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

Overview

The town must provide a young man each day for an ogre to eat. Ruby Prince volunteers in place of an old woman’s son, sleeps at the meeting place, then rises and cuts off the ogre’s head and hands when it arrives. Displayed on the gate, those remains initially frighten townspeople who mistake them for the living creature. The brief episode gives no further anatomy, ancestry or local-language name for this ogre.

Man-eating ogre demanding a daily victim from a townSpecific collected narrative witness
01

Origins & earliest records

Punjabi storytelling collected and adapted in colonial British India

02

Records & interpretation

Complete named tale and Temple’s corresponding notes read; university-hosted 1894 text compared in full.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People

    Flora Annie Steel, collector/adapter; R. C. Temple, annotations · 1894

    The Ruby Prince and corresponding Temple notes; illustrations J. Lockwood Kipling

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

Flora Annie Steel, Tales of the Punjab, Told by the People (Macmillan, 1894); R. C. Temple notes

The Ruby Prince. Complete tale and titled notes; Gutenberg id01558/id01915; UPenn punjab-43

Full narrative and corresponding short notes directly read; Gutenberg footer excluded from final note section. Whole 1894 UPenn narrative compared, over 98% token overlap, all residual differences inspected. No biological Snake-king parentage or bodily restoration inferred.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical collected folktaleSteel, The Ruby Prince, complete narrativeResearch access: 2026-10-05
  2. Collector’s linguistic and comparative notesTemple, Notes to The Ruby PrinceResearch access: 2026-10-05
  3. University-hosted historical primary textUniversity of Pennsylvania, 1894 edition transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·1612 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑