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Overview
After escaping the two ogres’ hut, the mother and children reach a path enclosed by impenetrable thorny growth. An ogress lies across it, asleep in the warm afternoon. She has a wolf-like snout and a little horn between her eyes. Her snoring shakes the overhanging branches. The family cannot pass beside her or turn back safely, so the eggs direct the mother to a large nearby axe and a tree whose low branches shelter the children.
From an overhead branch the mother throws the axe and strikes just above the horn, stunning rather than killing her. The third egg tells her to descend and sever the head before recovery. When she does so, living men, women, children, cattle and goats come out, one after another, until the path fills. Hundreds had been swallowed, enough to people a settlement. They thank their rescuer and choose her as queen.
The book’s footnote gives Nzuluqumbi as its term for an ogress; the scene itself supplies the more particular snout, horn and bodily release. A possible connection to the earlier hut is framed only as the narrator’s supposition that she was on her way home. Her head and tail are not described with the exact two-horned appearance of the first male ogre, and the egg-princes’ unnamed enchantress is not silently equated with her.
Origins & earliest records
Bourhill and Drake present a collected tale arranged in English for children. The chapter supplies a Swazi label but no individual storyteller or exact collection occasion. Their colonial preface framing is distinguished from the events of the retelling.
Records & interpretation
Complete VII. The Three Little Eggs, printed pp. 66–77, read through its ending; source title, preface and chapter attribution checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
VII. The Three Little Eggs, pp. 66–77; unnamed individual episode contributor, English literary arrangement.
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.
Primary source witness
Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908; selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Arranged for children; introduction pp.v–xi attributes principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region contributions, with Shining Princess attributed to Mapoch. Individual narrators for these selected tales unnamed. Historical colonial framing is not current community consensus.
- A sleeping ogress blocks a narrow path, with a wolf-like snout and one horn between her eyes. An axe strike first stuns her; the mother then cuts off her head before recovery. The narration only supposes she is going toward the earlier ogres’ hut; no verified kinship with them is given.
- People, children, cattle and goats emerge after the beheading, filling the path. They thank the mother and offer her leadership. The note glosses the ogress category as Nzuluqumbi, while the episode itself does not give this particular being an individual name.
Selected historical arrangement, not unmediated original-language oral testimony. Individual contributor not named; no separate manuscript inspected. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — VII. The Three Little EggsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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