Mouse magician at the foot of the feather ladder, Holloway 1908
Mouse climbs below the human couple and Woodpecker as all four travel above the clouds. The scale and animal treatment belong to Holloway’s illustration of this named journey.
Overview
The princess’s bird relatives consult the Mouse and Woodpecker as wise local magicians when they want the Rabbit Prince killed. They initially advise poison, but the princess warns him. Both advisers then grow fond of him, refuse further harm and move near his home. They accompany the couple up the feather ladder because they want to protect him.
At the closed cloudland cave the Mouse offers to nibble through anything, but the stone defeats him; the Woodpecker finds the mechanism instead. At the welcome feast, however, his unobtrusive movement among the cooking pots exposes a decisive threat. He sees an old woman sprinkle a strange substance only into the prince’s portion. He climbs the prince’s back and whispers that the food is unsafe while the beer is untouched. Obedience prevents the attempt.
After the four return to earth, he accompanies the prince in obtaining warriors and cattle. The victorious prince gives him soldiers and princely status. The narrator says his further adventures have been forgotten and reports only his later chieftainship and lasting friendship. The profile preserves this explicit gap rather than using it to generate a conquest story; it also keeps the initial hostile counsel separate from his later loyalty.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English children’s retelling. No individual episode narrator is named. Preface community claims and chapter labels are retained as evidence about the publication, not substituted for current community self-description.
Records & interpretation
Complete V. The Rabbit Prince, printed pp. 43–57, read through the ending; title, preface and chapter label checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
V. The Rabbit Prince, pp. 43–57; published English literary arrangement for children.
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.
- Mouse is initially consulted about harming Rabbit but becomes attached to him and accompanies him upward. His attempt to gnaw open the cave’s stone fails; Woodpecker discovers its mechanism. Mouse is a speaking magician but not all-powerful.
- Mouse spies the targeted food being adulterated and warns Rabbit privately. He returns to earth with the group, accompanies Rabbit’s search for soldiers and is made a prince. His subsequent campaigns are explicitly outside the narrator’s remembered story, and no named wife or offspring is supplied.
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 — V. The Rabbit PrinceResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
Historical illustrationMouse magician at the foot of the feather ladder, Holloway 1908
Mouse climbs below the human couple and Woodpecker as all four travel above the clouds. The scale and animal treatment belong to Holloway’s illustration of this named journey.
