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

Overview

Horiro is the small bird used by a first wife against women who marry her husband later. She finds it and places it beside the spring from which the household draws water. A newly married wife leaves vegetables cooking while fetching water and is detained by the bird’s song. When she returns, the food has burned. The first wife condemns her cooking to their husband, and he dismisses the second wife. The episode makes the placement deliberate, but gives no agreement or conversation between the first wife and the bird.

The husband marries another woman, who encounters the same singer and again returns to burned vegetables. This time the accused wife explains that the bird beguiled her. Her husband asks what it does, takes his bow to the spring and waits. He kills Horiro just as it is about to sing. Afterwards the third wife cooks successfully and stays. The ending restores that wife’s position, without recalling the earlier dismissed wife or specifying a punishment for the instigator.

The published account calls Horiro a little bird and provides a transcribed song, but does not identify its species or describe special plumage. Its represented effect is compelling attention long enough to ruin unattended cooking; an explicit spell or universal hypnotic power is not asserted. The bird is a particular narrative agent in Kidd’s Gazaland collection, not every real bird that might share a vernacular name. The song is summarized rather than reproduced.

Little bird at a springSong detains water-fetchersPlaced by a jealous first wifeKilled before another performance
01

Origins & earliest records

Kidd’s chapter VII publishes this Tshindao-speaking Gazaland tale with translation material credited to Douglas Wood. The inspected episode names no individual narrator; no collector racial-development theory is adopted.

02

Records & interpretation

VII, Surprise Stories, V, The Jealous Wife, complete pp. 235–237: deliberate placement and first dismissal pp. 235–236; second explanation, bird’s death and third wife’s continued residence pp. 236–237. Preface p. x and chapter introduction pp. 223–224 identify translation and editorial mediation.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Savage Childhood: A Study of Kafir Children

    Dudley Kidd, compiler and editor; Douglas Wood, credited translation intermediary · 1906

    VII, Surprise Stories, V, The Jealous Wife, complete pp. 235–237: deliberate placement and first dismissal pp. 235–236; second explanation, bird’s death and third wife’s continued residence pp. 236–237. Preface p. x and chapter introduction pp. 223–224 identify translation and editorial mediation.

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 tale, mediated translation and editorial accountKidd1906 — complete selected Gazaland narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·3349 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑