Page:Popular tales from the Norse (1912).djvu/609

 Rh Better still Zimmermann,

At vol. i, p. 193, we have two specimens of such stories, the first of which, about Anansi and his son, reminds one of one of the many stories of Boots and his Brothers; while in the second, the "Little Birds" reveal to a hunter the conduct of his wife at home. The root of the word Anansi, in different African dialects, is nan, ran, or lan, all which are verbs, meaning to spin. Anansi is therefore, the spinner. The connection between it and aranea, ἀράχνη and lana. will be evident to philologists.