THE DANCING GRANNY
Retold and illustrated by Ashley Bryan
SUMMARY:
Spider Ananse
gets Granny started dancing so he can raid her garden – but his own trick “does
him in.”
[Folklore—
PZ8.1B838Dan [398.2] [E] 76-25847
Copyright 1977 by Ashley Bryan
All rights reserved
Published simultaneously in Cananda by
McClelland & Stewart, Ltd.
Printed in the
Connecticut Printer, Inc.
Bound by A. Horowitz & Son,
First Edition
To the memory of
GRANNY SARAH BRYAN
and
for her Great-Granddaughters
VERNA RAI and
“The music sweet me so.”
THERE WAS AN
OLD WOMAN who lived in a hut. Everyone called her Granny Anika.
She sang her
songs and she stirred her pot. She licked the ladle and tasted her stew.
Umm-yum! She beat the sides of the calabash, pom-pa-lom!
pom-pa-lom!
Granny Anika was a happy old lady. She woke up singing. All day
long she sang and beat out rhythms on anything within reach.
She rapped with sticks, she drummed with spoons, she tapped with ladles and she
hummed dance tunes to the beat of her knives.
“Shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West.”
But what Granny Anika loved best of all
was to dance. She danced in the morning. She danced at noon. She danced
till the sun set. And then at night she dreamed dance dreams and danced in her
sleep till dawn.
That old lady
was never too busy or too tired to do a little dance. She cleared a vegetable
patch near her hut and sang as she hoed the ground. She kept step to the chop,
chop, chop of her hoe.
The seeds
stirred in the earth to the vibrations of Granny’s song and dance. The
vegetables came up strong to the gentle slap, pitter-pat of Old Anika’s bare feet.
Granny Anika was proud of her grounds. She set in a good variety
of seeds and raised all of her provisions. She sang :
“Mama loves peas,
Papa loves corn,
Baby loves beans
Sure as you’re born,
Put in potatoes,
Granny loves yam,
Don’t forget okra,
Beets and jam.”
Jam! Well,
Granny picked sweet berries from bushes and made a thick brew, which she spread
on sliced yam and called jam.
Granny Anika did her share of work, and she did her dance. Uh-huh!
She snapped her fingers and clapped her hands: Uh-huh! She knew her song, and
she got along.
Uh-huh!
One day
Spider Ananse came strutting on by Granny Anika’s hut.
You couldn’t
imagine a lazier fellow than Brother Ananse. He’d
strut and stroll all day long, looking like he was doing something important.
But Spider wouldn’t work.
No kind of
tune could make the hoe feel lighter in Brother Ananse’s
hands. And no kind of beat eased his long, slim feet on a spade dug into the
ground.
Spider Ananse preferred resting and loafing and lounging and
wandering around until he found someone he might trick for his dinner.
Spider
watched Granny Anika working in her field. She was
bent over the hoe doing a jug as she dug. She didn’t see Spider Ananse climb into a tree.
Spider Ananse peeped out at Granny from behind the tree trunk. “Hmmm ..” he thought, “I won’t get a thing from that great
garden patch if Granny doesn’t go.”
Brother Ananse began to sing. He sang one his catchiest tunes. He
broke off a twig and rapped out a marked dance beat on a dead branch.
“Pom-pa-lom!
Pom-pa-lom!
Papa’s here
And Mama’s gone.
I sing, you dance, my dee-dee
You dance, I sing, my swee-tee.
I’ll trouble you, my dee-dee,
I’ll trouble you, my la-dy.”
Granny heard
the tune and hummed it to herself. “Umm-hmm! Sweet,
sweet, sweet,” she sang.
Then the
music and the beat got to Granny’s feet. She held her hoe like a partner and
swung with it to the right. She swung to the left.
“Shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West.
Shake it to the very one
That you love the best.”
Granny Anika skipped like a little girl. She flung out her arms,
dropping the hoe, and danced off the field.
Spider Ananse sang louder and louder and rapped harder and harder.
Granny Anika wheeled to the East. She wheeled to the West. She let
the music take her, and the dance carried her off. Away she wheeled northwards,
head over heels, until she disappeared from sight.
Then Brother Ananse dropped down from the tree laughing till he shook.
“There goes
the dancing Granny.” He laughed. “Man! She sure looked like a
tumbleweed as she wheeled by.”
Spider helped
himself to all the corn he could carry and carted it all off to his house.
His wife
said, “Good corn.”
His mother
said, “Sure as you’re born.”
That night
they all sat down to heaping platefuls of steaming corn.
When Granny Anika finally came out of her dance right side up, she was
eleven miles north of her village.
“O my! O my!” she cried. “I know that voice. It was Brother Ananse. He sure can sing. Now why didn’t he come dance with me? Anyway, I got a good dance to the
North.”
Back home,
Granny went to her field and saw that her crop was ravished.
“Eh, eh! That good-for-nothing, no ‘count
Spider Ananse! He sure tricked me. So, that’s
why he didn’t try to match my steps! But I’ll catch him. Next time he comes I
won’t let the music sweet me so.”
Sure enough,
Spider Ananse soon came round again to plunder
Granny’s vegetable patch.
“Umm-yum,” he
thought as he looked out over the pretty field. “If the corn tasted so good, I
wonder how Granny’s peas and beans might be.”
Spider Ananse climbed into the tree and began to sing:
“Ah mini lah lee lee
Again I’m in the country
‘Cause Nana’s corn
Tastes god to me.
I see those beans,
I see those greens,
I see those beets,
Fit for kings and queens.”
“See what you
see and see what you like and have a fit too,” said Granny, “
‘cause that see and that fit is all you’re going to get. You can sing
for beans and sing for peas for all I care. It’s going to take two to dance to
your tune today.” Granny shuffled her feet lightly. “Yeah!
Take a good look. You’ll see that your Mama lives right here, and she don’t
plan to go nowhere. Uh-huh, no wheres away. Not this
here day.”
Spider
laughed and did some variations on his rapping. Then he went into his big song:
“Pom-pa-lom!
Pom-pa-lom!
Papa’s here
But Mama’s gone.
I sing for peas,
I sing for corn.
You plant, I’ll pull,
Sure as you’re born.”
Granny Anika held her hoe tightly and dug her toes into the
ground.
Spider sang
on:
“I sing, you dance, my dee-dee.
You dance, I sing, me swee-tee.
I trouble you, my dee-dee,
I trouble you, my la-dy.”
Granny kicked
up her feet and dropped the hoe.
Spider sang:
“O! Shake it to the East
Shake it to the West,
Shake it to the very one
That you love the best.”
Granny’s feet
could no longer resist Spider’s beat. She wheeled to the East, she wheeled to
the West. Then head over heels, she cartwheeled
southwards.
“Man, if
Granny don’t spin like a thistle on the breath of a
whistle,” laughed Spider, dropping out of the tree. He watched the dancing
Granny twirl out of sight.
Then Spider
filled his bag with peas and beans and strutted all the way home.
Spider’s wife
said “Good beans, good peas.”
Spider’s
mother said, “If you please.”
That night
they all sat down to heaping gourds of hot beans and peas.
Granny Anika found herself twelve miles south of her village
before she danced Spider’s tune out of her feet.
When she got
back home, she saw that Spider Ananse had stolen her
peas and beans.
“How can I
catch that thieving rascal?” she said. “Brother Ananse
sing the danciest tunes. I
just can’t stay still when the music sweets me so. That I know. Trouble is,
Spider know it too.”
Spider Ananse came again and climbed into the tree. He stayed well
out of reach of Granny, but his voice reached Granny Anika
well.
“Put your hands on your hips
And let your backbone shake.”
Once Spider
got into his song, Granny couldn’t resist. She danced to the North. She danced
to the South. And when Spider sang the pom-pa-lom
part, Granny was into her steps.
“Shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West.”
Granny was
now dancing her best and pleased as could be with her style. Even Spider Ananse had to admire her as she went, head over heels, carwheeling westwards.
“That dancing
Granny turns like a windmill!” he exclaimed. “She sure can twirl her arms and
legs in time to the tune.”
Spider took
all the potatoes he could carry and toted the sack home.
Spider’s wife
said, “Good potatoes.”
Spider’s
mother said, “Tastier than tomatoes.”
That night
they all sat down to a heaping mound of roasted potatoes.
Granny had a
good dance, it’s true. She came to a stop thirteen miles to the west of her
village and returned home.
The fourth
time Spider Ananse came by, he started singing before
he was well into the tree.
“Pom-pa-lom!
Pom-pa-lom!
Papa’s hungry
And Mama’s not home.”
Granny
started her dance. She swayed to the South. She swayed to the North.
“Shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West.”
“Sweet,
sweet, sweet,” sang Granny to the beat.
Spider didn’t
even have to finish his song. Granny heard well, and the tune was wheeling in
her. Off she went, heels over head, wheeling eastwards.
Spider Ananse shook his head and said, “No one can outdance dancing Granny. She spins like a top.”
He filled his
basket with beets and beat it on back home.
Spider’s wife
said, “Good beets.”
Spider’s
mother said, “Sweeter than sweets.”
That night
they all sat down to big bowls of boiled beets.
Granny Anika danced to a stop, right side up fourteen miles to the
east of her village.
“My,” she
said, “that was the sweetest dance of all.”
When she got
home, Granny sat by her hut. She tapped her foot as she looked over her
ravished field.
“Look at
that, will you?” she said. “Trickster Spider’s done taken my corn
, my peas and beans, my potatoes and my beets. I’ll never catch that
clever character as long as he swings on that sweet song.”
So Granny Anika gathered in all that was left of vegetables. There
was nothing more in the fields for Brother Ananse to
steal.
When Sider Ananse sauntered by again,
he was so sure of himself that he started singing his song long before he
reached the tree. Now what did he do that for?
Granny Anika was waiting for just such a chance,
Quickly she swung her hoe and caught Brother Ananse
around the waist. She pulled him to her and held onto him as if he were the
first dance partner she ever had.
“Let go! Let
go of me!” Spider cried.
“I’ve got you
now, you singing brother,” said Granny. “Dance with me. To
the East, to the West, to the North, to the South. Sing your song.”
Granny Anika pinched Spider, and he began to sing:
“Pom-pa-lom!
Pom-pa-lom!
I ate your peas,
I ate your corn.”
“Sure as
you’re born, you did. Now dance Brother! Dance!” sang Granny to the song. “I’ll
teach you that two can trip to that tune too.”
Granny Anika led Spider Ananse in the
dance. They whirled and the twirled to the wheeling beat. Every time Spider
tried to stop, Granny squeezed him tighter.
They danced
to the North.
They danced
to the South.
Now Spider’s
feet felt the sweet beat of Granny’s steps. Together they sang:
“Shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West,
Shake it to the very one
That you love the best.”
They wheeled
to the East.
They wheeled
to the West.
They wheeled
to the North.
They wheeled
to the South.
Off they went
capering and cartwheeling away!
Pom-pa-lom!
Pom-pa-lom!
Spider Ananse didn’t get one vegetable from Granny Anika that day, but he sure got one good dance with the old
woman.
Dancing
Granny never had a better partner than Spider Ananse.
They danced more miles together than Granny had ever danced alone. And if
Spider’s still singing, then they’re still dancing.
“Dance Granny! You move like the river.”
“Dance Spider! Let’s dance forever.”
“Dance, Granny! As the lead bends.”
“The dance goes on, but the story ends.”
·
Retold from “He Sings to Make the Old Woman Dance,”
(Antigua, English