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Overview

A pregnant she-goat is accidentally left behind when a group of herders departs. She gives birth beneath a tree to a ram who can range to distant grazing places and return within a day. Spider discovers the mother and repeatedly leads the king's men to take her away for meat. Her bleating summons the Son of Zaberrima, who boasts of overcoming buffalo and elephant. The ram returns, kills the attackers and takes her back to the tree. Larger expeditions, including a hundred and then two hundred horsemen, meet the same fate.

The account eventually specifies that the draught raised by his approach has killed the men. A new captor brings three cats and sends one into the wind each time the ram rushes forward. The wind carries the animal to the defender, who stops to eat it; these delays allow the mother to be taken to the palace. The ram follows her tracks and breaks down the wall, but arrows kill him and she too is killed. A comparative version calls him Zanzabariya and gives him bird servants whose wings and the wind help the attack; that is a separately reported variant rather than his main narrated anatomy.

Long daily journeysMother's summoning callLethal approach windCat-eating distractionPalace wall broken
01

Origins & earliest records

Tale 66 is credited Sar(r)ikin Samari by Tremearne's narrator key. Selected witness: second edition 1913; exact telling date unspecified.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete main tale 66, printed pp. 342-345, directly read; comparative variants kept separate.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs

    Sar(r)ikin Samari, storyteller; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Second edition; tale 66, pp. 342-345.

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.

References

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

  1. Collected primary narrativeHausa Superstitions and Customs - tale 66Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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