L5i. Many skulls. (.11.12.20.)

Lots of rolling heads or skulls are trying to pick up a woman.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Congo (Angolan zombo) [Makenga goes to marry, paying a ransom to the girl's parents; on the way, a rolling head tells her to be allowed to carry calebass with wine; the girl's parents eat food, offered to the groom; on the way back, demands to give her a woman; other heads roll up; the king of birds Ngumbe promises to resolve the dispute, demands a drink, sends two heads to bring water in a leaky calebass; those they try unsuccessfully to get water, do not return; other heads go for the missing; when the last one rolls, M. safely takes his wife home]: Anpetkova-Sharova 1975:61-66.

West Africa. Hausa [Mother, daughter of King Garun Gabas, rejects suitors; promises to marry someone who says where the dry and wet seasons wait for each other; one of the rejected princes comes to the dodo (rolling cannibal heads); promises that if King Dodo gets a woman, she will carry it in the basket; King Dodo's grandfather explains that seasons wait for each other on acacia trees (she is green in dry weather and dries up during the rains); the prince brings the dodo to the city gates; he rolls after the old woman; tells her to call the genie, he gives her money; the dodo sends her to marry the princess for him, reports an answer to question; gives a rich ransom; the tsar and his daughter are happy; when they see the dodo, they mourn, but it's too late; other dodos join the king dodo, take the girl away]: Zhukov, Kotlyar 1976, No. 138:332-346; ekoi [Chief of the Heads (not with torso) in the Land of Heads learns about the girl {further, apparently, like ibibio and other bands}]: Talbot 1925:275 in Colldén 1979:407.

(Wed. Micronesia-Polynesia. Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) [husband goes fishing; skulls come to his wife's house, tell him to eat one child, otherwise they will eat her own; so several times; then the husband sends his wife to catch fish, stays at home; pretends to be afraid, does not give up the child; skulls enter the house, he cuts them with a sword]: Koru, Gullivan 1986:5-8).