West African Folk Tales by William H. Barker

Smiling Spider by Redon

For this book’s internet archive page, click here.

Subscribe in iTunes

Download as a zipped file

To read it yourself, click here.

To listen, click play in the box below or click on the chapter titles.

Spider, public domain photo by Jon Sullivan

01 – How We Got The Name Spider Tales

02 – How Wisdom Became The Property Of The Human Race

03 – Anansi and Nothing

04 – Thunder and Anansi

05 – Why the Lizard Continually Moves his Head up and Down

06 – Tit For Tat

07 – Why White Ants Always Harm Man’s Property

08 – The Squirrel and the Spider

09 – Why We See Ants Carrying Bundles As Big As Themselves

10 – Why Spiders are Always Found in Corners

Skagen fisherman by Michael Ancher
Skagen fisherman by Michael Ancher

11 – Anansi and the Blind Fisherman

12 – Adzanumee and her Mother

13 – The Grinding-stone that Ground Flour by Itself

14 – Morning Sunrise

15 – Why the Sea-turtle When Caught Beats Its Breast with Its Forelegs

16 – How Beasts And Serpents First Came Into The World

17 – Honorable Minu

18 – Why the Moon and Stars Get Light from the Sun

19 – Ohia and the Thieving Deer

Turtles, Haeckel Chelonia

20 – How the Tortoise got its Shell

21 – The Hunter and the Tortoise

22 – Kwofi and the Gods

Anansi Lion, Albrecht Dürer, This work and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain.  The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by the Yorck project.  The compiliation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft, MbH, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation license
Lion, Albrecht Dürer

23 – The Lion and the Wolf

24 – Maku Mawu and Maku Fia

25 – The Robber and the Old Man

26 – The Leopard and the Ram

27 – Why the Leopard Can Only Catch Prey on Its Left Side

28 – Quarcoo Bah-Boni

29 – King Chameleon and the Animals

30 – To Lose an Elephant for the Sake of a Wren is a Very Foolish Thing to Do

31 – The Ungrateful Man

A Young Tiger Playing with its Mother

32 – Why Tigers never Attack Men Unless they are Provoked

33 – The Omanhene Who Liked Riddles

34 – How Mushrooms First Grew

35 – Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies

Leave a Reply