Milne-Holme (1860-1936) was the daughter of a British military officer, Major Charles D. C. Ellis who was stationed at Fort George in Jamaica; she dedicated the book to him. In 1889, she married Colonel David Milne-Holme, and the book was published the year after their marriage.
Major Ellis was the son of Augustus Frederick Ellis, who was in turn the son of Charles Ellis, the first Baron Seaford, whose wealth came his father's six sugar planations and over 1200 slaves. When the slaves of Jamaica were emancipated in the 1830s, Ellis received money from the government in compensation for over 1000 emancipated slaves; see Wikipedia for details.
As a member of one of Jamaica's wealthiest families, Milne-Holme's prejudices come through loud and clear, yet at the same time her publication of these stories gives us some insight into the stories in circulation in Jamaica at the time. There are 14 stories in the book told by Milne-Holme: Anansi and Alligator ~ Brother Death ~ The Lady and the Bull ~ The Snake and the King’s Daughter ~ The Story of Anansi and Tiger ~ The Snake ~ The Affassia ~ Goat and Anansi ~ Anansi, His Wife, and Tiger ~ The Story About Rat and Cat ~ Anansi, Tiger, and Goat ~ Garshan Bull ~ The Lady and the Little Doggie ~ The King and the Peafowl.
Another intriguing feature of this book is that it includes some stories published by folklorist George Webbe Dasent (1817–1896) who had published some "Ananzi" stories in an appendix to Popular Tales
From the Norse, published in 1859; Dasent learned the stories as a child growing up on the island of St. Vincent. Milne-Holme includes all but one of Dasent's stories (she omits Nancy Fairy for some reason), although she arranges them in a different order: The Lion, Goat, and Baboon ~ The Little Child and the Pumpkin-Tree ~ The King and the Ant’s Tree ~ The Girl and the Fish ~ The Dancing Gang ~ Anansi and Baboon ~ Anansi and the Lion ~ Anansi and Quanqua ~ The Brother and His Sisters ~ Why the Jack Spaniard’s Waist Is Small ~ The Man and the Doukana Tree ~ The Ear of Corn and the Twelve Men.
In addition to the Anansi stories that form the core of the book, Milne-Holme also summarizes some traditional duppy stories in the introduction, which is definitely worth reading too (if you can stomach the condescending racism which permeates the introduction, as usual in these 19th-century books).
There is also some music included, which you can find quickly using the thumbnail view.
And it's all waiting for you, just a click away, at the Internet Archive!
by Mary Pamela Milne-Home
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