FOLKTALE WEEK
The Cannibal Sister - Set of Illustrations done to represent this folk story of Karnataka, India. Story by A.K. Ramanujan.
An oil seller's wife had several children. Her seventh one turned out to be a monster!!
All day, it would play and cry like other babies. But at dead of night it would change into a horrible demon. It would roam in the dark, eat the townspeople one by one, come back at dawn, and sleep in the cradle like a baby. In a few days, the town was full of the news of a son gone, a father's bloody remains in the alley, a daughter who had disappeared. Nobody knew what had happened to the missing persons!
One day the brother of the demon woke up at night for some reason and he saw the baby change into a monster right before his eyes. Then, when it went out he followed it and saw it eat a couple of people and return quietly to the cradle as a baby.
Next day, he talked to his parents in secret. “This is no baby. It's an ogress. I've seen it eat people, with my own eyes. Let's leave the house and go far away,” he said.
But they didn't believe what he said.
“Look at it,” they said, “that's a harmless baby. You should get your head examined!”
Next day, he talked to his parents in secret. “This is no baby. It's an ogress. I've seen it eat people, with my own eyes. Let's leave the house and go far away,” he said.
But they didn't believe what he said.
“Look at it,” they said, “that's a harmless baby. You should get your head examined!”
Color Palette
You may read the rest of the story here -
