Copper and Weather (Bleek’s Fiery-Rain Tale)

Overview

Bleek’s tale names Copper and Weather as a married pair whose daughter has married into another settlement. Her three brothers visit her, but she fails to recognize them even when people tell her who they are, and she plans to kill them at night. A guinea-fowl watches over the visitors and sounds a warning when she first approaches. The brothers escape that attempt, then go back to sleep. On her next approach the bird again makes a noise, breaks its tether and runs home. The sister kills the three men. The printed account gives no explanation for her hostility or for the failure of their recognition; the outcome precedes the parents’ extraordinary response.

Returning to the parents, the guinea-fowl laments the killings. The wife calls her husband’s attention to the bird while he is seated working bamboos. He proposes that she become a powerful thunderstorm and that he become a strong wind. Both transform accordingly and travel to the settlement where their sons died. There the two combine into fire: the account calls their final manifestation fiery rain, which burns the settlement and all its inhabitants. It ends with that destruction rather than a restoration of the sons or a return of the parents to human appearance. Wind, storm and fire are successive represented forms in this particular revenge narrative.

The printed provenance is G. Krönlein’s manuscript pages 15–16 in Sir George Grey’s Library. Bleek’s preface describes the intermediary’s original-language material and German translations, but the selected tale supplies no individual narrator. The two parents are presented together here because their combined action produces the fiery rain; the warning bird is retained within their episode rather than turned into an additional duplicate profile.

Origins & earliest records

Bleek 1864, tale 28, A Bad Sister; printed source G. Krönlein’s manuscript pp. 15–16. The preface associates the collection with the Beerseba mission and the 1861 request; the individual tale narrator remains unnamed.

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 28 was read through the final destruction. Printed manuscript attribution is distinguished from independent examination of the manuscript. No cause for the sister’s murderous intention is invented.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales

   W. H. I. Bleek, translator and editor; G. Krönlein, manuscript collector · 1864

   Tale 28, A Bad Sister, complete; manuscript pp. 15–16. Historical book title retained bibliographically.

2. 02

   Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales — V, tale28 — A Bad Sister

   W. H. I. Bleek; source-specific manuscript/earlier collector qualifications in attestations · 1864

   London: Trübner and Co.,1864; selected Gutenberg73413 title-page transcription and originalpublication metadata agree. Tale-number locators retained; digital bracket page markers are not asserted as visually verified printed pagination.

Family, evolution & connections

Copper and Weather’s four children — Bleek 28

Complete A Bad Sister, historical English rendering; Krönlein manuscript cited by Bleek, not independently inspected.

Explicit spouses, daughter and three brothers subsequently called their sons. No individual child names or birth order are supplied. The daughter’s marriage is stated but her spouse is unnamed. Collector terminology does not establish a genealogy for present-day communities.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

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

1. Historical translated collected narrativeBleek 1864, A Bad SisterResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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