A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
After Adam and Eve separate in this story, Eve crosses a strait by a vast soap-vine and becomes queen across the water. Her daughter, the Youngest Princess, disregards a warning against damaging the other people’s crops and becomes an elephant. A prince wounds her forehead with an iron pike, then follows by hollowed-gourd boat and finds her ill in the royal household. He removes the embedded point, conceals it, and revives her from a faint by whistling and patting; the text does not explain exactly when her human form returned.
The prince marries her. Years later she accompanies him home with thirty-nine attendants, again damages the forbidden crops and becomes an elephant together with them all. No later reversal is supplied. The prince’s description of the elephant as having a tail at each end is his initial misidentification of its trunk, not a new two-tailed anatomy. This is a particular Patāni narrative using revered ancestral figures, not a universal religious account; Skeat himself calls parts obscure and proposes Siamese influence as an interpretation.
Origins & earliest records
Malay Peninsula; Patāni
Records & interpretation
Complete relevant tale and attached scholarly notes directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest
XVI, The Elephant Princess and the Prince, pp. 38–40; notes pp. 80–81
- 02
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest — XVI The Elephant Princess and the Prince
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest, collected and translated by Walter Skeat; Cambridge: University Press, 1901. Original title leaf13 visually checked. Complete selected named tale, conclusion, footnotes and corresponding source notes read from Elfinspell historical transcription; individual page ranges in this batch are host body labels, not independently scan-collated. Introduction states collection during1899 expedition with some limitation of original phraseology; no unedited original-language transcript claimed.
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.
Primary records and illustrations
Walter Skeat, Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest (Cambridge: University Press, 1901)
XVI, The Elephant Princess and the Prince. XVI, The Elephant Princess and the Prince, pp. 38–40; notes pp. 80–81
Complete tale and associated notes directly read. Regional spellings and differing accounts retained; commentary does not establish present-day practice or biological facts. Individual teller not named here.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest, collected and translated by Walter Skeat; Cambridge: University Press, 1901. Original title leaf13 visually checked. Complete selected named tale, conclusion, footnotes and corresponding source notes read from Elfinspell historical transcription; individual page ranges in this batch are host body labels, not independently scan-collated. Introduction states collection during1899 expedition with some limitation of original phraseology; no unedited original-language transcript claimed.
- After Adam and Eve separate, Eve crosses a vine bridge and becomes queen overseas. She bears the Youngest Princess and forbids her to damage crops if she crosses the water. The daughter disobeys and turns into an elephant. A prince wounds her forehead, then seeks her with his monastery superior’s recognition of the disguised princess. Crossing in a hollow gourd, he finds her sick in a palace with his weapon tip still lodged in her. He obtains a special shore chamber and vessel, secretly removes the tip and revives her from the resulting faint, earning marriage. After years together they visit his homeland. Despite the mother’s repeated warning, the princess damages crops again and becomes an elephant along with her thirty-nine attendants. Skeat places the collection in Patāni and notes Siamese influence.
XVI The Elephant Princess and the Prince, complete hosted page labels 38–40; notes80–81
CompleteXVI38–40 and all notes80–81 read. Eve explicitly mother; Adam’s biological paternity of this daughter not specified. Transition from wounded elephant to human patient is not separately explained. Faint is not a demonstrated death/resurrection. Final elephant transformation includes attendants; no subsequent release narrated.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical collected narrative with locality and editorial notesSkeat, Fables & Folk-Tales (Cambridge University Press, 1901), XVI, The Elephant Princess and the Prince, pp. 38–40; notes pp. 80–81Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.