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

Overview

Faddam loves Musa, but her parents and their relatives refuse the marriage. She scoops the whole stream supplying the town into a gourd and climbs a tree. From this position she can withhold the community’s drinking water. When her mother approaches, Faddam asks who is requesting water and refuses her. The pressure becomes catastrophic: people begin to die, and the parents are sent back to negotiate. She demands their agreement to her marriage before descending and opening the vessel. Its contents immediately spread through the town.

The story continues beyond this successful bargain. Faddam marries and has a son, whom her parents kill while she is absent. Her husband arranges a fatal deception at the funeral, and the parents die. Thus the water feat does not produce an uncomplicated reconciliation or permanently protect her household. Tremearne explicitly calls the stream-and-gourd episode magic in his accompanying note; the narrative supplies neither a named river spirit nor a separate magical donor. Faddam herself performs the impossible removal and release.

Whole-stream containmentWater withholdingTree-top negotiationImmediate release from a gourdTragic marriage aftermath
01

Origins & earliest records

Tremearne attributes tale 61 to M., his narrator Mohamma. His introductory collection account places much of this material in northern Nigeria in 1908–1909; that general context is not an exact individual performance date.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 61, printed pp. 325–326, and note LXI.1, p. 494, independently read. Water sequestration, release, marriage and the subsequent death of the child all belong to this witness.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs, second edition

    Mohamma, narrator; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Tale 61, The Determined Girl and the Wicked Parents, pp. 325–326; note LXI.1, p. 494.

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.

References

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

  1. Collected primary tale; digitized edition OCRTremearne 1913 — FaddamResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·2964 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑