Flower Wife of Faralahy’s Tale

Overview

Faralahy is the only son of a wealthy family, but none of the women his parents propose pleases him. He leaves home to wander rather than marry, living on lentils. Ferrand’s text then says that God gives him a wife: a flower falls from the sky into his lamba cloth. He places it in a box, where it becomes a body and then an extraordinarily beautiful woman. The note identifies the divine name as Zanahary. After his parents’ search brings him home, renewed marriage pressure leads him to reveal that he already has a wife given by Zanahary.

He keeps her in the box until preparations for the wedding. When he opens it before an enslaved household woman who is to prepare her bath, his wife appears beautiful and white as snow. The attendant is overcome and tells his parents; they hurry to see her, and a rainbow surrounds them. The wedding is celebrated with the village. On the following day, while Faralahy is away, the village girls persuade his wife to bathe in the river. They push her under the water and flee, believing they have killed her. A peasant woman on the opposite bank intervenes and carries her home for care.

Faralahy unknowingly passes the rescue house and is told that the covered person resting there is a tired traveller. Finding his own house empty, he searches with his enslaved people. The peasant woman then explains the attempted drowning and identifies the resting woman as his wife. He reunites with her, publicly reproaches the attackers, and leaves with his wife and enslaved household to settle elsewhere in safety. The story ends with relocation, rather than her returning to flower form or to the sky. Her bodily origin is extraordinary, but the drowning rescue is performed by a human woman, not an unmentioned invulnerability.

Origins & earliest records

Ferrand1893 XXXIII, dictated by an unnamed Antambahoaka of Mananjary. The chapter’s divine-name note distinguishes Zanahary from the translator’s French Dieu.

Records & interpretation

Complete XXXIII114–118 and notes read; heavenly flower, conversion in the box, rescue and relocation ending retained. No return-to-sky or invulnerability invented.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Contes populaires malgaches

   Gabriel Ferrand, collector, translator and annotator · 1893

   XXXIII, pp.114–118, complete, with contributor and explanatory notes.

Family & connections

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical collected French narrativeFerrand1893, XXXIIIResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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