A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The story gives Nomagoda a human family history: during famine she leaves her home, settles in a distant village and becomes a cannibal. She eats the other residents, leaving only her son Magoda, and then hunts animals while continuing to seek people. The text explains her name as identifying her as Magoda’s mother. Hunting makes her extraordinarily swift. Her brother remains at the former home with two daughters. When one breaks a valuable clay water-pot, fear of his anger persuades both girls to flee. After two days surviving on gum, they approach a fire and find their aunt’s settlement without knowing whose house it is.
Magoda recognizes the relationship, warns that his mother is a cannibal and hides the girls in his own house. Nomagoda smells children but does not discover them that first night. The next day she stays close enough to prevent escape. In her house the girls see a person with one arm, one side and one leg, who explains that the cannibal ate the rest. Returning with game, she smells their presence again and demands that her son share them as she shares his food. She brings them into her own house and prepares her axe. They signal wakefulness by complaining of vermin, then escape when she sleeps, placing wooden blocks where they lay.
Her axe strikes the substitutes, and daylight finds her pursuing the girls in clouds of dust. They climb a tall tree. Ntengu’s song repeatedly restores the chips from her axe, so she swallows the bird; a fallen feather continues the same repair. Chopping and trying to catch the moving feather exhaust her. From the tree the girls recognize their father’s three calf-sized dogs and call them by name. The dogs kill the helpless pursuer, and the father forgives the broken pot and flight. The compassionate son and the wounded survivor remain separate from her predation; the latter’s missing body parts are the consequence he describes, rather than a new race of half-bodied beings.
Origins & earliest records
Theal identifies Xhosa contributors for the main collection. His preface attributes narration, writing and collective revision to indigenous contributors, while he directed collection and supplied notes. This edition does not name the selected tale’s individual storyteller.
Records & interpretation
Complete selected episode independently read: The Runaway Children; or, the Wonderful Feather, pp. 122–126; named mother and scent p. 124, pursuit and failed chopping pp. 125–126.
In the literature
“she sank down exhausted on the ground at the foot of the tree.”
Complete THE RUNAWAY CHILDREN; OR, THE WONDERFUL FEATHER., printed pp.122–126 · Individual English translator not identified for this episode
The girls’ aunt, mother of Magoda, has become a swift cannibal during famine. Magoda warns his cousins, but they encounter a partially eaten person and are then confined for slaughter. Their substituted blocks deceive her axe; tree protection exhausts her pursuit until their father’s three large dogs consume her. Appended notes separately report grandmother, mother and aunt’s-husband alternatives, not the main witness’s kinship.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Kaffir Folk-Lore, second edition
The Runaway Children; or, the Wonderful Feather, pp. 122–126; named mother and scent p. 124, pursuit and failed chopping pp. 125–126.; preface and introductory chapter for collection context.
- 02
Kaffir Folk-Lore — Nomagoda complete selected episode
Actual1886 second edition, London Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, title independently read; preface datedJan1882 retained from earlier work. Collection director Theal distinguishes native telling/copying/revision from his explanatory notes; no individually named episode teller/translator in inspected passages.
Family, evolution & connections
Nomagoda, Magoda and two nieces — Theal’s account
Complete Runaway Children narrative, printed pp. 122–126, selected second edition.
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- Two siblings, parents unspecified
- Magoda, her son
- Her unnamed brother
- Unnamed elder daughter
- Unnamed younger daughter
Explicit son, brother, two daughters and aunt statements. Nomagoda’s parents, Magoda’s father and the girls’ mother unstated. The girls have a younger/elder order but no names. Ntengu and the father’s dogs are rescuers, not family members. The wounded half-bodied survivor is not another relative or biological population.
Magoda, her son
The opening gives her one son, Magoda. His warning and sheltering of the girls distinguish him from his mother’s cannibalism; no father of Magoda is identified.
Her unnamed brother and his two daughters
The girls’ father is explicitly Nomagoda’s brother. They are therefore his daughters and her nieces, with Magoda their cousin. The younger sister persuades the elder to leave; neither girl has a personal name.
The narrative’s mother-of-Magoda explanation
The narrator explains that she is called Nomagoda because she is Magoda’s mother. This records the edition’s explanation without adding a linguistic derivation or another person with that name.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Kaffir Folk-Lore, second edition
Actual1886 second edition, London Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey, title independently read; preface datedJan1882 retained from earlier work. Collection director Theal distinguishes native telling/copying/revision from his explanatory notes; no individually named episode teller/translator in inspected passages.
- The girls’ aunt, mother of Magoda, has become a swift cannibal during famine. Magoda warns his cousins, but they encounter a partially eaten person and are then confined for slaughter. Their substituted blocks deceive her axe; tree protection exhausts her pursuit until their father’s three large dogs consume her. Appended notes separately report grandmother, mother and aunt’s-husband alternatives, not the main witness’s kinship.
Complete THE RUNAWAY CHILDREN; OR, THE WONDERFUL FEATHER., printed pp.122–126
No whole collection/introduction or separate original oral account reviewed. Historical colonial labels and judgments are not endorsed; individual narrators and translation contributors remain unidentified.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected primary narrative; digitized second editionTheal 1886 — NomagodaResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.