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

Overview

After an inheritance and barter journey, Auta settles alone in a forest house. A frog, monkey, horse, camel, donkey, ants, mule, large snake and two kinds of bird ask to live with him. The narrative then says the occupants conceive together. A bull organizes thirty storehouses, thirty receptacles and thirty deep holes. It gives birth to gold that fills the storehouses; the mule produces silver for the holes, and the camel fills the receptacles with cowries. The smaller members of the household bring forth enslaved human attendants, called slaves in the translation, making their host richer than a neighboring king.

A Spider reports this wealth, prompting royal attempts to force impossible tasks upon the owner. Ants sort mixed grains into separate vessels overnight. The monkey leaps to a palm in a dangerous lake, while the frog reaches it underwater, and they each retrieve a fruit. The white-breasted crow and crown-bird travel in opposite directions to find millet beyond the local dry season. The snake then proposes a different maneuver against the adviser directing the threats. These helpers are retained as one extraordinary household, with each narrated action assigned to the appropriate member; the grain sorting and bird journeys do not make every animal a universal creator of money.

Births of gold, silver and cowriesBirths of human attendantsCollective lodgingGrain-sorting helpersLake-fruit retrievalDistant crop gathering
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Origins & earliest records

Tremearne's 1913 second edition prints this tale with B.G., Ba Gu(d)du, credited in its contents. Auta is a youngest-son designation used in other stories too; the selected household and snake sequence belongs to tale 80, not an assumption that every Auta is one continuous character. The larger collection dates do not fix an exact session for this telling.

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Records & interpretation

Complete tale 80 read from its inheritance opening through the deaths and separately labeled comparisons, pp. 380-392. Main household and royal tests pp. 384-388. Bull, mule, camel and smaller animals have separately specified births.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Hausa Superstitions and Customs - The Lucky Youngest Son

    Ba Gu(d)du, narrator; A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1913

    Tale 80, pp. 380-392. Main household and royal tests pp. 384-388. Bull, mule, camel and smaller animals have separately specified births.

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 narrative in translationTremearne 1913 - tale 80Research 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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