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Overview

Mulha opens a pot that her absent mother expressly forbade the three sisters to touch. A huge ogre emerges and fills their hut, leaving no room for them. He speaks reassuringly, brings them back, and sends the two older girls to fetch water while keeping the youngest. In their absence he kills her and boils her in the pot without a visible fire. A huge speaking bee warns the returning girls that the proposed meal is their sister, so they refuse to eat.

The ogre anticipates Mulha’s escape plans and follows her, but her surviving sister slips away beside the river and reaches their mother. Later he leaves to seek fresh prey, allowing Mulha to escape too. The narrator explains that he kept her as a final reserve of food. Their father attacks with shield and assegais, but his weapons fall powerless to the ground. He concludes that the monster is a magician and moves the family elsewhere. This ogre survives that episode; the red-haired Imbula encountered on Mulha’s later journey is a different adversary.

Emerges from forbidden potHut-filling sizeFireless cookingPursuit of escaping captivesResistance to thrown spears
01

Origins & earliest records

Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. The publication does not name an individual contributor for this episode; its literary dialogue is not treated as a verbatim field transcription.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete XIX. The Beauty and the Beast, printed pp. 224–236, read through the final resolution.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Fairy Tales from South Africa

    Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake, collectors and arrangers · 1908

    XIX. The Beauty and the Beast, pp. 224–236; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.

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.

  1. Mulha opens a forbidden pot and releases a large ogre. It deceptively offers safety, kills the youngest sister and prepares her as food while the others collect water. A bee warns the two survivors, who avoid eating her. This youngest sister’s death is not later reversed.

    XIX The Beauty and the Beast, pp.224–228; released attacker

  2. The father’s thrown weapons fail against the ogre. The family builds elsewhere, and Mulha is sent toward a married sister’s home. The pot ogre remains undefeated in its own episode; the later slain tree ogress is a different creature.

    XIX, pp.228–229; failed confrontation and relocation

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.

  1. Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — XIX. The Beauty and the BeastResearch 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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