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Overview

A mother gathers her daughter's bones after a hyena has killed the girl and travels to a city where people are mended. Along the road, food cooks itself, meat grills itself and fura mixes itself, each offering a meal and directions. She refuses to eat from grief and follows the right-hand road. The city's inhabitants receive the bones, promise restoration and require her to tend cattle. She gives the animals ripe fruit while taking unripe fruit for herself. The largest bull returns with a spoken report praising her, and the child is restored and returned next morning.

A rival mother deliberately kills her own daughter in hopes of obtaining a similar improvement and follows the same road. She consumes the offered food and takes the best fruit while giving inferior fruit to the cattle. The bull reports her bad conduct and asks that the daughter be mended badly. The restorers produce a one-sided body. Although her mother repeatedly attempts to abandon her on the return journey, the child follows and insists upon their relationship until they live together. The restorers' rebuilding power belongs to this fantastic city; the tale's final stigmatizing description is part of its historical narration rather than a modern judgment of disability.

Rebuilding from bonesCattle-tending testBull gives spoken reportContrasting restorationsOvernight return of a child
01

Origins & earliest records

Tale 84 is credited Umoru Gombe by Tremearne's narrator key. Selected witness: second edition 1913; exact telling date unspecified.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete main tale 84, printed pp. 401-407, directly read; comparative variants kept separate.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs

    Umoru Gombe, storyteller; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Second edition; tale 84, pp. 401-407.

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.

References

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

  1. Collected primary narrativeHausa Superstitions and Customs - tale 84Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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