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Overview
A childless couple ask God for a child and receive a daughter. By day she is a girl; at night she becomes a cannibal and leaves the house to eat young sheep. Herdsmen are punished for losses they did not cause. Her mother discovers a lamb’s small foot expelled from the child’s mouth, but her father initially rejects the accusation. He checks her body for the hairy appearance described to him and finds none; she also cries like an ordinary infant. Only keeping watch reveals her nightly feeding and her declared intention to eat her parents after the sheep. Following advice, the couple leave her in a deserted place and observe from trees. Rather than cry helplessly, she looks for prey, eats three herdsmen and forces the remaining two to gather the flock before eating them too.
She consumes the livestock while digging a cave, then takes people and animals from distant towns. A cousin, mocked because his uncle has such a daughter, asks permission to kill her. Her father refuses and lets him leave instead. During this exile the young man gains a greyhound-shaped spirit’s assistance and a protective horse. When he returns, his home town has no survivors: Aischa has killed her own parents that day. She greets him as brother, alleges illness killed the townspeople and admits cutting off her parents’ heads because they were unwell. These statements are her explanations, not an independent account of a disease.
The cousin lodges in a tower, and Aischa decides she must eat his horse before she can consume him. Asked for bread, she supplies chopped human flesh shaped like a loaf and identifies it as his grandmother’s. She then acknowledges her hostility and threatens to eat him if he leaves or let him starve inside. The horse resists her with its hind feet. When she returns to announce that she will eat the man, he calls for his spirit helper, runs to the horse and escapes. The tower suddenly catches fire with Aischa inside, and she burns with it. The tale’s final calamity concerns the horse’s later vengeance in another village; it does not restore the dead girl.
Origins & earliest records
Hans Stumme, Märchen der Schluḥ von Tázerwalt (Leipzig, 1895), tale 8, Die Geschichte von einem Mädchen, das eine Menschenfresserin war: complete German translation pp. 92–98. Preface v–vi names Abdulla Ben Mhammed and describes Leipzig dictation.
Records & interpretation
Entire German tale 8 read, including parental tests, exile, bread-sharing helper, vineyard dispute, chicken transformation, Aischa’s death and the horse’s final burial of the village/blinding spring. The girl is called Aischa in her cousin’s greeting; this does not identify her with another similarly named Moroccan spirit.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Märchen der Schluḥ von Tázerwalt
Tale 8, whole German pp. 92–98; contributor/collection Preface v–vi.
Family & connections
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References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected Tashelhit transcription with German translationOriginal bilingual collection: The Cannibal GirlResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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