Swallowing Mother of Kwallabbe

Overview

Kwallabbe is driven from home and repeatedly rejected because the people in the narrative judge her appearance. When she returns from a royal household where the prince will not tolerate her presence, her mother swallows her and brings her up again transformed into a beautiful woman. The mother sends her back to the city, where the prince now desires to marry her. The daughter consults her mother, who consents. This is the directly narrated transformative act; the mother's own species and bodily appearance are not specified in the main version.

Tremearne adds a comparison in which the mother is an elephant and the swallowed girl emerges half gold and half silver. He also mentions a different account of a gourd-born girl and another named Atafa who swallows her family's animals and property. These are distinct comparative tellings, not successive transformations of Kwallabbe. The main story later follows the daughter's marriage and her husband's escape from a buried well by a suddenly growing date tree, ending in his accession. The mother is the bodily remaker at the beginning; she is not credited with the date seed or all later rescue actions.

Origins & earliest records

The contents attribute this story to M., Mohamma. Tremearne records it in the 1913 second edition and adds explanatory notes and comparisons; the broader collection dates do not date this individual performance.

Records & interpretation

Complete primary main episode and relevant separately labeled comparison read. Tale 55 complete pp. 304-307; main transformation p. 304 and distinct mother-elephant/Atafa variants p. 306.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Hausa Superstitions and Customs

   Mohamma, narrator; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

   Tale 55 complete pp. 304-307; main transformation p. 304 and distinct mother-elephant/Atafa variants p. 306.

Family, evolution & connections

Kwallabbe and her mother — Tremearne’s main tale

Complete no. 55 main narrative and comparisons, pp. 304–307; graph uses main narrative only.

Explicit mother–daughter statements and completed royal marriage. Kwallabbe’s father and offspring unstated. Mother’s species unknown in the main witness; comparative elephant mother, gourd birth and Atafa remain separate tellings. The older king is father-in-law, not a completed second husband. Daughter’s changed appearance preserves her identity.

References

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

1. Collected primary narrative in translationTremearne 1913 - complete selected taleResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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