Mada Cantinny (Mother Cantinny)

DESCRIPTION: Jamaican patois: They know I am Cantinny. Did you reveal that?
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Beckwith-Ballad)
KEYWORDS: disguise trick animal
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, p. 18, "Mada Cantinny" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Martha W Beckwith, "The English Ballad in Jamaica: a Note Upon the Origin of the Ballad Form" in _Publications of the Modern Language Association_ [PMLA], Vol. XXXIXI, No. 2 (Jun 1924 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 460-461, "Grandy Beard" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Mada Cantinny" (on WIEConnor01)
NOTES [71 words]: Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica: "Mada Cantinny (Mother Cantinny), is a character in an Anancy story, whose name was only known to the animals she fostered. Anancy [the eponymous trickster] [often a spider, and often spelled Anansi - RBW], disguised as a girl, learned her name from Bra Crab, one of her 'children,' and Mada Cantinny sang this song to each animal in turn asking if it were responsible for divulging her secret." - BS
Last updated in version 3.8
File: JaMu018

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