Lielie, the Returning Wife

Overview

Lielie is the youngest of Marailane’s wives and keeps the likopo in her hut. He takes these objects down at evening and they make music throughout the night. When the other wives ask to see them, Lielie demonstrates their music while Marailane is away herding. He hears it from the veldt. Afraid that he will kill her, she tries repeatedly to hang the objects up again, but they fall. She flees to her parents.

Marailane summons his people while Lielie’s family prepares and dresses her. A succession of messengers calls her back, and she slowly ascends towards his village carrying an iron staff. On seeing her at the top, he orders an attack. The people strike her with stones and sticks and throw her into a gorge. The main English text explicitly says she dies, then returns to life in the middle of the night and crawls home. Her parents carry her inside, tend her wounds, feed her and restore her health.

When Marailane later calls a singing feast, her parents dress and adorn Lielie and place the iron staff in her hand. She returns with a group of maidens. Marailane recognizes his wife, takes her back and marries her again; the collector explains this as renewed marriage cattle to her parents. The musical objects return to her hut. The narration supplies neither her approval of that decision nor a later retaliation.

Jacottet admits that the obsolete word likopo has an uncertain precise meaning and translates it as wonderful musical instruments. That uncertainty does not erase Lielie’s narrated return from death. A separately summarized version calls the wife Lilare: her father gathers her bones into a hanging bag, from which successive body parts develop until she lives again. The main Lielie account gives midnight revival and crawling home, not that bone-bag reconstruction.

Origins & earliest records

Complete Jacottet XXV and notes provide this particular returning-wife episode, with a separately summarized Lilare version. No individual narrator is named in the inspected text. Musical-object terminology remains uncertain.

Records & interpretation

XXV, Marailane abo Khosi, complete bilingual pp. 176–181; English pp. 176, 178, 180. Music and flight p. 176, repeated summons p. 178, death/return and renewed marriage p. 180; Lilare bones variant in notes pp. 180–181.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   The Treasury of Ba-suto Lore, vol. I

   Édouard Jacottet, collector and translator; J. C. Smith, English text assistance · 1908

   XXV, Marailane abo Khosi, complete bilingual pp. 176–181; English pp. 176, 178, 180. Music and flight p. 176, repeated summons p. 178, death/return and renewed marriage p. 180; Lilare bones variant in notes pp. 180–181.

2. 02

   The Treasury of Ba-suto Lore, volume I

   Unnamed Sesotho narrative contributor; Édouard Jacottet, editor and translator; J. C. Smith, English text correction · 1908

   The Treasury of Ba-suto Lore, volume I, Morija/London, 1908. Title-page OCR, full preface and introduction xxii method statement read; complete XXV, Marailane abo Khosi, bilingual printed pp.176–181, English pp.176/178/180 and all notes independently read. Facing Sesotho placement inspected without independent translation.

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.

References

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

1. Collected Se-Suto text with English translation and notesJacottet — complete selected bilingual taleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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