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

Overview

A pregnant woman driven from home while pursuing an escaped locust bears her son in a hollow tree. The child later shares food at a lioness’s den and befriends her cub. When the lioness kills his mother and brings her body home, the cub recognises her, refuses the flesh and helps him bury her. After growing up, the young lion kills its own mother; the youth likewise refuses that body as food and buries it. Their reciprocal conduct establishes a bond beyond the ordinary prey relation. When the youth wants to live and marry in town, the lion obtains clothes and wealth for him through fatal attacks on passing traders.

The lion continues visiting his friend’s house at night, but the wife’s frightened alarm drives it back to the forest. It tells the youth that one roar will mean its death and two will mean life. The youth hears one, finds his companion dead and dies beside it. Tremearne records a distinct alternative ending in which a guinea-fowl supplies advice that revives the lion, after which it chooses the forest while the youth remains at home. Another variant explains the fatal flight through an accidental spear wound. These alternatives preserve a speaking foster companion with sharply different outcomes; resurrection is not substituted for the main narrative’s double death.

Cross-species childhood bondRefusal to eat a friend’s motherSpeaking marriage helperRoar signalVariant revival
01

Origins & earliest records

Momo Kano supplies the selected narrated witness; A. J. N. Tremearne translated and edited it. His general collection context is not an exact performance date for this individual tale.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete primary episode independently read: Tale 8, The Friendly Lion, and the Youth and His Wife, pp. 198–201; separate variants p. 201.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs, second edition

    Momo Kano, narrator; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Tale 8, The Friendly Lion, and the Youth and His Wife, pp. 198–201; separate variants p. 201.

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 narrative and explicitly separated edition variantsTremearne 1913 — Friendly Lion of the Forest YouthResearch 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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