Leveret bride in Parker’s No. 223

Overview

One of seven women gathering firewood brings home a young female hare and marries her to the youngest of her seven sons. When the other wives call on her to help harvest their shared millet field, her husband complains that he has a hare instead of a woman. She answers proudly, then gathers the other hares after nightfall. Together they cut the entire crop and carry it to the store-room before she returns home. Her husband mistakenly credits his sisters-in-law with the work.

The distinction between animal wife and woman becomes explicit at a wedding. The husband initially refuses to attend because his wife is a hare, but she tells him to go. Following him, she removes and hides her hare jacket beside the road and enters the feast. Parker’s final sentence says the prince burns the jacket; the details that he recognizes her, goes back to find it, and thereby prevents another hare transformation appear within editorial brackets.

This is a particular removable-skin bride, not an ordinary talking hare or a newly asserted species. No personal name, origin of the jacket, divine ancestry or earlier curse is given, and the story ends without a further account of the marriage. Parker compares a fairy who wears a monkey skin in another collection, but does not call this hare bride a fairy. The original record identifies the teller only as a tom-tom beater from the North-western Province.

Origins & earliest records

Tom-tom-beater narrator, North-western Province; individual unnamed

Records & interpretation

Complete main tale and notes read; editorial brackets distinguished.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume III

   H. Parker (collector and translator) · 1914

   No.223, The Leveret, or the Story of the Seven Women, pp.187–188 and notes.

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.

Primary records and illustrations

References

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

1. Historical primary folklore collectionParker, Volume III, No.223Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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