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

Overview

Spanling is a little man one span high, with a beard one span and four finger-breadths long. He lives with his widowed mother. His size makes him vulnerable enough to become trapped in his buffalo’s droppings until gathering girls free him. His habit of grazing the buffalo at night comes from his fear that sunlight might melt it, not a narrated demonstration that it can melt.

After killing the buffalo, he accidentally frightens thieves by dropping its hide from a tree and obtains their abandoned gold. He then deceives his uncles about the value of hides and later ashes, inducing them to destroy their own animals and houses. His extraordinary stature is explicit, while his enrichment depends on accidents, theft and lies rather than a stated magical power.

Span-high human trickster with a longer beardSpecific Santal narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Santal Parganas, eastern India; source-specific Santali storytelling

02

Records & interpretation

Complete relevant tale and preface directly read; exact locator identified.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Folklore of the Santal Parganas

    Cecil Henry Bompas, translator; O. Bodding, collector; Sagram Murmu, principal Santali writer credited in preface · 1909

    LXII, Spanling and His Uncles, pp. 189–191

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

Direct primary record

Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909)

Historical Santal narrative collection. LXII, Spanling and His Uncles, pp. 189–191

Relevant tales completely read along with full preface. Bodding/Murmu/Bompas mediation explicitly retained; original Santali manuscripts not independently inspected. Narrative supernatural claims distinguished from independently verified history or medicine.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical translation of collected narrativesBompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas (1909), LXII, Spanling and His Uncles, pp. 189–191Research 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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