Herein you will find 149 Anansi tales and a further 18 Witticisms. The stories are categorised into Animal Stories, Old Stories (chiefly of sorcery), Dance and Song and Witticisms. You will find stories as varied in title and content as “The Fish-Basket”, “The Storm“, “The King's Two Daughters”, “The Gub-Gub Peas”, “Simon Tootoos”, “The Tree-Wife” and many, many more unique tales.

THE STORIES in this collection were recorded from the lips of over sixty negro story-tellers in the remote country districts of Jamaica during two visits to the island in the summer of 1919 and the winter of 1921. The role of Anansi, the trickster spider, is akin to the Native American Coyote and the (Southern African) Bantu Hare.

In some instances, Martha Warren Beckwith was able to record musical notation to accompany the stories. As such you will find these scattered throughout the book. In this way the original style of the story-telling, which in some instances mingles story, song and dance, is as nearly as possible preserved in this volume.