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

Overview

Soafara follows her mother, who has gone to gather greens, and reaches a crocodile-inhabited stream west of the village. Ravoaimena is sunning himself beside the ford. Pretending compassion, he offers to carry the child across on his back. He then sinks slowly, answering her repeated alarms as the water rises from her feet to her neck. She loses consciousness and is taken to his hole. The narrative specifically places this dwelling in dry earth, despite its river entrance and the preceding submersion.

Believing Soafara dead, Ravoaimena blocks the opening and leaves to invite his relatives to share the feast. The child wakes and digs above her head, getting herself to safety. The arriving crocodiles find an empty hole and attack their host in anger. Covered in bites, he goes away to wash his wounds and warm himself on a sandbank. The story does not kill him. Its later rescue nevertheless still involves digging Soafara out of the earth: the earlier statement that she reaches safety is retained alongside this later underground position, without inventing a second capture.

Soafara asks nearby birds to carry news to her family. Three refuse because of past human insults or accusations, but the vorondreo agrees. It repeats its message ten times at the village meeting before attracting attention, then guides her father, mother and elder sister to the place. They bring cattle and burial cloths expecting to recover a body, but hear Soafara answer and dig her out alive. She is washed and clothed. The bird asks for its life rather than cattle or enslaved people, and the tale closes with a prohibition against killing it. Ravoaimena’s attempt thus ends in a rescued child and his own wounds, rather than a completed feast.

Speaking crocodileFalse offer of safe transportProgressive submersionDry-earth captive chamberBitten by disappointed relatives
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, tale 54, pp. 282–287, with regional collection heading. The individual contributor is unnamed; introduction V–VIII explains the schoolteacher-mediated collection and translation.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 54, pp. 282–287, including heading, relevant notes and final outcome read in the retained primary text. The child’s initial safety through digging and later extraction from the earth are both retained; no second capture or predator death is 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 54, pp. 282–287, complete.

Family & connections

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References

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

  1. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, tale 54Research 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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