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

Overview

A spirit sits beside a road and eats passers-by. A girl decides to end the danger, finds it sleeping and quietly plaits its long beard. Using the beard to pull it, she drags the creature toward town while it sings about the action. Townspeople join her and kill it, but cannot open its body. A small advisory bird repeatedly tells them to use a thorn. They throw the bird away twice before trying its recommendation; when the thorn touches the body, the creature splits.

The swallowed people emerge alive. Inside the devourer they have continued farming, burning fields, building houses, cooking and eating, so the body contains an inhabited world rather than merely dead victims. An elderly woman remembers her small pot, child and medicine and insists on going back despite warnings. The body closes around her. The bird has already flown away after receiving gifts, and no sharp implement can reopen it: its aid, rather than the thorn alone, enabled the first opening. The townspeople bury the closed creature, and the tale ends with a warning against refusing advice.

Long beardSwallowed living settlementThorn-assisted openingClosure without bird helper
01

Origins & earliest records

Florence M. Cronise collected tales from children and adult employees of the Rotifunk mission in Sierra Leone. The 1903 preface credits Henry W. Ward with much of the arrangement and narrative setting; its named speakers are not assumed to be independently documented field informants.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected tale directly read, printed pp. 172-177. Preface and introduction separately inspected for collection and editorial mediation.

In the literature

“dey bin make fa'm inside de debble”
Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef
Chapter VII; pp. 172–177; The Girl That Plaited the Devil’s Beard; People released after the spirit is split open · Historical Sierra Leone contact-English rendering

The tale imagines a living farming community inside the devourer.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef

    Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · 1903

    The Girl That Plaited the Devil's Beard; pp. 172-177.

  2. 02

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef — The Girl That Plaited the Devil’s Beard

    Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · 1903

    London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants.

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.

Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef

London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants.

  1. A girl plaits the long beard of a sleeping roadside spirit that eats travellers, drags it toward town and receives help from the townspeople, who kill it.

    Chapter VII; pp. 172–177; The Girl That Plaited the Devil’s Beard; Girl binds the sleeping roadside eater and town kills it

  2. A prophet bird advises using a thorn to split the body; swallowed people emerge alive, having built houses and farms inside. An old woman returns for possessions and her child, is trapped when it closes and cannot be released once the bird has flown away.

    Chapter VII; pp. 172–177; The Girl That Plaited the Devil’s Beard; Prophet bird, released internal community and trapped grandmother

Complete named tale and relevant footnotes read. Editorial racial generalizations are not adopted. Frame speakers are literary witnesses, not verified informants; spirit/devil vocabulary belongs to this collected rendering and is not equated with Christian Satan or a universal African category.

References

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

  1. Collected primary narrative with editorial settingThe Girl That Plaited the Devil's BeardResearch 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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