A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

An episode set in Mende country tells of an elderly, ill person whose companions tire of caring for him. They clear a place in the forest and build a small bamboo shelter. Each hand and foot is placed in a separate mortar, a pestle is positioned at the mouth and two fans are tied to the ears. The assembled objects anticipate elephant anatomy: the four mortars supply the feet, the pestle the long trunk and the fans the ears. When someone returns to look, the person is no longer present; the story explains the disappearance as his change into an elephant.

The published scene immediately questions the account's certainty. Its speaker answers through a chain of reported family acquaintance rather than showing the event directly. Another speaker offers a different elephant-change story: two girls collecting firewood hear a monkey singing, and one becomes an elephant after repeating the song. The surviving girl reports what happened; when the community persuades her to sing it, she transforms too. These are contrasting mechanisms within the collection, one using arranged domestic objects and the other an imitated song, both joining human bodies to the animal form.

Human-to-elephant changeMortar feetPestle trunkFan earsSeparate song-transformation variant
01

Origins & earliest records

Florence M. Cronise collected tales from children and adult employees of the Rotifunk mission in Sierra Leone. The 1903 preface credits Henry W. Ward with much of the arrangement and narrative setting; its named speakers are not assumed to be independently documented field informants.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete An Old Man Turns Elephant, printed pp. 256-258, directly read. It includes both the mortar arrangement and a distinct monkey-song variant; its frame explicitly questions the reported account.

In the literature

“De foot nar de mottah”
Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef
Chapter IX; pp. 256–258; An Old Man Turns Elephant; Conclusion of the abandoned elder’s transformation · Historical Sierra Leone contact-English rendering

The story explicitly relates the elephant’s foot to the rice mortar used in the transformation.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef

    Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · 1903

    An Old Man Turns Elephant; pp. 256-258.

  2. 02

    Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef — An Old Man Turns Elephant

    Florence M. Cronise, collector; Henry W. Ward, arranger · 1903

    London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants.

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.

Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider and the Other Beef

London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York, E. P. Dutton, 1903, visually verified title page. Selected Project Gutenberg 48828 transcription retains printed page markers and exact tale anchors. Preface pp. v–vi credits Cronise with collection and Ward with arrangement/setting; introduction pp. 1–4 describes Rotifunk mission children and adult employees as sources. Frame speakers are not independently verified individual informants.

  1. People described as living in upper Mende country abandon an old dependent under a poor shelter. They put his hands and feet into four rice mortars, a pestle at his mouth and fanning trays on his ears. Later he is missing and the story identifies him as an elephant.

    Chapter IX; pp. 256–258; An Old Man Turns Elephant; Abandoned elder and elephant-shaped apparatus

  2. The framing discussion adds another elephant transformation: one girl imitates a monkey’s song in the forest and becomes an elephant; her companion is later persuaded to repeat it and is transformed too.

    Chapter IX; pp. 256–258; An Old Man Turns Elephant; Adjacent account of girls copying a monkey’s song

Complete named tale and relevant footnotes read. Editorial racial generalizations are not adopted. Frame speakers are literary witnesses, not verified informants; spirit/devil vocabulary belongs to this collected rendering and is not equated with Christian Satan or a universal African category.

References

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

  1. Collected primary narrative with editorial settingAn Old Man Turns ElephantResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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