Itrimobe

Overview

Sibree’s account of the three sisters introduces Itrimobe into a story already driven by rivalry and danger. The youngest sister’s predicament becomes an encounter with an immense monstrous being. As in many tale traditions, survival depends on choices, relationships and the possibility of help, rather than on a hero simply possessing superior physical strength.

The spelling Trimobe also circulates, and later accounts give the figure different appearances and episodes. The collector’s English comparison with an ogre is useful but cannot replace the Malagasy name. Reading the complete tale keeps the antagonist connected to its characters and plot, instead of assembling a creature portrait from scattered details in unrelated retellings.

In Sibree’s printed Three Sisters and Itrìmobé, the antagonist has a cutting tail as well as a human-and-beast description. After her sisters trick Ifàra into taking his vegetables, he captures her and plans to fatten her for eating. Her escape uses a plantain stem left in her bed to delay him. During the pursuit she successively throws down a broom, an egg, a cane and a rounded stone, producing a thicket, water, a forest and a precipice. He clears several obstacles with his tail, but finally blunts it against the last barrier. These details belong to this identified tale and should not become a compulsory anatomy or power list for every Malagasy account.

Gabriel Ferrand’s Contes populaires malgaches presents a different encounter in Takinga, taleXXIII, published in1893. Its source note attributes the dictated text to an unnamed Antambahoaka contributor from Mananjary. Takinga is the eldest of seven brothers, and his deception first harms his own family: he repeatedly consumes the younger boys’ food. After his parents sell him, he steals the purchase money, buys his freedom and wanders away. He therefore reaches Trimobe’s garden as an already established trickster, with a different narrative role from Ifàra in Sibree’s account.

The French narrative calls Trimobe an animal with a human face. Its separate footnote adds an animal body and an inability to move over a flat surface. In the actual encounters, Takinga repeatedly escapes onto a smooth, slippery rock which the monster cannot climb. Neither passage supplies the cutting-tail action described in Sibree’s version. Ferrand’s wording gives a particular bodily limitation and setting, rather than a complete anatomy for all stories under the name.

Trimobe catches the thief among his fruit plants, but repeatedly accepts delaying proposals. Takinga first claims his flesh will smell bad if eaten immediately and asks to be kept in a basket, which he tears open during the monster’s absence. Later he asks to travel in a basket full of stones carried on Trimobe’s head. Each falling stone is supposed to confirm that the prisoner is still there. When Takinga himself jumps out at the doorway, the monster mistakes the sound for another reassuring stone and finds only the remaining stones indoors.

The next deception is more severe. Takinga claims that cooking will double him, promising two people as food. Trimobe leaves his two children to prepare the captive, but Takinga causes their deaths instead and leaves their bodies in the cooking vessel. Their father eats them without recognizing them, interpreting the doubled limbs as confirmation of the promised multiplication. This episode does not show Takinga actually duplicating himself, and the two unnamed children belong specifically to Ferrand’s household account.

After Takinga reveals what has happened, another pursuit ends at the same smooth rock. Trimobe asks for help climbing and promises not to kill him, then threatens him during the ascent; Takinga drops the rope. On the second attempt, the trickster has him place pointed stakes below the rock and again lets him fall. Trimobe dies, and Takinga acquires his property. This is an explicit fatal ending, distinct from the blunted-tail pursuit in Sibree. The tales can be compared for capture and escape motifs without treating their different protagonists, family members and outcomes as one continuous biography.

Origins & earliest records

Sibree published translated Malagasy tale material in the Folk-Lore Journal in 1883. His account is mediated by missionary-era collecting and English presentation, so its terminology deserves scrutiny. A surviving record dates its documentation, not the beginning of an oral tradition; earlier transmission cannot be timed precisely from this witness alone. Ferrand’s separate1893 Takinga witness is headed Antambahoaka and names Mananjary in its dictation note, while leaving the individual contributor unnamed. Its title identifies Paris, Ernest Leroux. This later publication is not presented as the first record of the tradition.

Records & interpretation

The published story provides evidence for a named antagonist and a specific sequence of events. It does not justify applying the collector’s monstrous descriptions to Malagasy people or treating the tale as natural history. This is evidence for cultural expression and recorded interpretation, rather than a zoological specimen or independently verified supernatural event. Complete FerrandXXIII pp69–76 and its notes read in French OCR, with title and printed69,73–76 checked directly in original scans. The source attribution, anatomical footnote, deception and fatal ending are distinguished from the previously reviewed Sibree account. No original Malagasy manuscript or sound recording was inspected.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   The Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folk-Tales of the Malagasy: The Three Sisters and Itrimobe

   James Sibree Jr., collector · 1883

   Selected primary witness; not an exhaustive bibliography.

2. 02

   Contes populaires malgaches — XXIII: Takinga

   Gabriel Ferrand, collector, translator and annotator; unnamed Antambahoaka contributor from Mananjary · 1893

   Complete French tale pp69–76 and notes read; original title and69,73–76 visually checked. Trimobe encounter occupies73–76; source note69. Distinct from Sibree’s Three Sisters and Itrimobe.

Family, evolution & connections

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textThe Oratory, Songs, Legends, and Folk-Tales of the Malagasy: The Three Sisters and ItrimobeResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary textThe Folk-Lore Journal 1 (1883), Three Sisters and Itrimobe, pp.234–235Research access: 2026-10-05
3. Primary textSame episode, preceding pageResearch access: 2026-10-05
4. Historical collected tale and original facsimileFerrand1893: complete Takinga and Antambahoaka source noteResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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