Midnight Robber

This section returns to the A.I. narrator. The title “How Tan-Tan Learn to Thief” prefaces the section, which the narrator describes as “ a ‘nansi story” (78). The eshu includes the perspective of an older Tan-Tan recalling this as the first story she heard about herself.

Tan-Tan’s myth begins with her living on the moon as queen of the Taino people alongside King Antonio. Tan-Tan and Antonio notice Earth is dirty and decide to clean it. He sings to a cloud chariot, and they fly to Earth. However, their “obeah magic” (82) does not work on Earth, so they must clean by hand and cannot call the magic chariot.

Hungry, they call on the deity Kabo Tano to save them, who creates a magic tree filled with food halfway between the mountaintop and the river. A messenger pig is too greedy to deliver the message, so Tan-Tan and Antonio continue to starve. However, Tan-Tan notices the fat pig and follows it alongside a rat. After killing both animals and eating apples, she can hear Kabo Tano again. He tells her to cut down the tree, but she claims to be too weak.

After teaching her how to cook the animals’ meat to regain her strength, Kabo Tano again decrees she cut down the tree.