The Child with a Moon on his Chest

Summary

In the version published by Jacouttet, chief Boulané has ten wives, with Morongoé as his favorite. Boulané bears the mark of a full moon on his chest, earning him the name Khoédi-Séfoubeng. He tells his nine co-wives that the queen, considered the first wife, will bear a son like himself with a full moon on his breast, while the others will bear sons with half-moons or stars. When Morongoé is about to give birth, the second co-wife instructs the midwife to dispose of the boy and replace him with a puppy.

The midwife throws the boy among the pots at the back of the hut, where a little rat raises him. Boulané is told the queen gave birth to an animal; Morongoé is demoted, and the second co-wife becomes queen. The new queen later sees the boy with the full moon playing with rats and persuades Boulané to burn Morongoé's hut. The rats guide the boy to an ox named Thamaha, which rears him.

After the hut is burned, the new queen sees the boy with Thamaha and feigns illness, claiming bone divination requires Thamaha's death. Thamaha delivers the boy to crabs before being killed; the crabs later lead the boy to merchants. A villager reports the boy to Boulané, who visits the merchants, hears the boy's story, and recognizes his birthmark. Boulané takes him home, restores Morongoé as queen, and banishes the second wife and her sons.

Analysis

The tale belongs to the Calumniated Wife cycle and is ATU 707. It involves jealous co-wives who replace a sister's child with an animal to humiliate her. After trials, the child reunites with the parents, the jealous relatives are punished, and the disgraced queen is restored. Linguist Jan Knappert observed that Bulane is a common appellation for characters in Lesotho. Africanist Sigrid Schmidt linked the presence of the mouse or rat in Namibian and South African variants to a tradition connecting Sotho, Xhosa, and Venda tales, reflecting an Indian motif where a wonder child is reared by domestic animals.

Variants

Africanist Sigrid Schmidt stated that tale type 707, along with types 706 and 510, has been widespread in Southern Africa for many generations. She summarized two manuscript variants. In the first, a woman bears twin boys resembling their father, a king with a moon mark on his chest; a jealous servant casts them into water, but a falcon rescues them. They later return to their father's castle, and a jet of milk from their mother's breast confirms their parentage.

In the second, a couple wishes for a son with a star on the chest and a moon on the front; their son is born, but a servant replaces him with a puppy and abandons him with a giraffe. The giraffe raises the boy and gives him cloth to hide his birthmarks. He works on a farm belonging to the king, where the princess sees his shining marks and marries him. Upon returning home, jets of milk from his mother's breast confirm his identity.

Schmidt suggested these tales, containing European elements like kings and castles, may originate from a lost Dutch tradition at the Cape of Good Hope.