Page:Folklore1919.djvu/176

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164
Gold Coast Folklore.

times, and each time the answer was heard: "The bridegroom has done this."

The people then began to jeer and point the finger at the bridegroom, until he was so ashamed that he left the town with his wife and came to his native land. But Ananse had been in the place before him and had spread the report all over the town. The people jeered at him, and so did his servants in spite of the thrashing he gave them, and he lost much of the respect that used to be given him. In society and in the streets people ridiculed and looked down upon him. Thus he remained until the day of his death, at which time Ananse declared that it was he and not Ananse Panyin who had done the mischief. He explained why he did it, and when he had finished his tale he jumped to the ground and made for the ceiling of his house, and there he has remained to the present day.