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

Overview

After breaking her water pot, a young woman fears her mother’s anger and climbs a cord toward the sky. An old woman living among ruins advises her to let the black ant she will meet enter her ear. The traveller accepts it. The ant tells her where to sit outside the sky village and helps her answer its inhabitants, who receive her as someone seeking a child.

The ant’s practical counsel guides her work. She gathers maize one plant at a time and packs the basket carefully. When preparing food, she keeps some grain aside rather than grinding everything and follows the unfamiliar cooking method. Later it prevents her from choosing a child beneath red clothing and directs her to the white-clothed group. She returns with a beautiful child, clothing and treasure. The ant leaves her at their original meeting place.

Her younger sister attempts the same journey but refuses both the old woman and the ant, shaking it away from her ear. She fails the agricultural and cooking tasks and chooses from the red group. The sky kills her and sends her gathered bones home along the route. The ant addresses her remains as they pass, contrasting her refusal with the advice that would have kept her alive. Its successful guidance and later warning are retained within the complete two-sister narrative.

Black antSpeaks from traveller’s earExplains sky-village customsGuides farming and cookingAdvises white-clothed child choiceAddresses returning bones
01

Origins & earliest records

Junod credits Lois as the contributor and identifies Khocène as the tale’s reported origin in the footnote. His contributor chapter also places her among his named narrators. The French text is his collected rendering; its contrast between the sisters is not converted into a universal present-day rule.

02

Records & interpretation

Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa (1897), XVII La route du ciel, complete pp. 237–242; Lois/Khocène source note p. 237, ant guidance pp. 238–239 and rejected counsel pp. 240–242.

In the literature

“Elle rencontra une fourmi qui entra dans son oreille;”
Loïs, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French translator/collector · Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa
XVII La route du ciel, printed p.238 · Henri-Alexandre Junod (French)

The helpful ant enters the first traveller’s ear.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

    Lois, contributor; Henri-Alexandre Junod, collector and translator · 1897

    Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa (1897), XVII La route du ciel, complete pp. 237–242; Lois/Khocène source note p. 237, ant guidance pp. 238–239 and rejected counsel pp. 240–242.

  2. 02

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa — XVII La route du ciel

    Loïs, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French translator/collector · 1897

    Henri-AlexandreJunod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa, Lausanne:GeorgesBridel1897, Princeton scan. Complete French XVI229–237 and XVII237–242 independently read in retained OCR; original230/231/233/236/237/238 visually inspected. Narrator236 and237 notes visually checked. Other specified pages read in OCR only; no whole-corpus reading claimed.

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.

Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

Henri-AlexandreJunod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa, Lausanne:GeorgesBridel1897, Princeton scan. Complete French XVI229–237 and XVII237–242 independently read in retained OCR; original230/231/233/236/237/238 visually inspected. Narrator236 and237 notes visually checked. Other specified pages read in OCR only; no whole-corpus reading claimed.

  1. An elder girl who fears punishment for breaking a water jar climbs to the sky. An old woman advises allowing a black ant into her ear. The ant guides her speech, work in the sky village, harvesting and cooking, and selection of a child under white rather than red coverings. It departs at their original meeting place before she returns with the child and gifts. Her jealous younger sister refuses both the elder’s warning and the old woman and ant. She damages the field, prepares food wrongly, chooses the red place and is killed when the sky explodes. Her bones return by the ant and old woman to her mother’s village, while her sister explains the contrasting outcomes.

    XVII La route du ciel, complete printed pp.237–242, contributor note237

Contributor237 explicitly names Loïs and says the tale comes from Khocène. The greetings sister/daughter are not biological relationships to the ant or old woman. The sky’s explosion is narrated agency, not a meteorological claim; no quoted sky invocation, ceremonial instruction or old chant.

References

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

  1. French translation of attributed oral narrative; digitized primary editionJunod — Lois’s sky-road tale and black antResearch 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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