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

Overview

A woman caring for an infant receives no food from the husband working their gardens. After repeatedly boiling pebbles and drinking their water, she prepares to leave: weeding sticks are tied to her legs, coconut-leaf bristles placed under her arms and a rough banana-leaf skirt added. She exits through a hole behind the house, leaving him to feed and nurse their child. His thrown stones fail to catch her.

In the bush she becomes a cassowary. Bristles become quills, the rough skirt feathers, and the reinforced legs explain the bird’s formidable kick. The narrator links her story to a prohibition on women eating cassowary flesh. That restriction and its threatened consequence belong to Ker’s recorded account; they are not presented as a universal regional practice or biological transformation.

Neglected wife’s departureDomestic materials become bird featuresFood prohibition in the witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales (London: Macmillan, 1910), The Cassowary, pp. 90–91.

02

Records & interpretation

Ker’s English collected narrative, situated within her northeast-coast mission-era collection.

In the literature

“There was she changed, and became a cassowary.”
Annie Ker, collector and English reteller; selected narrator unnamed · Papuan Fairy Tales
The Cassowary, printed p.91

The neglected wife transforms after escaping into the bush.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Papuan Fairy Tales: The Cassowary, pp. 90–91

    Annie Ker, collector and English reteller · 1910

    Specific selected collected narrative; unnamed narrator not assigned a modern community identity.

  2. 02

    Papuan Fairy Tales — The Cassowary

    Annie Ker, collector and English reteller; selected narrator unnamed · 1910

    London:Macmillan1910, title page and table of contents inspected in Wikisource scan-backed transcription. Introduction describes northeast-coast collection, mission residence, oral settings, tobacco exchanges and consultation of elders; individual narrators unnamed in these selected chapters.

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.

Papuan Fairy Tales: The Cassowary, pp. 90–91

London:Macmillan1910, title page and table of contents inspected in Wikisource scan-backed transcription. Introduction describes northeast-coast collection, mission residence, oral settings, tobacco exchanges and consultation of elders; individual narrators unnamed in these selected chapters.

  1. A husband repeatedly returns without food for his wife, who must care for their baby. After waiting through broken promises, she prepares an escape, leaves the child for him to nurse and flees his thrown stones into the bush.

    The Cassowary, printed pp.90–91

  2. Her bristles, skirt and strengthened legs become the cassowary’s features. She remains in the bush; the narrator connects her history to a restriction on women eating cassowary flesh.

    The Cassowary, printed p.91, transformation and ending

She leaves because of sustained deprivation, not unexplained hostility or an assumed pre-existing bird nature. Dietary consequence is reported as a historical narrative claim, not medical fact or a universal current community rule; child’s later fate unstated.

References

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

  1. Primary collected narrativeKer 1910: The CassowaryResearch 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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