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Overview
Untombi-yapansi is the youngest named child in Callaway’s tale. Her brother Usilwane keeps a leopard that he calls his dog; after their sister kills it, he kills the sister and offers her blood mixed with a sheep’s as food. A speaking fly tells Untombi-yapansi what has happened after receiving a share. She uncovers the body and flees, and when her brother approaches with a spear she asks the earth to open. It receives her, allowing her to travel beneath the ground and emerge near her father’s garden to announce the murder.
Her repeated warning finally brings the people home. They bind Usilwane, while the father orders the house burned with himself, his wife and their son inside. He sends Untombi-yapansi toward another sister on an ox and tells her not to look back at the burning village. An imbulu appears at a river after a stone is touched, persuades her to lend it the ox and clothing, and refuses to return them. Calling the real girl Umsila-wezinja, Dogs’ Tail, it takes her name and presents itself as the relative expected at her sister’s household.
The impostor explains the absence of her familiar brass-like shine as the result of illness. The real girl is treated as a dependent and sent with Udalana to guard crops. She can drive birds away by addressing them through her lost name. At the river she bathes, revealing a glistening body and a brass rod; a blow on the ground calls up her father’s people, cattle, belongings and food. She mounts her ox and sings, and the people and trees answer together. Another blow returns the whole company beneath the earth.
She hides her shine again with black earth. Udalana follows and sees the river scene, then brings the chief to watch. His first attempt is betrayed by disturbed dew, so Untombi-yapansi declines to use her usual powers. He tries another route the following morning, hears her command to the birds and witnesses the summoned company. He reassures her and arranges recognition by her sister. The imbulu’s tail later betrays it at a pit baited with a pot of milk, and the household destroys and buries the impostor. Untombi-yapansi marries the chief and dances with her own people.
Callaway’s notes preserve a distinct alternate version with the heroine named Umabelemane. It replaces the spilled milk episode with disappearing ground-nuts, changes the garden behavior so birds consume the crop, and explicitly includes the dead father, mother and sister among the summoned company. Those are separate variant details; the main narration’s returning people is not silently changed into an explicit resurrection of every named family member.
Origins & earliest records
The complete bilingual Untombi-yapansi narrative closes with the credit Lydia (Umkasetemba). Henry Callaway presents translation and annotations, including an alternate version whose individual contributor is not specified in these notes.
Records & interpretation
Complete main tale Untombi-yapansi, printed pp. 296–316, independently read; alternate-version notes distinguished from main narration.
In the literature
“her whole body shining like brass”
Untombi-yapansi, printed p.307 · Henry Callaway
Bathing reveals the heroine’s hidden radiance.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus
Untombi-yapansi, pp. 296–316; speaking fly p. 299, earth escape p. 300, imbulu pp. 303–306/315–316, summoned company pp. 307–314 and variant note 71.
- 02
Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, Volume I — Untombi-yapansi
Henry Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, Volume I, Springvale, Natal: John A. Blair,1868; selected bilingual Princeton scan. Complete Untombi-yapansi pp296–316 independently read, including distinct variant notes; Lydia(Umkasetemba) closing credit onp316.
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.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus
Henry Callaway, Nursery Tales, Traditions, and Histories of the Zulus, Volume I, Springvale, Natal: John A. Blair,1868; selected bilingual Princeton scan. Complete Untombi-yapansi pp296–316 independently read, including distinct variant notes; Lydia(Umkasetemba) closing credit onp316.
- Usilwane’s domesticated leopard dies after Usilwanekazana intentionally gives it hot food. Her brother kills her, arranges her body as if sleeping and mixes her blood into prepared sheep food. A speaking fly warns Untombi-yapansi before she eats. She confirms the murder and flees; the earth opens to admit her when the armed brother pursues.
- Her repeated alarm finally brings the community home. The chief orders the bound son, himself and the mother burned in their house and sends Untombi-yapansi on an ox to a married sister. She hears the village burning. The separately noted version instead gives an initial father-son combat, different names and a later unexplained burning.
- An imbulu borrows and retains her ox, clothing and name, assigning her the degrading name Umsila-wezinja and servant status. At the sister’s home the disguised heroine refuses or spills offered whey, works at the garden, drives birds away with speech, bathes to reveal brass-like radiance and secretly calls up her father’s company, possessions and food from the earth.
- Udalana follows the heroine and sees the hidden company. The chief’s first attempt to watch fails because disturbed dew reveals a visitor; a later concealed approach lets him witness the radiance and earth-company. He identifies her as his sister-in-law and arranges a private reunion with her actual sister.
- After exposure the imbulu is forced to attempt a milk-baited pit jump. Its tail pulls it into the pit; boiling water and burial destroy it. The chief then marries Untombi-yapansi, who lives happily with her sister and her people.
The story’s leopard-feeding rule is not zoological or veterinary evidence. The fly has its own role, not the dead sister’s stated incarnation. The opening reference to only three children and later married sister remain the text’s uneven household enumeration. Neither variant repairs the other’s events. Callaway explains the milk refusal as an affinal custom. Another version uses disappearing groundnuts, and another gives the garden to birds; these are separate alternatives. The heroine covers her brilliance with earth; the text does not state an invented separate species transformation or merely acquired brass skin. This is the actual selected ending. Do not replace the pit death with Theal’s separate grave-grown-pumpkin episode or assume a unique cross-tale creature biography.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Digitized bilingual primary collected narrativeCallaway — Untombi-yapansi, bilingual taleResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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