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

Overview

A young traveller seeking his estranged wife witnesses two birds fighting beside his route. One kills the other, then flies successively east, west, south and north to bring back a leaf from each direction. It fans its fallen companion with the four leaves until the bird returns to life. Their quarrel immediately resumes. This time the revived bird kills its former opponent, gathers leaves in the same way and restores that bird in turn.

The traveller collects the leaves left from this double demonstration and carries them in the pocket of his rough clothing. They become decisive when his former wife has him seized in her new village. His guard proves to be a childhood friend who remembers receiving the traveller’s gifts. Before execution, the prisoner gives him instructions to retrieve the discarded body and fan it with the leaves through the night. The friend follows them, and the man revives at dawn.

The recovered man later uses the same leaves to revive a king’s daughter who has been dead for three days. The repeated movement from death to life therefore begins with the unnamed birds and is subsequently enacted twice among humans. The narrative provides neither their species nor a description of plumage, size or beak. Their distinctive action is reciprocal revival despite continued hostility, rather than a claim that they never die.

Reciprocal fightingLeaves collected from four directionsFanning restores lifeRemedy observed and copied by a human
01

Origins & earliest records

Ngélétchane, a young man of Tembé, is the named contributor. He said he learned the account from his mother, an older woman living inland. Junod separately speculates about external influence; the narrator rejected that interpretation.

02

Records & interpretation

Junod (1897), XXIV La bienfaisance récompensée, complete pp. 270–273; reciprocal bird resurrections p. 271, overnight revival p. 272, royal daughter and final reconciliation p. 273; Ngélétchane and maternal transmission in closing note.

In the literature

“les deux oiseaux se battirent de nouveau”
Ngélétchane, narrator reporting his mother’s telling; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French translator/collector · Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa
XXIV La bienfaisance récompensée, printed p.271 · Henri-Alexandre Junod (French)

The revived bird resumes the fight before the reversed revival.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

    Ngélétchane, narrator; his unnamed mother, earlier teller; Henri-Alexandre Junod, collector and translator · 1897

    Junod (1897), XXIV La bienfaisance récompensée, complete pp. 270–273; reciprocal bird resurrections p. 271, overnight revival p. 272, royal daughter and final reconciliation p. 273; Ngélétchane and maternal transmission in closing note.

  2. 02

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa — XXIV La bienfaisance récompensée

    Ngélétchane, narrator reporting his mother’s telling; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French translator/collector · 1897

    Henri-AlexandreJunod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa, Lausanne:GeorgesBridel1897. Complete FrenchXXIII264–270 andXXIV270–273 read; original264/265/270/271/272/273 visually inspected, including contributor notes264/273. Historical prose only; no songs, invocations, instructions or illustration reused.

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.

Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

Henri-AlexandreJunod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa, Lausanne:GeorgesBridel1897. Complete FrenchXXIII264–270 andXXIV270–273 read; original264/265/270/271/272/273 visually inspected, including contributor notes264/273. Historical prose only; no songs, invocations, instructions or illustration reused.

  1. A generous boy spends his father’s gifts on friends. As a young worker he marries, travels to earn money and finds his wife has married elsewhere. Searching in poor clothing, he watches two birds kill and revive each other using four leaves. He keeps the leaves. His former wife demands his death; his jailer recognises the childhood benefactor. After execution, this friend revives him by the sea at dawn. The revived man reaches the king’s mourning capital and revives the king’s daughter after her three-day death. He marries her, receives rank beside the king and a country to govern, summons his father and honours his helpful friend with the third rank. The killers are seized but spared; his former wife is left unharmed.

    XXIV La bienfaisance récompensée, complete printed pp.270–273

Species and kinship of the two birds are unspecified; they are fighting companions, not identified siblings. Four directional leaves are narrated as a supernatural episode, not recommended medicine. Contributor note273 credits a young Tembé narrator and his unnamed mother; Junod’s foreign-influence conjecture is explicitly rejected by the narrator and remains unproven.

References

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

  1. Attributed oral account in French collected primary editionJunod — Ngélétchane’s resurrection narrativeResearch 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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