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

Overview

A hunter has killed many elephants, and the tale gives Elephant the ability to assume other forms. One day it becomes a beautiful girl and approaches him. He sends his wife to the kitchen so their conversation will be private. The newcomer asks how he kills elephants, then presses him about what he does when a shot fails. He discloses that he can become a dead tree, and next an ant-hill if the tree is smashed. His listening wife interrupts just before the final means of escape is revealed.

The visitor returns to elephant form and waits in the bush for the next day's hunt. When the hunter misses his shot, the elephant smashes the tree he becomes and then the ant-hill that replaces it. Because the last secret was withheld, he can still reach the water and take an unnamed rapidly turning form on its surface. The elephant loses him, but the earlier blows have broken his bones. His people recover him after two days, and he never hunts again. The narrative gives this disguise an adversarial information-gathering purpose, distinct from the wife whose interruption preserves his last escape.

Beautiful girl disguiseReturn to elephant formQuestioning to learn escape formsSmashing dead-tree and ant-hill disguisesLoss of a hidden water-form quarry
01

Origins & earliest records

Cronise collected stories in Sierra Leone; Ward arranged them and supplied literary setting for the 1903 volume. This story is placed in the mouth of Sobah in that editorial frame, which does not independently identify a documented field narrator. A later Tremearne comparison quotes the case; the present profile uses the full underlying witness.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete The Man Who Could Not Keep Secrets, pp. 261-263, read to the disabled hunter's remaining life and closing warning. The transformation sequence and elephant antagonist are explicit.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef - The Man Who Could Not Keep Secrets

    Florence M. Cronise, collection; Henry W. Ward, arrangement and setting · 1903

    Complete tale pp. 261-263; collector/editor roles established in preface.

  2. 02

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef — The Man Who Could Not Keep Secrets

    Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · 1903

    London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants. Prefacev–vi and collection-method introduction1–4 independently reread for this batch.

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.

Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef — The Man Who Could Not Keep Secrets

London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants. Prefacev–vi and collection-method introduction1–4 independently reread for this batch.

  1. The elephant assumes a girl’s form to discover the hunter’s concealed escape powers.

    ChapterIX, The Man Who Could Not Keep Secrets, complete tale, printedpp.261–263

Specific contact-English literary presentation. Preface distinguishes Cronise’s collection from Ward’s arrangement and setting; introduction says mission children/adult employees supplied stories. Sobah and other framing characters are not independently identified oral narrators. No current animal anatomy, universal regional belief, medical method or whole-volume review claimed.

References

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

  1. Primary collected tale with literary framingCronise/Ward 1903 - complete secrets taleResearch 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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