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

Overview

In this short account a travelling woman can exchange her human appearance for a lion’s body. She carries a child on her back when a man accompanying her sees wild horses and asks her to catch one because he is hungry. She warns him that he will be frightened. He insists that hunger worries him more than her transformation, but his confidence disappears as hair emerges behind her neck, her nails become claws and her face changes. She sets the child down, while the man climbs a nearby tree. After removing her skin petticoat, she becomes a complete lion and moves into the plain.

The lion stalks through the bushes, springs on a wild horse and laps its blood. It then returns to the crying child. The man calls down from the tree, begging the lion not to hurt him and saying that he will stay there until he dies unless she becomes a woman again. The account describes a growl but no attack on either companion or child. Mane and tail disappear; she goes back to the place where she left her petticoat, puts it on and takes up the child in her ordinary shape. The man descends and eats the horse’s meat. The closing consequence is his refusal ever again to ask her to catch game for him.

Bleek identifies this as a tale taken from Sir James E. Alexander’s 1838 travel account, volume II, pages 197–198. Its physical sequence differs from the neighbouring skin-disguised lion narrative: this woman herself changes and changes back, whereas that predator wears a murdered woman’s covering. The selected English witness supplies no personal name for the woman or individual teller. Its colonial labels are part of the historical text; they do not establish a precise modern community attribution.

Human–lion transformationClaws and maneReturn to human form
01

Origins & earliest records

Bleek 1864, tale 25, explicitly cites Alexander’s Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa (1838), volume II, pp. 197–198. This profile is based on the complete passage printed by Bleek; Alexander’s original pages have not been independently reread.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 25 attests the transformation, hunt, reversal and final promise. The cited earlier travel-account route is distinguished from a newly inspected original manuscript.

In the literature

“her nails gradually assumed the appearance of claws”
W. H. I. Bleek · Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales
IV, tale25 — A Woman transformed into a Lion; whole tale · W. H. I. Bleek, English translator/editor

A travelling woman carrying a child is asked by her male companion to become a lion and hunt a wild horse. Her hair, nails and face change, and she puts the child down. The man climbs a tree in fear; she kills a horse, returns and initially growls at his demand. She resumes her woman’s shape, takes the child, and the man eats the meat but never asks again. Her companion’s biological relation to woman/child is not established.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales

    W. H. I. Bleek, translator and editor · 1864

    Tale 25, complete; printed source citation to Alexander 1838 II, pp. 197–198.

  2. 02

    Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales — IV, tale25 — A Woman transformed into a Lion

    W. H. I. Bleek; source-specific manuscript/earlier collector qualifications in attestations · 1864

    London: Trübner and Co.,1864; selected Gutenberg73413 title-page transcription and originalpublication metadata agree. Tale-number locators retained; digital bracket page markers are not asserted as visually verified printed pagination.

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.

Reynard the Fox in South Africa; or, Hottentot Fables and Tales

London: Trübner and Co.,1864; selected Gutenberg73413 title-page transcription and originalpublication metadata agree. Tale-number locators retained; digital bracket page markers are not asserted as visually verified printed pagination.

  1. A travelling woman carrying a child is asked by her male companion to become a lion and hunt a wild horse. Her hair, nails and face change, and she puts the child down. The man climbs a tree in fear; she kills a horse, returns and initially growls at his demand. She resumes her woman’s shape, takes the child, and the man eats the meat but never asks again. Her companion’s biological relation to woman/child is not established.

    IV, tale25 — A Woman transformed into a Lion; whole tale

No entire volume or original cited manuscript/Alexander edition read. Preface11–12 collection-method passage read; remaining prefatory racial/linguistic hypotheses not endorsed or presented as established origin.

References

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

  1. Historical translated narrativeBleek 1864, selected complete taleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·3502 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑