A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Three ripe almonds left beneath a beach tree successively become young men. The first two fish and then help an old woman harvest coconuts. Following her instruction to descend headfirst, each is killed and eaten. The youngest refuses that unsafe descent, takes her wooden sword and kills her instead. Her husband unknowingly eats her cooked body before the youth reveals what happened from a betel palm.
The man cuts down successive trees as the youth leaps between them. With no further tree available, the youth becomes a crab and burrows out of reach. The narrator identifies him as a gwagadogo and connects the beach crabs’ retreat into holes with fear of vengeance for their ancestor’s killing. This is a source-specific transformation and ancestry explanation, distinct from Garawada’s crab encounter.
Origins & earliest records
Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales (London: Macmillan, 1910), The Magic Almonds, pp. 86–89.
Records & interpretation
Ker’s English collected narrative, situated within her northeast-coast mission-era collection.
In the literature
“the lad was turned into a crab”
The Magic Almonds, printed p.89
The youngest almond-born brother escapes his pursuer by becoming a burrowing crab.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Magic Almonds, pp. 86–89
Specific selected collected narrative; unnamed narrator not assigned a modern community identity.
- 02
Papuan Fairy Tales — The Magic Almonds
London:Macmillan1910, title page and table of contents inspected in Wikisource scan-backed transcription. Introduction describes northeast-coast collection, mission residence, oral settings, tobacco exchanges and consultation of elders; individual narrators unnamed in these selected chapters.
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.
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Magic Almonds, pp. 86–89
London:Macmillan1910, title page and table of contents inspected in Wikisource scan-backed transcription. Introduction describes northeast-coast collection, mission residence, oral settings, tobacco exchanges and consultation of elders; individual narrators unnamed in these selected chapters.
- Three remaining almonds successively become young men. A woman induces the first two to descend a coconut palm headfirst, kills them and shares their flesh with her husband. The youngest rejects her instruction, kills her and leaves her cooked body for the husband.
- The husband eats the prepared flesh before learning it is his wife. He cuts down successive trees to catch the fleeing boy, who finally becomes a crab and burrows underground. The ending calls this form gwagadogo and explains its descendants’ retreat into holes.
Sibling terminology is explicit; the almond tree’s fruit origin is not converted into an invented human mother. Violence by both parties retained. Etiological ancestry is the narrator’s claim, not scientific crab evolution; no exact modern species assigned.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected narrativeKer 1910: The Magic AlmondsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.