“The Origin of Spider: A Tale of Funeral Vows and Fatal Cunning”

When the great chief Kurungu-the-Bad-Fish feels death approaching, he gathers his many children and asks what each will do to honor his funeral rites. The eldest promises to slaughter a lion, the youngest a hyena. When the chief dies, only these two brothers remain determined to fulfill their vows—but the path to honoring the dead proves treacherous and transformative.

The youngest son succeeds through elaborate deception: hiding a hyena in a skin bag, pretending to be blind while baiting a trap with meat, finally dragging his captured prey to his father’s grave where she’s slain and eaten as an offering. His brothers congratulate him—all funeral vows are fulfilled except the eldest brother’s impossible promise.

The eldest brother’s attempt involves even deeper cunning. He lures a lion to work his blacksmith’s bellows, then demonstrates superhuman pain tolerance by apparently thrusting red-hot tongs into his own body (secretly protected by leaves). The lion, determined to prove equal courage, demands the same treatment—with no leaves to protect him. The trick works too well. When the unconscious lion awakens to find himself carried to the smith’s house, he realizes the deception and attacks in terrible rage.

The lion’s claws and fangs tear the eldest brother’s body into many fragments and pieces—and from those pieces arises a new creature with many legs: the spider. Thus was the spider born, and thus marks the beginning of the spider in the world.

A stunning origin myth wrapped in a funeral tale, explaining how human ambition and cunning were literally broken apart and transformed into the crafty, many-legged trickster that wanders the earth forevermore.

Off with the rat’s head!