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

Overview

Ikalanolo, Ifaravavy, Ifanaivoivo and a young enslaved woman refuse ordinary male suitors but accept four Ratsimanola. A footnote describes Ratsimanola as a fantastic animal resembling a human and imitating human life. During the wedding, one creature’s tail appears. The enslaved companion sees it and warns the others, who insult her and insist that their handsome spouses are men. They follow the husbands home. After fishing and hunting in the marsh, the beasts give eels to the women but climb onto the roof to eat boas and other serpents themselves, discussing the feast they intend to make of their wives.

The husbands repeatedly ask whether the women are sleeping. Their enslaved companion answers that sadness and distance from their parents keep them awake, and rouses the others to hear the animals’ behaviour. At daylight all four cut banana trunks, put them in their beds and flee to their families. The beasts return and interpret the lack of answers as deep sleep. They descend from the roof and devour the trunks, initially believing they have their sleeping wives. Finding the flesh too hard, they uncover the beds and discover the deception.

The Ratsimanola follow the women to their parents’ home. There the wives greet and admit them, put straw beneath their beds, close and barricade the door and set the house on fire. The creatures’ tails emerge outside, but the women burn those too, and all four husbands perish. This complete ending differs from Renel’s five-fosa account, where villagers expose the spouses through drunken behaviour and two escape. The variant relationship is the editor’s comparison; the Ratsimanola are not silently assigned the fosa species or treated as the same individuals.

Four separately married beastsHuman-resembling appearanceTails expose the disguiseSerpents eaten on the roofBanana-trunk bed decoysAll four killed in a barricaded house fire
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, second volume, tale 138, pp. 265–267, with local collection heading. The editor identifies a variant relationship to tale 10; individual contributor unnamed.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 138, pp. 265–267, heading and relevant annotation read. Named animal group and particular ending distinguished from the three tailed brothers in the first volume.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, deuxième partie: Fables et fabliaux

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

    Tale 138, pp. 265–267, complete; appendix collected narrative.

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, second volume, tale 138Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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