Thunder and Anansi
This story is about a man named Anansi who had a wife and children. There was a great famine in their land and as Anansi was looking out to sea, he saw a palm tree on an island. He was so hungry that he tried to figure out a way to get to it. There was an old boat that was near by so he went to the island and climbed the tree. When he threw the nuts down to the boat they went straight into the water. When he got down from the tree and jumped in the water after the nuts, he was all of a sudden in front of a cottage. The guy in the cottage told him he could have a pot that would "create" food when asked. Anasi was selfish and hid it from his family while they started. His son, Kweku Tsin, found out his secret and told his mom and family about it. To make Anansi suffer, they took the pot to town and tried to feed everyone. The pot melted from trying to produce so much food. Anansi went back to get another pot and the man gave him a stick. The stick then proceeded to beat the snot out of him. The end. I'm not really sure what Thunder had to do with this story though...
Palm Tree at Buffalo Beach, Whitianga. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Tit for Tat
In this story, there is yet another (or the same) famine going on. Anansi's son, Kweku Tsin, had found a spot where there was ample animals to kill. He would go there and kill an animal and then sell it, which meant he was making a lot of money. His father got jealous and decided to find out where all the animals were. His father found them and killed them all and then tried to take them into town to sell them. His son figured out what he was up to, and rigged up a "god" that he put in his father's path and basically conned him out of all of the meat he was going to sell. The son ended up with all the meat and was able to sell it and became rich. After the famine was over, the son had a big feast and told the story about his dad and the "god" and embarrassed the snot out of his dad :)
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