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

Overview

Andamohamy sails overseas after hearing Faranomby praised and obtains her consent to marry. During a diving contest on the return voyage, a female chameleon takes her appearance and clothing, and the man sails away with the impostor. The real bride emerges, pursues the boat as a bird and calls to him about the substitution and her clothes. He admires the sound without understanding it. She then becomes fresh vegetables and other plants the boatmen want to gather, but Tangarirana invokes a supposed food restriction and prevents their collection.

Faranomby eventually sits in a tree above the household’s fountain. A young enslaved girl mistakes her reflection for her own and breaks a jug; the older Rafotsibé notices two reflections and hears the bride’s account. The husband pleads for her descent and offers a hundred enslaved people. She replies that her parents already have many and requires Tangarirana’s death instead. When the divided corpse is displayed beside the road, she comes down and enters the village. The restored marriage is celebrated, and she later gives birth to Begy while her husband is away seeking a fish she desired.

The husband’s other wife invites her to bathe and betrays her. Villagers support the rival and conceal Faranomby’s whereabouts, while Begy is brought up like an enslaved girl. Grown up, the daughter finds her mother confined in a cave and calls her out. Mother and daughter now look so alike and are the same size that Andamohamy cannot tell them apart. An ombiasy advises a test with one green and one ripe lemon. Begy asks her mother to exchange the ripe one, revealing their relationship. He recognizes Faranomby, takes her hand and divorces the rival, who becomes a female dog. The source does not name an agent for that final change.

The printed narrative alternates Rafaranomby and Faranomby. This Vohemar bride’s bird and plant changes are located in her own account; they are not silently merged with the ox-protected girl named Rafaranomby in Ferrand’s differently collected tale. Likewise the older enslaved Rafotsibé here is not identified with the transforming helper of Renel’s separate Tanala story.

Bird transformationSuccessive plant formsFountain-tree recognitionCave confinement and recoveryMother-daughter resemblance test
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, tale 48, pp. 254–260, with regional/local heading. Individual teller unnamed; introduction V–VIII describes collection intermediaries and translation.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 48, pp. 254–260, heading and relevant notes read. Each bodily change and the entire narrative outcome retained without fusing similarly named characters in other tales.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, première partie: Contes merveilleux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 48, pp. 254–260, complete, with regional/local collection heading.

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. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, tale 48Research 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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