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

Overview

Tombi-ende’s sisters claim she died accidentally in the red ochre pit, but their confused answers expose the false story. Their father executes them. A kind old figure called a Fairy comes afterward, knowing that Tombi-ende is still alive and pitying the sisters’ severe punishment. She sprinkles their bodies with medicine from a magical calabash. They sit up alive and well, rubbing their eyes.

She orders attendants to remove them and keep them from their father’s sight until Tombi-ende returns. The ending later says that the king forgives the sisters in his joy at the princess’s safe return. The fairy’s revival is therefore separate from the frog’s rescue of the still-living Tombi-ende. She is unnamed and has no narrated transformation into the frog, no transport episode and no stated responsibility for the original burial.

Old woman formMagic calabashSprinkling revivalKnows victim survivesProtection of revived sisters
01

Origins & earliest records

Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. No individual contributor is named for the episode. The chapter’s community label is retained separately from the colonial generalizations of the preface.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete XVI. The Fairy Frog, printed pp. 187–197, read through the final resolution.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Fairy Tales from South Africa

    Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake, collectors and arrangers · 1908

    XVI. The Fairy Frog, pp. 187–197; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.

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.

  1. Tombi-ende’s jealous sisters bury her alive and lie to their father. He kills them with an axe. The old-woman fairy knows Tombi-ende is alive and revives the sisters with a vessel’s medicine. This is restoration of executed offenders, not resurrection of the buried princess.

    XVI, pp.188–190; sisters’ crime and disproportionate punishment

  2. The helper orders the revived girls hidden from their father until Tombi-ende returns. At the final marriage the king forgives them. The tale does not show the restoring fairy travelling with the frog or identify her as the princess’s actual grandmother.

    XVI, pp.190–197; concealment and later reconciliation

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.

  1. Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — XVI. The Fairy FrogResearch 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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