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Overview

Three brothers are left alone after their parents’ deaths. The elder two go in search of food, leaving enough for their youngest brother for a week. Passing a tomb, they hear its resident angatra ask for wild banana fruits. They refuse, saying that they themselves have nothing to eat, and the spirits fall silent. The ghosts’ presence is indicated through speech from their dwelling; the surviving account does not describe their faces, bones, clothing or separate personal names.

When the youngest follows the same road after exhausting his provisions, the spirits ask him for wild bananas too. He looks back in fear, but they reassure him and explain how to prepare the offering. He cooks and peels the fruits, cuts them into pieces and gives them to the beings. They thank him and contrast his behaviour with his brothers’ refusal. Their advice tells him where to find an edible root and how to request hospitality at Zanahary’s house. They warn him to choose the dirty cooking pot rather than the clean one.

The younger traveller obeys, shares his meal courteously, cleans the room and washes the pot. Zanahary explains that the rude elder brothers have been changed into fandrama and rewards the younger with a wish-granting object described as an egg of a silver guinea fowl. The ghosts are therefore advisers enabling a successful visit, not the agents who punish the brothers or deliver the later gun. The printed narrative proceeds into marriage and the magical replacement of a broken firearm but stops without an ultimate ending. Its heading says the narrator disappeared before completion, so neither a final ghost reward nor their subsequent fate can be supplied.

Speech from a tombCollective angatra without individual namesRequest cooked wild bananasReassure the youngest travellerSpecific route and hospitality advice
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, second volume, tale 142, pp. 277–282. The heading explicitly calls the tale unfinished because of the narrator’s disappearance; individual narrator unnamed.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete surviving tale 142, pp. 277–282, heading and notes read. Unfinished ending retained, without reconstructing lost events or copying the spoken request formula.

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 142, Faralahy, pp. 277–282: complete surviving, explicitly unfinished account.

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 narrative fragmentRenel 1910, unfinished Antankarana FaralahyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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