A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
This lion conceals its animal body by wearing a murdered woman’s intact skin, clothes and ornaments. The disguise begins after a party gathering wild food leaves one woman behind to replace her sweet herbs. At a river she drinks from a cup that Hare reserves for himself and his uncle Lion. Hare reports her action; Lion follows her, and their encounter becomes an alternating chase around a shrub. They lend and withhold ornaments and exchange a formula asking the other to rise when pinned down. At the final repetition Lion refuses to release her, eats her, and preserves the covering needed to enter her household in her place.
The returned figure resembles the woman closely enough to be accepted initially, but ordinary relationships expose the deception. She refuses to give her little sister milk, then shares the child’s drink and licks spilled milk from her hand. The lion’s rough tongue draws blood, which it also licks. Cows that the woman previously milked without difficulty refuse the disguised predator. The mother and husband recognize that familiar household behavior has changed. At night protruding lion hair supplies more direct evidence. The account thus represents a physical concealment with imperfectly hidden animal features, rather than an unexplained complete transformation into a human body.
The household dismantles the sleeping lion’s hut without waking it, addressing mats, poles, bamboos and bed skins so that they remain quiet. Grass is piled over the lion and set alight. The fire is addressed in turn, and the woman’s heart escapes before it burns. Her mother places the heart in a calabash with the first milk of cows that have calves; the vessel enlarges as the daughter grows inside. Restored, she secretly resumes cleaning the home and asks Hare to take credit, but her mother finds her hiding place and embraces her. It is the woman who returns to life. Honeÿ’s compilation does not supply a named narrator or a precise community for this selected version; its regional setting cannot establish a universal southern African lion belief.
Origins & earliest records
Bleek’s Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864), tale 24, identifies G. Krönlein’s manuscript pp. 60, 65 in Sir George Grey’s Library. Bleek’s preface says Krönlein, a Rhenish missionary at Beerseba, Great Namaqualand, supplied original-language material with German translations following the 1861 collection request. The selected tale has no named individual narrator. Honeÿ later printed the narrative in South-African Folk-Tales (1910).
Records & interpretation
The complete earlier published English witness was read alongside the existing later compilation. The manuscript attribution is printed by Bleek; the original manuscript has not been independently inspected. Publication dates document these witnesses, not the beginning of the tradition.
In the literature
“but she now remained unmarried.”
LION WHO TOOK A WOMAN'S SHAPE, printed pp.129–136; final paragraph
Lion eats a woman and impersonates her by wearing her intact skin; the household discovers him and the woman is restored.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales
Tale 24; manuscript pp. 60, 65; preface collection history. Historical title retained as bibliography, not present-day community terminology.
- 02
South-African Folk-Tales
Lion Who Took a Woman’s Shape
- 03
South-African Folk-Tales — Lion Who Took A Woman'S Shape
James A. Honeÿ, South-African Folk-Tales, New York: Baker & Taylor, published November1910, copyright1910, Trow Press; selected complete episodes and introduction method pp.1–5 independently read. Precise earlier source/version for each episode not individually identified by the compiler.
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.
South-African Folk-Tales — Lion Who Took A Woman'S Shape
James A. Honeÿ, South-African Folk-Tales, New York: Baker & Taylor, published November1910, copyright1910, Trow Press; selected complete episodes and introduction method pp.1–5 independently read. Precise earlier source/version for each episode not individually identified by the compiler.
- Lion eats a woman and impersonates her by wearing her intact skin; the household discovers him and the woman is restored.
LION WHO TOOK A WOMAN'S SHAPE, complete tale, printed pp.129–136; introduction method pp.1–5
Honeÿ says the collection mixes earlier English publications, Dutch translations and childhood recollections; no specific unnamed oral narrator or single community assigned here. Colonial classifications and speculative origins in his introduction are not adopted. Songs, conjurations and practical instructions are omitted from copied excerpts.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical translated collected narrativeBleek 1864, tale 24Research access: 2026-10-05
- Historical compiled taleLion Who Took a Woman’s ShapeResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
