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Overview
An old woman returns from the fountain to find a fly fallen into the milk she left at home. She removes its tail. The fly speaks, asking for it back so that it can take a bride to its parents. The woman first demands a goat. The goat asks for grass, and the fly then goes to a fig tree, which wants manure. An ox supplies that final requirement. The tale treats the insect’s tail and marriage errand as features of its speaking-animal world.
The fly carries manure to the fig tree, receives foliage and gives it to the goat. In return it obtains milk and brings that to the old woman, who restores its tail. The fly can then go to its parents and conduct the newly married woman there. The initial demand for a goat becomes a milk repayment in the completed chain; the account preserves that wording shift rather than supplying a missing transfer of ownership.
Origins & earliest records
René Basset, Contes populaires berbères (1887), no. 45, La vieille et la mouche, complete pp. 95–96. Preface xiii assigns no. 45 to Bibliothèque nationale Berber manuscript 17, associated with P. Rivière and other Kabylia missionaries; no individual oral contributor is inferred. Original note 95 on printed p. 197 verifies the unpublished Zouaoua text in Bibliothèque nationale fonds berbère manuscript no. 17; it does not name an individual teller.
Records & interpretation
Complete French episode inspected in original DjVu pages 133–134, printed pp. 95–96, including the fulfilled exchange and bride-escort ending. Contributor note inspected in original DjVu page 235; manuscript-source evidence distinguished from the wider missionary collecting context.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Contes populaires berbères
No. 45, complete pp. 95–96; preface xiii. Original note 95, p. 197.
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.
- Primary collected narrative; original facsimile inspectedOriginal edition, complete narrative 45Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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