A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The white dove tells Sanfu that the birds in one cave are her father’s women and girls, while the animals in another are his men. The retelling enumerates colourful orioles, lorys, cuckoos, finches and doves alongside bucks, elephants, giraffes and predators that live peaceably together. The English list also includes tigers; it is part of the literary scene, not a geographical wildlife inventory. Two ravens beside the dove are separately revealed as princes.
After Sanfu completes his year in the valley, repeated words addressed to the river release the caves. The creatures first acquire human heads and arms, then become complete men and women. The animals form warrior ranks led by a king in leopard skins; the birds become a crowd of girls led by the princess. Meanwhile impassable cliffs give way to pasture and livestock, and the black river and rock become planted fields ready for harvest. The restored community receives Sanfu, who eventually brings his own followers there and marries its princess.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. The publication does not name an individual contributor for this episode; its literary dialogue is not treated as a verbatim field transcription.
Records & interpretation
Complete XX. The White Dove, printed pp. 237–250, read through the final resolution.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
XX. The White Dove, pp. 237–250; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Primary source witness
Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908; selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Arranged for children; introduction pp.v–xi attributes principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region contributions, with Shining Princess attributed to Mapoch. Individual narrators for these selected tales unnamed. Historical colonial framing is not current community consensus.
- Opening two caves reveals birds and land animals. The dove identifies the animals as her father’s men and the birds as women and girls of the kingdom. No modern species catalogue or ancestral animal descent is inferred from this imposed transformation.
- After Sanfu waits a year, landscape barriers recede and repeated release stages give the creatures human heads and arms, then complete human bodies. A king, two princes and a magician appear with them; the two princes are identified as the ravens, but are not explicitly declared the princess’s biological brothers.
Selected historical arrangement, not unmediated original-language oral testimony. Individual contributor not named; no separate manuscript inspected. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — XX. The White DoveResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.