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

Overview

Timba finds Siapi tending a baby concealed in a grain basket because Volha-Volha’s spies are seeking children of its complexion. She promises not to betray mother or child, then stamps the earth with her magical staff. A very kind old woman appears immediately. Timba calls her a wise Fairy and offers her as a carrier who will take the child rapidly to a safe place chosen by its mother.

Siapi chooses her sister’s home. The baby coos in the woman’s arms and both vanish a moment later. The eventual reunion is supplied later in the two-part story: after Volha-Volha’s defeat, Timba sends a messenger to retrieve the little girl and returns her alive and well to Siapi. That messenger is not explicitly the summoned woman, and the profile does not conflate them or invent the rescuer’s personal name, homeland or lineage.

Kindly old woman formStaff summonsRapid disappearanceCarries living infantMother chooses destination
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Origins & earliest records

Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged this two-part English tale. Its Shangani label is explicit, but no episode narrator is named. The profile preserves literary narration and does not treat its tyrant’s discriminatory acts as history or community custom.

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Records & interpretation

The Serpent’s Bride, parts I and II, complete printed pp. 78–114, read through the final river restoration and joining of communities.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Fairy Tales from South Africa

    Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake, collectors and arrangers · 1908

    VIII–IX. The Serpent’s Bride, parts I and II, pp. 78–114; complete published English arrangement.

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.

  1. Siapi has hidden her three-month-old daughter from Volha-Volha’s child-killing policy. Timba summons an old-woman fairy with her staff and asks her to take the infant to Siapi’s sister. The helper appears immediately but is not identified as a relative or named separately.

    IX, pp.107–109; summoned protector

  2. The baby is returned alive by a later messenger after Volha-Volha’s defeat. The narration does not explicitly identify this returning messenger as the same fairy. Her outward transport uses a speed simile, which alone does not establish anatomical wings.

    IX, pp.112; later return

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.

  1. Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — The Serpent’s Bride, parts I and IIResearch 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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