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

Overview

Ravoailahy enters Faravavy’s house intending to make her his wife. Faravavy lives with a young enslaved girl. On seeing the visitor she faints, and he sprinkles drops of water onto her lamba until she regains consciousness. The three then set out together: Faravavy walks first, Ravoailahy follows, and the girl comes behind him. From that position the girl sees his changing form and calls to Faravavy to look back at her husband. Faravavy dismisses the warning as a prank and tells the girl to go home if she will not accompany them.

The girl repeats the warning, but Faravavy again refuses to listen. At the river Faravavy enters the water first. Her companion has now become a crocodile; he enters behind her and carries her into his hole. That abduction is the printed ending. The account gives neither a subsequent killing nor a successful rescue. A note glosses voay lahy as male crocodile. The editorial heading compares the story with the fosa-men theme, but this witness supplies a crocodile transformation, not a fosa body. Its enslaved observer and disregarded warnings resemble the four Ratsimanola husbands’ episode without establishing that these differently named husbands are the same being.

Initially appears as a manRevives fainting bride with waterTransformation seen by enslaved girlChanges into crocodileCarries bride into underwater hole
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, second volume, tale 154, pp. 310–311. Collection locality is supplied by the heading; individual contributor unnamed.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 154, pp. 310–311, including the ending and associated notes, read from the retained official digitized text.

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 154, pp. 310–311: Complete short crocodile-husband account, male-crocodile name note and comparative heading; no invented outcome beyond underwater abduction.

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 154Research 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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