A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The mother reaches a hut three times larger than any she has seen. Its blood-red pots and calabashes are extraordinarily light and sway in the breeze. On the far side sleeps an immensely tall, stout creature with tufts of brick-red hair, two horns and a long tail curled over its knees. The narration calls it an Inzimu. The mother fears it will eat her and both children if awakened.
The egg advisers initially suggest dropping a stone through the roof onto it. While she prepares, a second Inzimu comes in dragging dead human bodies and begins chopping one for food. It sniffs the air and suspects something edible is concealed, but never looks at the roof. After both sleep, the eggs tell the family to climb down and escape: one stone cannot safely kill both. Neither ogre is killed in the narrated escape.
The pair is retained as one shared household encounter. The second’s cannibal actions are explicit, but the detailed horn, tail and hair description belongs to the first sleeping ogre; it is not automatically repeated for every body part of its companion. The edition’s footnote translates Inzimu and Imbula through European ogre terminology, an editorial gloss rather than an individual name.
Origins & earliest records
Bourhill and Drake present a collected tale arranged in English for children. The chapter supplies a Swazi label but no individual storyteller or exact collection occasion. Their colonial preface framing is distinguished from the events of the retelling.
Records & interpretation
Complete VII. The Three Little Eggs, printed pp. 66–77, read through its ending; source title, preface and chapter attribution checked.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
VII. The Three Little Eggs, pp. 66–77; unnamed individual episode contributor, English literary arrangement.
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.
- The first large ogre sleeps in a hut and has reddish tufts, two horns and a curled tail. A second comes in carrying human victims and prepares food. Their co-residence does not explicitly establish parentage or marriage; the published anatomical description is shown for the first ogre.
- The mother initially prepares to drop a stone on one sleeper but flees when the second appears. Both remain asleep and alive when the family escapes. The later beheaded ogress is a separate encounter, not the death of one of this pair.
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.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — VII. The Three Little EggsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
