Walking in the bush, Ananse found a human skull lying at the roadside, and out of habit said something to it.
Nowhere. That is the point.
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Ananse and the Talking Skull
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Ananse and the Talking Skull
Walking in the bush, Ananse found a human skull lying at the roadside, and out of habit said something to it.
The skull answered.
Ananse asked how it came to be there, and the skull said: Talking brought me here.
Ananse ran to the chief with the news — a skull that speaks! — and the chief said: if you are lying, it will cost you your head. Ananse swore it. The whole court walked out to the roadside, and Ananse crouched down and said, Skull! Tell them what you told me.
Silence.
He asked again, and again, and the sun moved, and the court grew cold, and the skull said nothing at all.
They took Ananse's head.
And when the court had gone and the road was empty, the skull said quietly to the new head lying beside it: What brought you here?
Walking in the bush, Ananse found a human skull lying at the roadside, and out of habit said something to it.
The skull answered.
Ananse asked how it came to be there, and the skull said: Talking brought me here.
Ananse ran to the chief with the news — a skull that speaks! — and the chief said: if you are lying, it will cost you your head. Ananse swore it. The whole court walked out to the roadside, and Ananse crouched down and said, Skull! Tell them what you told me.
Silence.
He asked again, and again, and the sun moved, and the court grew cold, and the skull said nothing at all.
They took Ananse's head.
And when the court had gone and the road was empty, the skull said quietly to the new head lying beside it: What brought you here?