A Spider, known for rejecting suitors, marries a deceptive Python disguised as a man. Ignoring warnings, she follows him to his distant “town,” only to find it’s a hollow tree where he reveals his true form. Stranded and regretful for refusing genuine suitors, she eventually returns to her father with help, learning the perils of pride and poor judgment in relationships.
Source
Among Congo Cannibals
by John H. Weeks
Seeley, Service & Co.,London, 1913
► Themes of the story
Cunning and Deception: The Python deceives the Spider by disguising himself as a man to win her trust and marry her.
Transformation: The Python’s ability to change his appearance from a snake to a man and back again is central to the plot.
Forbidden Knowledge: The Spider is warned about her suitor’s true nature but chooses to ignore the advice, leading to her predicament.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Bantu peoples
There was a Spider who lived with her parents in their town. She was unmarried, and it was very difficult to find a husband for her as she was so hard to please. One young man asked her father for her in marriage, but he said: “You must ask her yourself.” And when he told her: “I love you. Will you be my wife?” she replied, “No,” in such a way that he went back to his house very angry. Another young man came, and she said: “I refuse all husbands, for I am going to remain as I am.”
► Continue reading…
After a time another suitor came, and when the Spider declined him he said: “You refuse all offers of marriage from us; but a person will come who will not be a proper person at all, for he will have changed himself to look like a nice man. You will marry him, and you will have much trouble on going with him, for he will take you to his country, which will be far away, and you will regret that you have refused all of us.”
“Be quiet!” she shouted; “you are angry because I will not marry you, and that is why you threaten me.”
“Very well,” said he, “you think I am telling you a lie,” and away he went to his town. Now this was the Python who spoke to the girl.
The Python waited in his town for some time, and then he changed himself into another and nicer form and paid a visit to the Spider, and said to her: “Spider, I have come to many you.”
The Spider asked him: “Do you love me or not?”
He answered her: “I love you,” and they were married.
After a time he said: “Spider, we must return to my town.” And he deceitfully told her that he lived in a fine town, and was very rich. He also promised his father-in-law that he would return in six months—a promise he never intended to keep.
The Spider and her husband started on their journey, and went on and on and on for two months, and the wife became very tired with the long walk.
As they were nearing their town a person said to her: “The one who is travelling with you is not a real person, but a snake that has changed itself to look like a person. Do not believe in him.”
They reached the husband’s town, which she found was simply a tree with a large hole in it. The husband changed back to his snake form, and coiling himself up in the hole he left his wife to do the best she could outside.
The Spider was very angry, and repented having been so stupid as to refuse all the nice young men of her own town to be deceived by this snake from a distance. The poor Spider became very thin and would have died, only someone helped her back to her father.
The custom of making blood-brotherhood was very common on the Upper Congo. The ceremony has already been described in a previous chapter, and therefore it is not necessary to go again into detail. During the performance of the rite the contracting parties who exhibited any doubt of each other’s faithfulness in properly observing the bond would put one another under a prohibition or taboo, and so long as they carefully obeyed the prohibition the blood bond remained in force.
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Dreamtime Whispers 