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

Overview

The three brothers arrive as impressive suitors, wearing fine clothing and lambamena that conceal their animal tails. Renel’s footnote calls them three animals without specifying a species. Three royal sisters, who have refused hova suitors and want andriana husbands, accept them. The brothers take the women and an enslaved companion named Ibitrika to a distant cavern beneath large rocks. Their generous meals of honey, eels and hunted food have a concealed purpose: they intend to fatten the women and Ibitrika before eating them.

Once the women have grown fat, the brothers dance on the rocks at night, striking themselves with their tails and revealing their animal identity in their song. Ibitrika stays awake, hears them and wakes the sisters to listen on the following night. The women escape while their husbands are hunting, leaving banana trunks covered with mats in their sleeping places. Returning to eat the supposed sleepers, the brothers bite the trunks; one breaks a tooth. They recognize the substitution and follow the fugitives to their father’s home.

The sisters initially hide in trees beside a well. Another enslaved woman mistakes a sister’s reflection for her own and breaks her water jug; the sisters’ laughter reveals them. Their father brings them home over a line of slaughtered cattle, so they need not walk on the ground. When the brothers arrive, still hiding their tails, he pretends to welcome them and supplies a whole barrel of toaka. Drunk, they display their tails openly, and the king orders their killing. The tale ends by linking the episode to marriages between hova and andriana; that closing explanation belongs to the collected narrative, rather than establishing a historical change in marriage practice.

Concealed animal tailsCavern householdFattening intended victimsTail-striking danceBanana-trunk decoys
01

Origins & earliest records

Renel 1910, Contes de Madagascar, première partie, tale 10, pp. 77–81. The local heading identifies the regional collection. Introduction V–VIII describes Malagasy teacher intermediaries and French translation; no individual narrator is named for this episode.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale 10, pp. 77–81, and local heading read in the retained primary text. Source-method introduction I–XI and original selected page images checked. Henri Rajaofèra’s general translation assistance is not converted into individual tale authorship. Original title-page image confirms Ankorona against damaged OCR.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Contes de Madagascar, première partie: Contes merveilleux

    Charles Renel, editor and translator; Malagasy collection intermediaries · 1910

    Tale 10, pp. 77–81, complete, with collection heading; introduction V–VIII source chain.

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.

  1. Historical collected French narrativeRenel 1910, tale 10Research 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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