laughing his head off. "Fancy climbing a tree with the calabash in front of you, Anansi!" he called out. "Surely you know that if you want to climb a tree with a calabash, it is more sensible to put the calabash on your back." Anansi quivered with annoyance, in fact he was furious, for what the small boy was common sense, yet hadn't he, Anansi, collected all the common sense in the world and stuffed it into the calabash? In a rage he flung the calabash to the foot of the tree, where it shattered. The common sense inside was scattered into little pieces and blown all over the world, and everyone, or nearly everyone, got a little bit. So when you have some common sense, remember you have Anansi the Spider to thank for it. |