A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

An unsuccessful bird hunter eventually traps a bird unlike any he has seen in the forest. It speaks in a human voice, naming itself as the child of Antsaly and commenting on its capture. The hunter dismisses the protest and carries it home. He kills it, and it speaks again about being killed. His wife refuses to cook or eat a creature that talks like a person, so he proceeds himself. At each stage—cutting it up, cooking and eating—the bird continues announcing what he has done. No particular plumage, wingspan or natural species is supplied.

After the hunter sleeps, the bird’s mother arrives asking where her child is. It answers from within the man’s belly. Frightened, the wife obtains the assistance of an ody possessor, who directs that her husband be taken to another village. Wrapped in lambas and tied to a bamboo like a corpse, he is carried away. The mother flies above the bearers, repeatedly questioning them while the bird still replies from inside its eater. The attempted removal therefore fails to conceal the child or stop communication between mother and offspring.

At the destination, people place the man in a house and gather around him. The mother returns that evening and calls again. Receiving her son’s answer, she opens the hunter’s belly with her beak. The bird emerges whole and thoroughly alive, whereas the man is dead. The ending supplies complete restoration after cutting, cooking and consumption, rather than only a haunting voice without a recovered body. Renel’s heading compares this collected account with Dahle–Sims’s Malagasy Ny Zanak’antsaly, p. 361; that comparison is retained without claiming a new full reading of the separate Malagasy witness.

Human speechVoice survives cutting and cookingAnswers from an eater’s bellyMother follows overheadBeak opens the hunter’s bodyChild emerges whole and alive
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, second volume, tale 143, pp. 283–286, with regional/local heading. Individual teller unnamed; the editor identifies a close Dahle–Sims comparison.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 143, pp. 283–286, heading and notes read; entire final outcome retained.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, deuxième partie: Fables et fabliaux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 143, pp. 283–286, complete, with source-specific heading and notes.

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.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, second volume, tale 143Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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