The Branchless Cattle Tree

Overview

Grazing cattle discover a beautiful but unfamiliar tree without branches. The bulls and oxen separate from the cows and approach it. A bull eats first and claims that cows descend from the tree, while declaring its food reserved for bulls and oxen. After those animals eat, they agree to conceal how good the food is. The cows are told to graze ordinary grass instead and to accept the exclusion as their tree-owning master’s instruction. The tree’s origin-bearing status is expressed in the animals’ speech; the narrative does not describe cows physically emerging from its trunk.

The cows return alone, prompting the herdsman to search for the missing males. He finds them eating at the tree, hears their explanation and drives them home. The cows later bear male calves and, at another birth, female calves. Eventually all the original cows die. Their owner laments the loss but his family points to the surviving young animals as replacement cattle. When they try to eat the dead cows’ meat, they find it cannot be eaten, and the bulls and oxen mourn. No precise mechanism connecting tree, births and deaths is stated. Jacottet explicitly distinguishes this tree from the differently narrated animal king’s tree in his Subiya collection.

Origins & earliest records

Jacottet’s 1901 Textes Louyi prints original-language tales with French translations. Introduction pp. i–ii distinguishes Kaboukou’s 1895 dictation from material supplied by Akaende and Maroumo in June–July 1900. It says individual assignments depend on contents markers; the inspected narrative heading does not independently identify this tale’s teller, so its individual attribution remains unconfirmed.

Records & interpretation

Complete selected French text and surrounding notes read. Unexplained mechanisms remain unexplained; neighbouring tales and collector hypotheses do not supply extra actions.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Études sur les langues du Haut-Zambèze, III: Textes Louyi

   Édouard Jacottet; volume contributors Kaboukou, Akaende and Maroumo · 1901

   XXVI, L’arbre des animaux, pp. 74–75, whole episode and note distinguishing the Subiya animal king’s tree. Individual narrator assignment unresolved.

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. Digitized primary collected textJacottet — Louyi leopard marriageResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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