A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The child’s mother leaves her with a co-wife while going to wash clothes. Her instructions carefully distinguish mild morning sunshine through mist from the later strong sun: the infant may be placed in the first, but should be moved into shade when the heat increases. The co-wife attends to cooking instead. The child sings repeated reminders of the instruction and warns that she is melting. First her left hand melts, then her right; when the woman finally looks, the infant has become a fish. The transformation follows neglect rather than a deliberate magical disguise or a birth as a water spirit.
The guardian puts the fish into her cooking and serves the meal to the returning mother, initially claiming that the child is with her father and that the fish was purchased. The father’s denial exposes the contradiction. Challenged again, the co-wife admits both the ignored warnings and the transformation. The mother then pronounces a solemn prohibition and demands that each wife maintain a separate hearth. The narrator uses the loss to explain separate cooking-stones for co-wives. The story’s extraordinary body change and its household consequence belong together; the ending offers no restoration of the infant.
Origins & earliest records
Rattray prints Akan text alongside an English translation in Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales. This profile follows the selected narrative rather than treating its events as a historical encounter.
Records & interpretation
The English text directly states the sun exposure, repeated songs, left and right hands melting, fish change, deception and separate-hearth ending. The displayed name is editorial: Sienima is a refrain, while Adwoa appears within the song and is not treated here as a securely resolved personal name.
In the literature
“the child had turned into a fish.”
How It Came About That Co-wives Do Not Use the Same Hearth-stones; p. 189; transformation · R. S. Rattray
The neglected child transforms after prolonged exposure to the strong sun.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales
Co-wives and the child turned into a fish, printed pp 186–190; accessible OCR of a later lithographic reprint retains the original text.
- 02
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — How It Came About That Co-wives Do Not Use the Same Hearth-stones
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks. Selected witness: English pp. 187–191.
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.
Akan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — How It Came About That Co-wives Do Not Use the Same Hearth-stones
Oxford: Clarendon Press, first published 1930. Inspected scan is a later lithographic reprint; its reprint year is not established here. Twi and English occupy facing pages. English quotation page numbers were read visually from the facsimile, rather than inferred from OCR page breaks.
- A mother leaves her infant with her co-wife, instructing her to move the child into shade when the sun strengthens; neglect causes the child’s hands to melt and her body to become a fish.
- The co-wife cooks the transformed child, serves the fish to its mother and conceals the loss by claiming that the child is with its father.
How It Came About That Co-wives Do Not Use the Same Hearth-stones; p. 189; cooking and concealment
- The mother discovers the deception when the father denies having the child; the co-wife confesses, and the mother’s refusal to share hearth-stones supplies the narrative’s stated explanation for separate cooking.
Complete selected English episodes read. Named individual narrator is not established by the selected heading. The narrative is a located historical witness, not a universal assertion about current Akan belief. No ritual formula or song refrain reproduced.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected primary narrative with facing Akan and English textsAkan-Ashanti Folk-Tales — Co-wives and the child turned into a fish, printed pp 186–190Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.