A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
After Little Fatima is manipulated into killing her mother in a vinegar jar, the mother emerges forty days later as a yellow cow. Given to the girl to tend, she eats the cotton that the stepmother demands be spun and produces finished thread from her mouth. She also speaks, advising Fatima how to survive an encounter with a div in a well.
When Fatima is excluded from a royal wedding, the cow shakes a cock and hen from her horns to sort mixed pulses, produces salt water to fill a jar supposedly requiring tears, and supplies fine clothes. The narrator explicitly identifies this helper as the girl’s mother; she is not an unrelated sacred cattle species.
Origins & earliest records
Kermani storytelling, Iran
Records & interpretation
Complete XIII, Little Fatima, pp. 79–88, directly read in original-edition OCR.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Persian Tales
Kermani tales; XIII, Little Fatima, pp. 79–88
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.
Primary records and illustrations
D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer, Persian Tales (London: Macmillan, 1919)
Kermani tales. XIII, pp. 79–88
Complete narrative read in cached original-edition OCR, from the vinegar-jar murder to the slipper recognition and marriage. Page headers checked. Narrator explicitly identifies cow with dead mother.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translated folktaleLorimer, Persian Tales (1919), XIII, pp. 79–88Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.