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

Overview

King Maçingué-oua-Ndjao summons the animals to clean his well. The Hare refuses to help, so they forbid him to draw water there and appoint guards. He arrives with honey and an empty calabash. Gazelle initially resists, but a taste persuades her to let him tie her legs. He then takes water, muddies the well and beats her. Antelope, Buffalo, Hippopotamus and the other guards fall to successive versions of the same trick. Rainette finally approaches the chief and offers to catch the small animal whom the larger company cannot restrain.

She hides beneath the water instead of confronting the Hare at the edge. Seeing no guard, he fills his vessel, returns to bathe and begins stirring up the well. Rainette seizes a hind leg, catches a foreleg as he struggles and finally secures the other hind leg too. She brings both prisoner and calabashes before the chief. The assembled animals prepare to execute him, but he asks to be placed on the chief’s son’s back. He leaps away at the crucial moment, and the narrator ends by saying that they have killed the chief. The discrepancy between the requested position and the final victim remains in the printed account.

This Rainette’s role is a hidden water guardian and strong captor. Sofia’s complete episode gives her neither the Crocodile parentage nor the long conquest narrative attached to Spoon’s Rainette elsewhere in the volume. Junod’s following comparative discussion mentions jackal and tortoise counterparts in other collections, but those references are comparisons rather than additional acts performed by Sofia’s frog.

Submerged ambushGrasps three limbsCaptures HareBrings captive’s calabashes to chiefCommunal well guard
01

Origins & earliest records

Junod explicitly attributes tale IV to Sofia in the closing discussion on p. 130. His suggestion that the unnamed animal king is probably a lion is an editorial conjecture; the narrator does not supply that identification. The translated collector edition preserves an individual contribution within its historical collection context.

02

Records & interpretation

Junod (1897), IV Le Lièvre et la Rainette, complete pp. 127–130; Sofia credit and comparative discussion p. 130; conjectural lion note p. 127.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

    Sofia, contributor; Henri-Alexandre Junod, collector and translator · 1897

    Junod (1897), IV Le Lièvre et la Rainette, complete pp. 127–130; Sofia credit and comparative discussion p. 130; conjectural lion note p. 127.

  2. 02

    Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga — IV Le Lièvre et la Rainette

    Sofia, narrator; Henri-Alexandre Junod, French recording/translation · 1897

    Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga, Lausanne: Georges Bridel, 1897, Princeton scan. Complete selected FrenchIV127–130 andXXVI292–303 read with notes; no whole collection claim. Printed295 and303 individually visually checked.

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.

Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga de la baie de Delagoa

Junod, Les chants et les contes des Ba-Ronga, Lausanne: Georges Bridel, 1897, Princeton scan. Complete selected FrenchIV127–130 andXXVI292–303 read with notes; no whole collection claim. Printed295 and303 individually visually checked.

  1. The Hare refuses well cleaning, then tricks successive guards with honey and takes water. Rainette hides in the well, catches several of his limbs and carries him with his calabashes to the chief. Before execution the Hare asks to lie on the chief’s son’s back, jumps aside, and the narrator says the chief has been killed. The printed mismatch between intended support and final victim is preserved.

    IV Le Lièvre et la Rainette, complete127–130; source/comparison discussion130

Historical colonial collected translation; variant comparisons not independently reread in this batch. No song, prayer, ritual wording, recipe or image copied.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Attributed oral narrative in a French collected primary editionJunod — Sofia’s Well-Guard RainetteResearch 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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