Why Mr Spider's Waist Is Small

This tale has been adapted from the original for readability:

Once, a king announced a great feast across all his towns, and invited everyone to come and eat. When Spider heard, he grew greedy at once. He wanted to eat in every town, but he did not know which one would be ready first. So he called all his children and told them about the feast, and they were delighted.

Then Spider took a bundle of ropes and went with his children until they reached the place where all the roads met, the crossroads that led out to every town. He stood there and tied all the ropes around his waist. He gave one end to each child and sent them off, one to each town, to keep watch. “As soon as the food is ready where you are,” he told them, “pull your rope, and I will come running to eat.”

But the people in every town cooked at the same time. And when the cooking began, Spider’s children all started pulling, each as hard as the others, all at once. They pulled and pulled, and Spider could not go anywhere, because the ropes were tugging him equally in every direction. So he stayed stuck at the crossroads, getting dragged this way and that, unable to reach a single feast.

He went without a bite all day. And as his children kept pulling, the ropes tightened around him until his waist grew pinched and thin. That, people say, is why Spider’s middle is still so narrow to this day.