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Overview

After a bachelor has finished farming, a tortoise visits the field and commands it to rise into disorder. The worked ground immediately becomes as it was before. The farmer discovers the visitor by hiding at the forest edge, then strikes its back with his hoe. The tortoise begs for release and offers to obtain a wife for him. It directs the man to make a bundle of stalks and get inside, then carries him to a city inhabited only by women. Once the bundle is opened, the inhabitants bring the stranger to their queen, who equips him with royal clothes and a horse and marries him.

Before leaving for war, the queen forbids her husband to open one small lidded basket. He opens it anyway and instantly finds himself back in his old field with a hoe and leather covering, the palace gone. Seeking to repeat his good fortune, he captures a young tortoise and coaches it to imitate the earlier encounter, including the farm command and promise of transport. The replacement is weak and groans beneath the bundle. A hyena demands the passenger; the young carrier drops him, and he is eaten. The second animal's failure is part of the ending, not proof that all tortoises possess the original visitor's field-changing or extraordinary carrying powers.

Speech that reverses cultivationTransport inside a stalk bundleAccess to an extraordinary cityOne successful and one failed carrier
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Origins & earliest records

A. J. N. Tremearne prints this tale in the 1913 second edition of Hausa Superstitions and Customs. Its contents credit B.G., identified in the narrator key as Ba Gu(d)du. The introduction places much collection work in 1908-1909, without dating this particular session. Bracketed explanatory additions and collector comparisons remain distinct from the attributed tale.

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Records & interpretation

Complete primary episode read through its conclusion. Tale 82, The City of Women, printed pp. 394-396; following comparison on p. 397 kept separate.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs

    Ba Gu(d)du, narrator; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Tale 82, The City of Women, printed pp. 394-396; following comparison on p. 397 kept separate.

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. Digitized collected primary narrative in translationTremearne 1913 second edition - selected complete taleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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