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Overview
The Rākshasa’s wife delays a girl seeking fire with repeated household tasks, then gives her burning charcoal in a perforated coconut shell so that falling ashes mark her route. Returning home, the Rākshasa smells the human visitor and follows that trail. At the girl’s house he pretends to bring the ornaments promised by her foster storks, seeking admission by calling her daughter.
Warnings from the parrot, dog, cat and tree expose the deception. He kills the dog and cat, cuts and burns the warning tree, then throws its speaking ashes into the river. When the water continues warning the girl, he tries to drink the river dry, bursts and dies. The separately narrated Durayā variant instead has him leave nails in the door-frame; they injure the girl until the returning storks remove them. Parker’s Western Province version assigns the pursuing role to a Rākshasī, which is a distinct witness rather than an unexplained change of sex.
Origins & earliest records
Sri Lankan narratives collected and translated by H. Parker
Records & interpretation
Complete tale and all its printed variants/comparative notes read; relevant introduction passages on collection and translation directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
No. 12, The Black Storks’ Girl, pp. 121–125
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
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, Volume I
Volume I. No. 12, The Black Storks’ Girl, pp. 121–125
Full printed section read including all regional variants and comparative notes; missing passage from truncated initial output reread. Introduction’s collection/translation paragraphs directly inspected, not claimed as a full reading of its long ethnographic survey. Regional outcomes and narrator attributions kept separate.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected oral narrative translationParker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I — No. 12, The Black Storks’ Girl, pp. 121–125Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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