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

Overview

The enchanted chief first appears among cattle given by Maginde as a marriage gift. He is a snow-white bull with two long black horns. When another ox’s roasting meat mysteriously vanishes, the wedding household kills the white bull to break the suspected spell. His head is put in a boiling pot; a young man springs out, runs away and changes into a buck. The frightened family blames the innocent bride Lungile and cancels her marriage.

More than a year later the buck approaches Lungile in the fields, letting her pursue and grasp his horns. When she abandons the chase, he follows in a sunlit cloud of mist and speaks, asking her to enter a mountain forest. At its entrance a wolf-mounted ogre threatens to eat her. The instant the ogre touches the buck, he becomes a man and strangles the attacker. Throwing the ogre’s crown of animal eyes to the ground produces living bucks.

The restored chief explains that Maginde envied his land, cattle and people, changed him into the bull, and made his subjects bucks. They can recover only after he becomes human again. Lungile gathers spinach and sings his prescribed song; families of bucks assemble over seven days and finally regain human bodies. The chief marries her and gives her father a magnificent marriage gift, reversing the disgrace caused by his first transformation.

White bull with black hornsHuman emergence from boiling potSpeaking buck in luminous mistHuman restoration on ogre contactDisenchantment of subjects
01

Origins & earliest records

Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. The publication does not name an individual contributor for this episode; its literary dialogue is not treated as a verbatim field transcription.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete XVIII. The Enchanted Buck, printed pp. 212–223, read through the final resolution.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Fairy Tales from South Africa

    Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake, collectors and arrangers · 1908

    XVIII. The Enchanted Buck, pp. 212–223; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.

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.

Primary source witness

Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908; selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Arranged for children; introduction pp.v–xi attributes principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region contributions, with Shining Princess attributed to Mapoch. Individual narrators for these selected tales unnamed. Historical colonial framing is not current community consensus.

  1. A white bull is killed for Lungile’s original wedding feast; a man then springs from the cooking pot and changes into a buck while fleeing. The feast party blames the bride and expels her, but the story later identifies the same bull/man/buck as a cursed chief. The earlier jumping vanished meat comes from another killed ox and is not explicitly identified with him.

    XVIII The Enchanted Buck, pp.214–216; bridal ox and escape

  2. The buck leads Lungile to a forest, becomes human when the ogre reaches him, kills the ogre and releases bucks from its eye-crown. He explains that Maginde had cursed him and his subjects out of envy. Lungile helps restore his people, and he pays her father cattle and marries her. The source does not say Lungile created the original curse.

    XVIII, pp.218–223; identity and restored rule

Selected historical arrangement, not unmediated original-language oral testimony. Individual contributor not named; no separate manuscript inspected. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.

References

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

  1. Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — XVIII. The Enchanted BuckResearch 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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