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Overview
After the men of Kulawa kill and smoke a snake, a woman asks for successive portions until she has eaten it all. Later she bears a son in snake form. Afraid, she crosses the sea to Iriwavo, but he swims after her despite rain and thunder. She flees again to Bolanai and has its men prepare sharpened stakes to kill him on arrival.
The villagers cut up and cook the son. An older woman asks for flesh to plant in her garden; it sprouts, and others take shoots to plant elsewhere. The edible roots are identified as taro, and the tale associates Bolanai with abundant, large plants. The son’s pursuit is presented as a wish to remain with his mother, not an explicit intention to devour her. The transformation is the recorded origin narrative, not a botanical account.
Origins & earliest records
Annie Ker, Papuan Fairy Tales (London: Macmillan, 1910), pp. 116–117. Individual narrator unnamed.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected narrative read in digitized transcription; collector’s general northeastern village attribution retained.
In the literature
“a son, in form like to a snake”
The Snake Child, birth and pursuit paragraph
The woman who eats the hunted snake later bears a snake-shaped son.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Snake Child, pp. 116–117
Complete selected text inspected.
- 02
Papuan Fairy Tales — The Snake Child
Annie Ker, London:Macmillan1910, title/contents/introduction already independently read. Missionary English collection chiefly from an unnamed northeast-coast village; named individual narrator not supplied for selected chapter. Chapter text currently inspected through public reader after direct localHTTP403; no bypass or new printed-page-pixel claim.
Family, evolution & connections
The Kulawa snake child and his mother
The Kulawa / Bolanai taro-origin tale in Ker’s 1910 collection.
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- Unnamed woman of Kulawa
Explicit parentage in Ker’s historical English telling. No father is identified. The eaten snake is not represented as a father. The later taro transformation is distinct from parentage.
Unnamed woman of Kulawa
A woman bears a snake-shaped son after eating a hunted snake. She abandons him and later orders his killing at Bolanai. The narrative names no father; eating the snake is a tale mechanism, not biological explanation.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Papuan Fairy Tales: The Snake Child, pp. 116–117
Annie Ker, London:Macmillan1910, title/contents/introduction already independently read. Missionary English collection chiefly from an unnamed northeast-coast village; named individual narrator not supplied for selected chapter. Chapter text currently inspected through public reader after direct localHTTP403; no bypass or new printed-page-pixel claim.
- Kulawa hunters kill and smoke a snake. A woman asks for successive portions until she has eaten the whole creature; later she bears a snake-shaped son and flees to Iriwavo. Despite rain and thunder he swims after her to be with his mother. She flees again to Bolanai and orders sharpened stakes against him.
- Bolanai men cut the arriving son into pieces and cook him. An old woman asks for flesh to plant; it sprouts, and other people take shoots to their own gardens. The resulting edible roots are identified as taro, explaining its abundance and size at Bolanai.
The Snake Child, Bolanai killing, planting and concluding taro origin
Eating precedes birth in the narrative but is not scientific biological causation. His stated desire is maternal company, not explicit intent to eat her. Son’s death is explicit, not transformed alive into a harmless child. Taro origin is an etiological narrative, not botanical ancestry.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary collected textKer 1910: The Snake Child, pp. 116–117Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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