Fulwe

Fulwe, the Tortoise, is the hero of a second cycle of Ila animal tales, standing beside the great Hare-cycle of Sulwe. He is the deliberate foil to the Hare's quickness: where Sulwe is swift and glib, Fulwe is slow and deep, and in a run of stories it is the Tortoise whose patience and shrewdness prove the greater, turning the trickster's own devices back on him. In tales of children fleeing a devouring ogre it is again the Tortoise who saves them, swallowing them whole and bringing them forth unhurt when the danger has passed. Between them Sulwe and Fulwe carry the bulk of Ba-Ila animal storytelling, the two figures through whom the people set out their sense of wit, weakness and cunning.

Domains

• cunning
• deliverance

Powers

• outwits even the clever Hare through greater shrewdness
• swallows children and brings them forth unharmed

Relations

• rival: SulweThe Tortoise is the one figure whose cunning surpasses the Hare's.Smith and Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, vol. 2 (1920), tales in which the Tortoise bests the Hare (primary)

Sources

• Fulwe the Tortoise heads a secondary Ila tale-cycle; in a number of stories the slow Tortoise outwits even Sulwe the Hare, and in ogre-tales the Tortoise rescues fleeing children by swallowing them and later producing them unharmed.: Smith and Dale, The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, vol. 2 (1920), folklore section (primary)