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

Overview

An unloved daughter is taken to a distant forest farm and told never to return home. Her assigned work is keeping monkeys away, and she sleeps alone inside a hut. A company of spirits arrives and gathers at the hut door during the night. When they depart next morning they leave presents there. The girl sends word to her father, who retrieves the gifts and brings her back to the town, ending her isolation.

The favored daughter's mother sees the presents and demands the same opportunity for her own child. The girl arrives at the farm at night and lies down in the hut. When the spirits appear, she goes outside and mixes with them. They immediately strip away and eat the flesh of her body before disappearing, and she dies. The short tale sets a safe boundary around the hut and contrasts gifts left outside with the fatal act of joining the visitors; it gives no independent bodily description or personal names to the company.

Night gatheringGifts at a hut doorFatal contact outsideDisappearance
01

Origins & earliest records

Tale 89 is credited Umoru Gombe in Tremearne's narrator key. The selected witness is the second edition 1913; a precise narration date is not supplied.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete main tale 89, printed pp. 417-418, directly read; main narrative distinguished from comparative variants.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs

    Umoru Gombe, storyteller; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Second edition; tale 89, pp. 417-418.

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 narrativeHausa Superstitions and Customs - tale 89Research 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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