Suriname folk-lore

56.

Sɛkrepatu naŋga Tigri bɛn dɛ bɩgi mati nąŋga mat' Anąnsi. Dąn Tigri bɛn kiri ala meti tɛ den taki ɛ̨ŋ tɔri. Dąn mat' Anąnsi lɛre mati Sɛkrepatu fō a kąn kiri mati Tigri. A tai̯gi mati Sɛkrepatu, a taki, a mu bai̯ wąn kąką fō ką hɛdɛ, dąn tɛ a dɔro mati Tigri hoso, dąn te mati Tigri aksi hɛm pɛ ɛ̨ŋ dɛ gō, dą' mati Sɛkrepatu mu piki mati Tigri, taki, ‘Mi dɛ go 'a mat' Anąnsi. Mi go ką mi hɛdɛ wiwiri.’ A du so.

Dąn, te mati Sɛkrepatu pasa, nō mō mati Tigri taki, ‘Ɛ̨, mati Sɛkrepatu 'ɛ lau̯. A no habi hɛdɛ wiwiri, na soso buba habi. Pɛ ai go ką?’ Dąn a taki so, 'a mat' Tigri wąntɛ fadǫ' dɛdɛ.

Odo: Yu no mu luku fō trawąn fō taki tumusi. (Da mati Tigri tek' ɛ̨ŋ nyąm. Mati Tigri obia wroko dɑti, mat' Anąnsi kɔni, na so a lɛre mat' Sɛkrepatu fō meki Tigri kɔm dɛdɛ).

56. Magic Against Gossip.¹

Tortoise and Tiger were great friends of Anansi's. Then Tiger had been killing all animals who gossiped about him. Then friend Anansi taught friend Tortoise how to kill friend Tiger. He said to friend Tortoise, said, he must buy a comb to comb his hair, then when he reaches friend Tiger's house, and when friend Tiger asks him where he is going, then friend Tortoise must answer friend Tiger, say, ‘I am going to friend Anansi. I go to comb my hair.’ He did so.

Then, when friend Tortoise passed, friend Tiger suddenly said, ‘Eh! friend Tortoise is foolish. He has no hair on his head, he has only skin. Where is he going to comb?’ Then as he said this, friend Tiger instantly fell down dead.

Proverb: You must not be on guard against another's talking too much. (So friend Tiger took [found] his food. Friend Tiger's obia worked that: [but] Anansi is cunning, and so he taught friend Tortoise to make Tiger die.)

1 Told by 3. Compare Sudan (Mossi), Tauxier (II) 436-7, fable No. 27, (with reference to this same tale collected by Froger, and published in his ‘Étude sur la langue des Mossi’, pp. 242-3).