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

Overview

Rasoazanakomby’s name is explained as the beauty born of a cow, because her mother is half cow and half woman. They live outside the village, the mother being identified as an anthropophagous monster. The beautiful daughter shares her mother’s cup and spoon and warns suitors that they must tolerate this parent. Most refuse, but one accepts and marries her. She hides her husband in a cellar at night. Returning from seeking food, the mother smells a human presence, but the daughter denies that anyone is there and secretly carries part of her rice meal to her husband.

The couple eventually leaves for a distant home, taking the mother’s hemp seed and other named stored seeds. The pursuing mother follows by scent. Whenever she finds the scattered seeds, she collects and takes them home before resuming the chase. This delays her, but she ultimately reaches the husband’s house and settles beside her daughter without attacking the husband. The flight therefore does not finish with her defeat at the road or a permanent separation.

The husband later takes another wife, who resents the mother’s wealth and feigns a grave illness. She insists that she will die unless she can eat Rasoazanakomby’s mother. Asked for their opinion, mother and daughter submit to the husband’s authority. The mother is killed, but first tells her daughter not to eat her flesh and to gather every bone for the ancestral tomb, leaving none in a foreign country. Rasoazanakomby follows these instructions. Unlike the first-volume hornless-cow account, this ending supplies no pearl tree, punishment of the rival or bodily restoration. Its explicit hybrid form and final ancestral burial remain the defining particulars of this separately collected variant.

Half-woman and half-cow formAnthropophagous identityDetects a hidden human by smellSeed collecting delays pursuitKilled following rival’s feigned illnessBones returned to ancestral tomb
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, second volume, tale 136, pp. 258–260, local collection heading. Individual contributor unnamed; editor identifies comparison with first-volume tale 6.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 136, pp. 258–260, heading and relevant annotation read. Comparison with the hornless cow preserves different bodies, powers and outcomes.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, deuxième partie: Fables et fabliaux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 136, pp. 258–260, complete.

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. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, second volume, tale 136Research 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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