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

Overview

Tsiorivalanampanga is the eldest daughter of the central king, beautiful but unable to walk. Her jealous sisters demand her removal because suitors prefer her, and the family abandons her in a deep forest despite an aunt’s offer to care for her. An angatra, a crow and other birds decline to eat the forsaken girl. Rabesaritaka finally arrives sniffing for flesh. After hearing her account, this beast takes her home as a daughter and applies a fanafody that immediately heals her feet. It braids her hair, steals fine clothing from a human village to dress her, and steals another child, Iketaka, to keep her company.

The young woman warns a northern prince that her mother is an animal, and he leaves. A southern prince accepts the danger despite her explanation that Rabesaritaka loves only her and Iketaka and may eat him. They stay together for two days, during which she tells him her full history. He asks permission to kill the foster mother, and she agrees. They heat a long iron point and thrust it through the sleeping beast from feet to mouth. People inside its belly cry out, warning the attackers not to kill them as well.

Once Rabesaritaka is dead, the couple opens its belly and the swallowed people emerge. Tsiorivalanampanga asks whether they will follow the living or the dead; choosing the living, they build houses and organize a village under her direction. Rabesaritaka is buried. After the couple’s child has grown, they visit her original parents. The aunt questions the visitors, the husband explains the abandonment and rescue, and the parents ask forgiveness. A week-long celebration follows, while the sisters are ashamed. The beast’s nurturing and healing are retained alongside its predation, abduction and death; no later return or transformation into a human parent is supplied.

Species unspecifiedTracks flesh by smellFanafody heals the adopted girlSteals clothing and a child companionLiving people retained inside its bellyKilled and buried
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, tale 7, pp. 46–49, regional and local collection heading. Individual teller unnamed; introduction V–VIII describes intermediaries and translation.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 7, pp. 46–49, including surrounding episodes and final outcome read. No unstated species or borrowed identity from other last-born heroes supplied.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, première partie: Contes merveilleux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 7, pp. 46–49, complete.

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.

References

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

  1. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, tale 7Research 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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