The Self-Grinding Stone in Barker and Sinclair’s Tale

Overview

During a widespread famine, Anansi notices that his cousin’s household remains well fed. The cousin, Kofi, has found a wonderful stone lying on grass in the forest and grinding flour of its own accord. A stream of honey runs nearby. He eats there and carries home only enough for his family’s needs, returning each morning. The stone supplies the flour; the narrative does not say that it also creates the neighbouring honey stream.

Anansi persistently asks to be shown the source. Kofi distrusts his greed but finally agrees to take him after the women begin their morning work. Impatient, Anansi orders his children to make pot noises in the middle of the night, then to sweep noisily, trying to make Kofi believe morning has come. Both attempts fail. He instead cuts a hole in Kofi’s bag and fills it with ashes. When his cousin leaves alone at dawn, Anansi follows the spilled trail to the stone.

Kofi tells him to be quiet in the wonderful place and eat. After their meal, however, Anansi refuses to take only a family portion. He lifts the stone onto his head and carries it away. The stone speaks, asking him to put it down and recalling that the pig and antelope had fed and departed. Its protest contrasts taking food with removing the source itself. Anansi ignores it and travels between villages selling flour until his bag is full of money.

Only when he reaches his own hut does he try to unload it. The stone refuses to come off his head, and no effort dislodges it. Its increasing burden crushes him into small pieces beneath it. The closing explanation links this result to little spiders gathered under large stones. The account gives this object speech, self-working flour production and an inescapable weight in that episode. It supplies no face, limbs, inscription or detailed mechanical arrangement, and does not name a deity inhabiting it.

Origins & earliest records

Barker and Sinclair’s 1917 introduction says that experienced teacher-training students at the Government institution in Accra supplied English versions. The editors selected between variants and retold them for a wider public. Neither selected chapter credits a named individual teller, language or precise source community. The historical Gold Coast collection association is retained without automatically assigning the account to Akan, a present nation or one uniform West African tradition.

Records & interpretation

Complete chapter XIII, printed p.81 onward through the conclusion before chapter XIV at p.85; full introduction and its notes.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   West African Folk-Tales

   W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, collectors and arrangers · 1917

   London, George G. Harrap & Company; title transcribes MCMXVII. Sinclair also credited for drawings. Complete selected chapters and introduction with original notes inspected.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical collected and arranged English narrativeBarker and Sinclair 1917 — complete XIII The Grinding-Stone That Ground Flour by Itself; introductionResearch access: 2026-10-23

Image credits

AI-generated narrative interpretation of the flour-producing stone. Shape, size, woodland and stream appearance are artistic choices, not an authenticated grinding tool, sacred object or working mechanism.

Barker/Sinclair historical collected and arranged narrative; face, object design and place are interpretations, not ethnographic evidence.