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

Overview

After a chief permits the bush grass to be burned, a boy digs into a hole that others have passed without disturbing. An old woman emerges in rage and attacks him. He strikes with his axe, but she leaps upward and becomes a hawk. He shoots as she swoops; their fighting continues until she gains the advantage and he flees.

She pursues him to a cloth-weaving wasp, which has offered refuge after hearing his account. On arriving she springs to seize the boy, but the insect swallows her. The tale leaves her within its swollen belly and connects that confinement with the wasp’s appearance. The old woman is unnamed; the passage does not call the hole an entire underground kingdom or identify her with the later tree-and-whirlwind witch.

Emerges from disturbed holeAngry attackExplicit hawk transformationOvercomes armed boySwallowed by wasp
01

Origins & earliest records

Malam Shaihu supplies the written Hausa material translated and transliterated by R. Sutherland Rattray. The compiler’s Author’s Note describes a mixed written and Arabic-manuscript mediation process; this tale is not labeled a verbatim oral field transcription by a separately named narrator.

02

Records & interpretation

Shaihu/Rattray, Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, etc., Volume I (1913), tale 3, complete pp. 68–72; compiler methodology p. xii.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, etc., Volume I

    Malam Shaihu, manuscript contributor; R. Sutherland Rattray, transliterator and translator · 1913

    Shaihu/Rattray, Hausa Folk-Lore, Customs, Proverbs, etc., Volume I (1913), tale 3, complete pp. 68–72; compiler methodology p. xii.

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. Bilingual manuscript tale; digitized primary OCRShaihu/Rattray 1913 — Hawk-Form Pursuer of Shaihu’s Bush-Burning TaleResearch access: 2026-10-05
  2. Compiler methodologyAuthor’s NoteResearch 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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