A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Hamed ben Çeggad, a hunter favored by a king, is sent on increasingly difficult tasks by jealous townspeople. After obtaining material for a coral palace, he must fetch a woman wearing silver ornaments. On the journey he meets a shepherd playing a flute with a millstone hanging from his neck. Hamed marvels that he himself cannot lift a small rock. The shepherd knows him because a flying bird reported his achievement and offers to join him. Removing the millstone, he leaves his sheep changed into stones. A second man rolls naked in snow without dying from cold, and a third has ears so large that the travelers compare them with their own small ones. These men likewise know Hamed’s identity and join the company.
The woman’s brothers, identified as ogres, set successive challenges. They move a slaughtered ox on a rack with the assistance of ninety-nine men, then demand that one visitor shift it. The millstone-bearer does so. When the hosts demand that all the ox and couscous be eaten, the companions eat a little and the man with huge ears conceals the rest inside them. The snow-resistant man then retrieves a branch from a lone mountaintop tree two days’ travel away through snow. Hamed himself completes the last test by killing a flying partridge. The company wins the woman’s release through complementary strengths, rather than one helper acquiring all three capacities. Their later individual destinations are not narrated; the story follows the woman and her ogre brothers into its final confrontation.
Origins & earliest records
René Basset, Contes populaires berbères (Paris, 1887), no. 27, complete pp. 56–59. Basset’s Preface xiii lists no. 27 among translations from Bibliothèque nationale fonds berbère manuscript no. 17, assembled by P. Rivière and other Kabylia missionaries. An individual oral narrator is not identified in that passage.
Records & interpretation
Entire French episode inspected in actual original-edition DjVu pages 94–97, printed pp. 56–59, including the complete ending. Preface xiii–xiv original images checked; written collection and direct dictation contexts are distinguished.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Contes populaires berbères
No. 27, complete pp. 56–59; Preface xiii–xiv. Basset’s Preface xiii lists no. 27 among translations from Bibliothèque nationale fonds berbère manuscript no. 17, assembled by P. Rivière and other Kabylia missionaries. An individual oral narrator is not identified in that passage.
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 27Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.