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

Overview

A male Manggus assumes a he-goat’s shape, while a female becomes a beautiful maiden who marries seven ruling brothers. Together they consume one brother’s life each year until only one remains. Their fear of an apparently powerful soothsayer temporarily keeps them away, allowing the surviving ruler to recover.

The supposed soothsayer is actually an opportunist. Overhearing the spirits discuss how they might be exposed, he repeats their proposed commands before the assembled people. Both abandon their disguises and are destroyed. Busk also calls them rakshasas, a terminology choice of this English adaptation. Their underlying forms are called hideous but receive no precise anatomical inventory.

A close narrative parallel appears in Shelton’s Tibetan Story of the Two Devils (1925), where the male disguise is a yak rather than a he-goat. That version explicitly calls the two devils husband and wife. On exposure, the male has upper teeth reaching his breast and lower teeth reaching his forehead; the female has similar teeth, clawlike hands and a long tongue. These details belong to Shelton’s separate version and are not retroactively added to Busk’s unspecified Manggus bodies. Both versions use the false diviner’s overheard conversation to expose a dangerous couple.

Life-devouring spirits disguised as a maiden and he-goatSource-specific narrative
01

Origins & earliest records

Kalmouk tale cycle as presented by Rachel Harriette Busk

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale or frame passages directly read in the 1873 textual witness.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Sagas from the Far East

    Rachel Harriette Busk, compiler and adapter · 1873

    Tale IV, The Pig’s Head Soothsayer, pp. 54–70, especially pp. 62–68

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

Rachel Harriette Busk, Sagas from the Far East (1873)

Saga of the Well-and-wise-walking Khan. Tale IV, The Pig’s Head Soothsayer, pp. 54–70, especially pp. 62–68

Full relevant narrative read from cached Gutenberg historical text; preface read for transmission limits. Primary evidence of this published adaptation, not proof of the described supernatural events. No modern translation quoted.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical literary adaptationBusk, Sagas from the Far East (1873), Tale IV, The Pig’s Head Soothsayer, pp. 54–70, especially pp. 62–68Research access: 2026-10-05
  2. Comparative historical narrativeShelton, Tibetan Folk Tales (1925), Tale14, The Story of the Two Devils, pp.70–75Research 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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