Family Transformed into Frogs

Overview

The transformation begins with an ill girl who lies at home and will not eat what her mother and the other women give her. They do not know that she is instead killing the Water’s children at a spring and eating them. To find out, they leave a younger child behind when they go to gather food. The elder girl is unaware of the watcher, who sees her bring home one of the Water’s children, cook its flesh and eat. On the women’s return, the younger child reports this and their mother identifies the creature.

The mother goes out again to seek food. Clouds gather, and she recognises that a whirlwind is taking things from the household towards the spring because her daughter has killed the Water’s children. The daughter enters first and becomes a frog. The whirlwind then brings the mother and other women from the food-gathering ground; they also become frogs. The father is brought from his hunting ground and likewise changes. The account describes an actual collective transformation, in contrast to the feared frog fate from which the woman of the neighbouring Rain Bull tale escapes.

The ending follows the household’s belongings as well as its people. Mats, arrows and other things are carried to the spring. The arrows and mats grow out beside it, and a note identifies the mats as the material used for huts. |kweiten ta ||ken attributes to her mother the explanation that things growing at springs belonged to the first people who had inhabited the land. There is no return to human form or rescue at the end of this telling. The unnamed daughter, parents and other women are retained as the one transformed household of this episode, rather than multiplied into separate invented biographies.

Origins & earliest records

Bleek and Lloyd, Specimens of Bushman Folklore (1911), V.—41, The Girl’s Story; the Frogs’ Story, pp. 198–205. The original heading credits |kweiten ta ||ken, December 1874, who heard it from her mother #kamme-an. The final household-object explanation also explicitly invokes her mother.

Records & interpretation

Complete passage pp. 198–205 and surrounding notes inspected in cached official Archive OCR. The beautiful zebra-striped, calf-sized Water-child description is expressly hearsay for the contributor. The final frogs and growing household things are the narrative’s stated outcome, not an escape inferred from the adjacent Rain Bull account.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Specimens of Bushman Folklore

   W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd, collectors/editors · 1911

   V.—41, The Girl’s Story; the Frogs’ Story, complete pp. 198–205, including mother/transmission heading, appearance note and final objects at the spring.

2. 02

   Specimens of Bushman Folklore — V.—41, The Girl’s Story; the Frogs’ Story; complete pp. 198–205 and all notes

   W. H. I. Bleek and Lucy C. Lloyd; section-specific narrators identified in evidence · 1911

   London: George Allen & Company, 1911; original bilingual edition. Title-page OCR and live UNC/Internet Archive catalogue agree. Printed pages distinguished from manuscript marginal numbers and access-image indices.

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.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

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

1. Primary collected narrative and explanatory notesOriginal 1911 bilingual edition: The Girl’s Story; the Frogs’ StoryResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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