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

Overview

A man's three wives all practice magic, but only two are said to use the kind that eats people. They go into the forest for dances accompanied by a drummer. When he asks each about performing the witchcraft dance, the first two answer that they must first give their husband as an offering. The youngest instead names her cloth. The drummer brings the husband secretly and rolls him in a mat so that he can hear these differing promises without being seen.

The husband emerges when the two wives repeat their intention and attacks them. One is killed and the other tied at the top of a tree, while the cloth-offering wife remains with him. The narrator therefore distinguishes magical practice from an intention to sacrifice a person. A separately identified comparative version changes the disclosure and punishment: the good wife warns him, the offers concern human liver or heart, and the two dangerous wives are expelled. Those changes remain variations, rather than being substituted for the selected main episode.

Forest danceDrummer as revealerHuman versus cloth offeringsHidden listenerContrasting magical practice
01

Origins & earliest records

Tale 92 is credited Sar(r)ikin Samari in Tremearne's narrator key. Selected witness: second edition 1913; exact narration date unspecified.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete main tale 92, printed pp. 422-424, directly read; comparative versions distinguished from main action.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs

    Sar(r)ikin Samari, storyteller; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Second edition; tale 92, pp. 422-424.

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. Collected primary narrativeHausa Superstitions and Customs - tale 92Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·2927 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑