Feather Princess climbing to Cloudland with her companions, Holloway 1908
The human-form princess follows the prince up the feather ladder, with Mouse and Woodpecker below. Her bird body and later encounter with the horned guardian are separate episodes.
Overview
The princess is first trapped as a beautiful long-winged bird, accompanied by a circling company of similar birds. One wing has an exceptionally long feather. Removing it changes her immediately into a human woman and prevents her return to her home in the clouds. The Rabbit hides it and houses her. Her companions ask after her and the feather; she says it remains safe with him.
She requests the feather and throws it at the Rabbit, transforming him into a prince whom she agrees to marry. Later she places it on the ground, where it grows into a ladder reaching above the clouds. At the cave entrance to her homeland she faces a many-eyed monster with a human head on each of two horns. She thrusts the feather into its face and it vanishes. Beyond, her parents and people appear human, unlike their earlier bird visits.
Her family objects to an earth-born husband and repeatedly tries to kill him. After his animal-magician friends defeat their plots, she chooses to leave. Pointing the feather downward makes a ladder extend to their earthly hut. They descend with both companions and never return to cloudland. Her choice, powers and cultural boundary are those of this arranged narrative; it supplies no personal name or exact bird species.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English children’s retelling. No individual episode narrator is named. Preface community claims and chapter labels are retained as evidence about the publication, not substituted for current community self-description.
Records & interpretation
Complete V. The Rabbit Prince, printed pp. 43–57, read through the ending; title, preface and chapter label checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
V. The Rabbit Prince, pp. 43–57; published English literary arrangement for children.
Family, evolution & connections
The Feather Princess’s parents in Cloudland
The Rabbit Prince, chapter V, printed pp. 49–52.
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- Unnamed father + unnamed mother (two stated parents)
The Princess expressly identifies her father and mother; both appear to greet her. Joint-parent label groups two stated people, not an organism. Bird and human forms remain identities, not generations. Rabbit Prince is her chosen husband, not a child or sibling; magical companions are not relatives.
Unnamed father of the Feather Princess
The Princess identifies her father, and he greets her in human form before opposing her chosen husband. His bird/human presentation does not constitute a separate generation.
Unnamed mother of the Feather Princess
The Princess identifies both parents; her mother appears with the father to greet her. No mother’s name or further ancestry is supplied.
Rabbit Prince of Bourhill and Drake’s Tale
The Princess accepts the Rabbit Prince’s proposal and repeatedly calls him husband. Her parents reject the union, and the couple escapes Cloudland together; the magical companions are not relatives.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Primary source witness
Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908; selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Arranged for children; introduction pp.v–xi attributes principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region contributions, with Shining Princess attributed to Mapoch. Individual narrators for these selected tales unnamed. Historical colonial framing is not current community consensus.
- Removing one distinctive wing feather leaves the trapped bird as a princess unable to return to cloudland. Rather than escaping when given it again, she changes Rabbit into a prince. The same feather later grows into an ascending ladder. These are transformations and transport in the arranged tale, not a zoological feather property.
- Her parents appear in human form, and her bird companions likewise become people in cloudland. They oppose her earth-origin husband and organise attacks. She eventually lowers the feather as a ladder back to earth and lives in his newly founded kingdom. The descent is not represented as her parents accepting the marriage.
Selected historical arrangement, not unmediated original-language oral testimony. Individual contributor not named; no separate manuscript inspected. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — V. The Rabbit PrinceResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationFeather Princess climbing to Cloudland with her companions, Holloway 1908
The human-form princess follows the prince up the feather ladder, with Mouse and Woodpecker below. Her bird body and later encounter with the horned guardian are separate episodes.
