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Overview
Tombi-ende and her brother are travelling home in severe drought when an immensely large man blocks the path. Aside from size he initially looks human. He says the springs are dry for three days’ journey and demands the princess in return for water. With the siblings exhausted and thirsty, her brother agrees. The stranger leads them to a fig tree and strikes the ground with his stick; a cold, clear fountain rises among its roots.
After drinking, the princess sees that the stranger has become an Inzimu: a misshapen red-haired body with small wild eyes, thick lips showing pointed white teeth and a long tail on the grass. The frog rescuer rises from the fountain, swallows him including the tail and goes beneath the water until he drowns. When the frog returns, the fountain is dry and the ogre lies under the tree roots.
The frog’s later human revelation supplies their prior connection: this ogre overcame the prince through witchcraft and imposed the frog condition. The revelation is a specific history of hostile enchantment, distinct from the earlier human-like disguise and water bargain. The retelling does not call him the same ogre as another household monster elsewhere in the collection.
Origins & earliest records
Sarah F. Bourhill and Beatrice L. Drake collected and arranged the English tale for children. No individual contributor is named for the episode. The chapter’s community label is retained separately from the colonial generalizations of the preface.
Records & interpretation
Complete XVI. The Fairy Frog, printed pp. 187–197, read through the final resolution.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Fairy Tales from South Africa
XVI. The Fairy Frog, pp. 187–197; complete English arrangement, unnamed individual contributor.
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.
Primary source witness
Sarah F. Bourhill (Mrs. E. J. Bourhill) and Beatrice L. Drake (Mrs. J. B. Drake), Fairy Tales from South Africa, London: Macmillan, 1908; selected original title page and complete headed tales in PG75833. Arranged for children; introduction pp.v–xi attributes principally Swazi, also Zulu and border-region contributions, with Shining Princess attributed to Mapoch. Individual narrators for these selected tales unnamed. Historical colonial framing is not current community consensus.
- A giant initially looks human except for size and offers water in exchange for Tombi-ende. Her brother agrees under threat of thirst. After creating a spring, the giant appears as a red-haired, tailed Inzimu with pointed teeth. No lawful or completed marriage to the ogre is narrated.
- The returning frog swallows and drowns the ogre. Later the prince identifies it as the earlier enchanter who imposed his frog form. This link is stated in the ending; it does not make the frog’s earlier transport of the princess an attempted drowning.
Selected historical arrangement, not unmediated original-language oral testimony. Individual contributor not named; no separate manuscript inspected. Original facsimile not visually inspected in this batch.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Collected historical tale in an English literary retellingBourhill and Drake — XVI. The Fairy FrogResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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