Bilbil was a talking goat who served for a time as the companion and mount of King Rinkitink.
Description[]
In appearance Bilbil was an average goat. He was unusual in his verbal facility (people in Pingaree were amazed when they met him on Rinkitink's visit there, since that island has no talking animals) - and in his irritable and irascible personality. He seemed extraordinarily strong for a goat; King Rinkitink is too corpulent to mount a horse, yet Bilbil carried the fat little monarch with ease.
In time, it became clear that Bilbil the goat was actually an enchanted human being. He was Prince Bobo of Boboland, who had fallen victim to a wicked magician. Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz were eventually able to disenchant Bilbil/Bobo and return him to his original human form, though with difficulty. (Rinkitink in Oz)
History[]
Disenchantment[]
At first, Bilbil resisted Glinda's effort to restore him to humanity; he felt irredeemably disgraced by his goatish form. Glinda was able to convince him to try the reversal. The evil spell afflicting Bobo proved powerful, however: Glinda transformed the goat into a lamb, and the lamb into an ostrich (a biped like man). Her effort to change the ostrich into Bobo failed, however. Instead she turned the ostrich into a Tottenhot, "a lower form of a man." The Tottenhot is then changed into a Mifket, "a great step in advance," and then and finally into Prince Bobo. The human Bobo repented his past crankiness and returned to manners more appropriate for a prince. He was then returned to Boboland. (Rinkitink in Oz)
- Since a Mifket is a demonic kind of creature, neither animal not man, placing the Tottenhot lower on the scale of life has been seen as racism by critics. [See: Tottenhots.]
Re-enchantment[]
A surly old goat, who may have been Bilbil, appeared with King Rinkitink during a visit to Oz many years later. (Lucky Bucky in Oz)
- If this is indeed Bilbil, it is unknown why or how he resumed his goat form. It is possible he found he enjoyed Goat life better, or that he was enchanted again by a wizard.