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Overview
Lungile arrives at her intended husband’s home with her bridesmaids, but disturbances during the preparation of the wedding cattle ruin the match. After a man leaps from the white bull’s boiling head and becomes a buck, the household calls her a witch. She protests her innocence and is driven home; her parents believe her but must return the marriage cattle. The narrator later vindicates her, rather than confirming the accusation.
A year later she pursues the familiar buck hoping to catch meat, then responds compassionately when it follows her in shining mist and speaks. She witnesses its recovery of human form and defeat of the ogre. At the restored chief’s request she stays in the forest, gathers spinach every morning and sings the supplied fairy song. Bucks arrive with their families over seven days and eventually become human. Her role is the performed release of the community, not the original curse. She marries the chief after he returns her to her father and provides a new marriage gift.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. The publication does not name an individual contributor for this episode; its literary dialogue is not treated as a verbatim field transcription.
Records & interpretation
Complete XVIII. The Enchanted Buck, printed pp. 212–223, read through the final resolution.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
XVIII. The Enchanted Buck, pp. 212–223; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.
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.
- Lungile is prepared for marriage but blamed and expelled after supernatural events in the wedding food. Her parents accept her innocence. More than a year later she encounters the buck and follows him, first trying to capture it and later choosing to help when it speaks.
- After the chief kills the ogre, Lungile gathers greens and sings over the returning animals for days. Their eventual restoration produces his community, and she accepts his proposal. The words of the song are not copied here, and her assistance is not replaced by an invented kiss or a one-moment incantation.
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 — XVIII. The Enchanted BuckResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.