Chickens

A long time ago, Master Superspin Anansi wanted to surprise the Governor of his country with half a village. "If you give me two chickens, I'll come back with half a village," he said. "I'd like to see that," laughed the Governor. "Is that all you need? Two chickens?" - "Well no..." Anansi hesitated. There you have it, thought the Governor. "Would you add one of your coats, and uh... one of your stabbing hats, and uh... one of your sabers and one of uh..." - "My medals?" asked the Governor mockingly. "Clean," said Anansi, "one of your medals and one of your boats. That's all."

The Governor thought it was not too bad and the next morning Anansi paddled away in a small rowing boat that they call canoe in Suriname. The sun was shining, the river was smooth as a mirror and green trees along both banks listened to a singing spider, who had two chickens in his boat:

"Paga, do your job

Anansi is not strong

Anansi is a smart spider

Everyone steps in

In which

In there

Anansi gets his way."

By two o'clock he had had enough. The sun had gotten better and better and his arms had gone numb from rowing. I should let myself be invited, Anansi thought, there must be a village here somewhere. He started to sing extra loudly and thus attracted the attention of the villagers. "The Governor! The Governor!" they shouted enthusiastically. "Are you coming to visit us?" - "No time!" Anansi yelled across the water. The people jumped into their canoes and paddled towards him. "Welcome, Governor! Please come ashore. You haven't visited us in so long."

"Can't you see I'm not the Governor," Anansi grumbled. "I am his adjutant and I have to take these chickens to a friend of his. He lives down the road and his son is sick and he can only recover if he eats chicken soup."

But the villagers persisted and eventually Anansi was persuaded. "Is there anyone who can take care of the Governor's chickens?" Of course everyone wanted to take care of them. "But these are very special chickens," Anansi explained. "They only sleep with geese."

No problem! The chickens with the geese; food, drinks, a dance, a private hut for Anansi! When the party reached its climax and everyone was on the dance floor, Anansi crept up to the goose coop, grabbed the two chickens and twisted their necks. Back at the party he said he was tired and went to sleep. He wanted to leave early the At six o'clock Anansi was already standing by his boat and shouting, "Who will get me my chickens?" Everyone was shocked when a boy came with two dead chickens. Anansi pretended to faint. "I'm lost!" he cried dramatically. "Nothing is lost yet," someone said, "we can give you two other chickens." Anansi began to rant and rant, "I want my own chickens, the Governor's chickens. How could you offer me two of your chickens... If only they were geese!"

Geese? Would Anansi rather have two geese? But of course he could have two of their geese. So the clever spider departed with two geese in his dugout canoe and again his song sounded:

"Paga, do your job

Anansi is not strong

Anansi is a smart spider

Everyone steps in

In which

In there

Anansi gets his way."

In the afternoon he reached another village and again Anansi begged to come ashore. "If you can't take good care of my geese, I won't stay. They are very special geese," he explained, "they belong to the Governor and they only sleep with pigs." And what did they bring him the next morning? Two dead geese! Anansi supposedly knew nothing, Anansi passed out, Anansi raged and ranted until... he got two pigs. Then he left.

At the village he visited later that afternoon, he demanded that the Governor's pigs be housed with the cows. When that was done, he wanted to party, eat, drink and dance. At twelve o'clock he wanted to take a look at his pigs; no, nobody had to go with him. When he came back, Anansi said they were fine and he was going to sleep now because he had to get up early again. They weren't doing well at all, those two pigs. Anansi had killed them! So the next morning he could perform his play again, which he had said so far that ... that the Governor would punish not only him but the whole village ... that those pigs were still perfectly healthy at twelve o'clock last night ... that it was their fault: he had wanted to sail on, they had wanted to celebrate if necessary.

"You can have two other pigs!" - "What two other pigs. If only it were a cow!" And so Anansi sailed away with the fattest cow in the village. But that was disappointing... With that fat beast in his boat, Anansi barely made progress, no matter how much he paddled and paddled... And what was that? Water got into his canoe! Quickly Anansi paddled to shore. "Out!" yelled at the cow that fled into the woods. "Donkedam!" cursed Anansi. "Stupid cow! But what should I do now?"

As he stared darkly ahead, his ears caught the howl of a funeral procession. Anansi crawled behind a tree and waited for the funeral to be over. When everyone had left, he ran to the grave and dug up the coffin, in which he found a child's corpse. Dead is dead, Anansi thought, but I must move on.

It was already dusk when Anansi reached the next village with the Governor's sick son. That's what he said, yes, that the Governor had ordered him to take his sick son to the doctor down the road. Because it was already getting dark, he was willing to spend the night in this village, if they gave him and the sick child a quiet hut.

The village was dead quiet, everyone was walking on tiptoe, trying not to cough or cough. Whispering, the Village Chief's wife asked if the Governor's little one wouldn't like a little banana flour porridge. "We can, try it," Anansi said. "Bring me a big bowl and I'll feed him one bite at a time." Everyone was so happy when Anansi put out an empty bowl a little later. "He liked it," said Anansi, and he wasn't lying; he had enjoyed it!

An hour later the wife of the Village Chief brought a plate of your tajer soup. Anansi also ate that tasty, but in the meantime he saw his chance. You have edible and poisonous tajers, just like mushrooms. So Anansi screamed a little later that the Governor's son had died and that it was because of the soup. "But he was already ill..." tried the Village Chief.

Anansi bit his bottom lip so hard it swelled up. "Then my lip must have been sick too? How do you think I got this fat lip? That happened when I tasted whether the soup wasn't too hot for the child." Now the Village Chief began to beg Anansi, "What should we do? What will the Governor do when he learns that his little son has died in our village? Help us, Anansi, tell us what to do!"

Anansi pretended to think, "It's your shit... You'll have to bury the child." Of course they would. "And then...then you'll have to offer the Governor something." - "He can have what he wants," cried the Village Chief. "Half the village if he will!" Anansi frowned, "What are you saying? Repeat that." - "Half our village," repeated the Village Chief. "Would he take that?"

"We can try," Anansi said, "I'll write it down and you can draw it." So leftnext morning.