The Wife Who Came from the Sky
Zulu folktale · izinganekwane
Kwesukasukela. There was once a man, or in some tellings a chief's son, who lived alone and longed for a wife unlike any earthly woman. One day maidens descended from the sky, the daughters of the sky-people, coming down to bathe or to gather at a pool upon the earth. While they bathed, the man crept up and seized the feather-cloak, or the wings or the garment, of the most beautiful among them, so that when her companions rose back into the sky she alone could not follow and was left behind.
He took her as his wife, and for a time they lived happily, and she bore him children. But he had hidden away her sky-garment, and she did not forget her home above. She set him conditions, certain things he must never do or say, and he agreed. Yet in time the man broke the taboo, or in his pride and anger spoke the forbidden word, or the hidden garment was found.
Grieved and freed by his broken promise, the sky-wife took up her garment, gathered her children or prepared to leave, and rose once more into the heavens to return to her own people, leaving the man to mourn the wife he had won by trickery and lost through his own folly. Cosu cosu, iyaphela.
The lesson: A bond won by deceit is fragile; one who breaks his promise and forgets respect loses what he most treasures.