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

Overview

A monkey boy hides in a horse dealer’s stable and hears the horses discussing their abilities. One mare says she can cover twelve kos on the ground and another twelve through the air. He secretly inserts a splinter in her hoof so that the dealer thinks her worthless, exchanges his coil of rope for her and removes the splinter once out of sight. Her lameness ends immediately.

Carrying him home, she rises into the air and overtakes his brothers. She repeats her twelve-kos ground and aerial course in a later race, defeating their horses. The narration provides flight without mentioning wings, a changed body or a divine origin. Her speed is expressed in the source’s kos rather than converted to a falsely precise modern distance, and the boy’s deception does not imply that she was naturally ill.

Speaking horse whose aerial speed is overheard by the monkey boySpecific Santal narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale directly read with existing collection preface and narrator-chain record.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Folklore of the Santal Parganas

    Cecil Henry Bompas, translator; O. Bodding, collector; Sagram Murmu, principal Santali writer credited in preface · 1909

    XV, The Monkey Boy, pp. 56–60

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.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)

Part I, Santal folktales. XV, The Monkey Boy, pp. 56–60

Full tale read. Monkey birth and speech explicit, no human transformation; flight without invented wings. Rice-filled pumpkins and unattended clearing described at the level actually narrated.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), XV, The Monkey Boy, pp. 56–60Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·1686 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑