Speak Bird Speak Again

by Folktales

  It is not because sex is considered evil that behavior in sexual matters is so strictly circumscribed by society. Quite the contrary; Palestinian and Arab society is not prudish. Any society that loves children so much cannot possibly denigrate the activity that leads to their birth. Rather, it is restricted because it is viewed as the force with the greatest potential for disrupting family unity and harmony. Beauty and sexual desire can drive people out of their wits, making them feel as if possessed by the jinn - as at the beginning of Tale 30. They say of a beautiful woman, bitjannin, "she will drive one mad." Women in the tales frequently appear in the guise of jinn (Tales 17, 30, 32, 37). In the final analysis, the separation of the sexes, the pretense in front of the young that sex does not exist, and the value placed on sexuality as a signature of family honor all merely confirm its supreme importance. Sexuality, in short, is affirmed through constant denial.

  Denial is not, however, the prevailing ethic in many of the tales here; rather, we find women's sexuality and their emotional needs largely affirmed. Indeed, women play a much more active role with regard to their sexuality in the tales than in real life. For example, they actively choose their mates at least as frequently as the men do, whereas in the society they play a passive role, being chosen by the family of their potential mates and then having merely to accept the decision their guardians make on the subject. Rarely does a woman ever negate this decision, especially if her father or the head of her family has already given his word. The image we see in such tales as 13 and 35, where the woman is stranded in a tree, looking as beautiful as the moon but waiting for a man to rescue her, is counterpoised by the figure of the vizier's daughter in Tale 15, by Gazelle in Tale 17, or even by the cricket in Tale 23 - all of whom actively search out their mates. Even where the woman awaits rescue by the man in the tales, it is she who accepts the offer of marriage and not her family. This pattern in the tales concerning mate choice is so consistently at odds with the facts of social life that we must finally conclude that a deeply felt emotional need is being articulated.

  Another aspect of sexuality in the tales that society plays down is the affirmation of a romantic attitude toward love, which would lead to a questioning of some basic social assumptions. As we have seen, premarital contact of any sort is considered detrimental to a woman's reputation, making it difficult for her to find a husband. Yet frequently in the tales (12, 14, 16, 18, 21), this contact constitutes the very basis on which the marriage relationship is formed. Concomitant with the aura of romance, we find also an attitude of permissiveness and playfulness, which stands in sharp contrast to accepted social practice. The appearance of a nightly lover (Tale 12), for example, would be absolutely forbidden, yet in the tale the father himself summons the lover to his daughter. And (obviously) the dalliance of pursuit in such tales as 15 and 17 would be out of the question in real life.

  No doubt, the basic situation in many of these tales is dictated by the tale type, as for example the father's express desire to marry his own daughter (Tale 14) in many Arabic variants of the Cinderella type. The same thing may be said of the symbols and the fantasy through which many of these tales convey their meaning. Indeed, social context helps illuminate the very significance of these elements in the tales. Presented in a form that might rely less on literary displacement and more on verisimilitude, the events that take place in the tales would jar the prevailing sensibility of the society. The fact that the nightly lover in Tale 12 comes in the form of a magic bird or that the sexual playfulness in Tale 15 takes place in a mysterious underground cavern removes the action from the realm of the plausible without diminishing its meaning. Nor does it detract from the tales' value as a form of wish fulfillment or from their esthetic purpose in presenting possibilities not permitted in real life. We said earlier that men generally do not concern themselves with these tales. Our discussion here will have made that aversion a little clearer, particularly since some of the mores of which men are the guardians, such as the strictures safeguarding women's honor, are consistently challenged in the tales.

  As we remarked earlier, heroines predominate over heroes in the tales, and in the corpus as a whole we discover that the men's portraits are usually restricted to their social roles as sons, brothers, fathers, and authority figures, whereas the women's are more complex. On one end of the scale we have images of women as magical beings who can be enchanting and ethereal like the jinn, or bestial and destructive like ghoulehs; and on the other, the tales also embody a wide range of social relationships involving women. Thus we have situations in which women act in relationships as daughters, sisters, cousins, brides, wives, co-wives, mothers, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, aunts, grandmothers, widows, old wives acting as go-betweens, and foster mothers. The reason for this accent on women is twofold. First - and most obviously - the majority of tellers are women, and folktales constitute their genre par excellence. And second, the Palestinian patrilocal social arrangement does not bring men into as complex a set of relationships as it does women. Men, for example, have no relationship equivalent to that of co-wives, certainly one of the most prominent relationships in the tales; nor is there one equivalent to that of salafat (husbands' brothers' wives).

  Leaving aside the opposite poles of jinn and ghouls (which will be discussed extensively in the footnotes), we note that the image of women presented in the tales conforms to no stereotype. We have, for example, faithful wives, unfaithful ones (though the former predominate by far), and calumniated ones. Passive women are rare in the tales (Tales 32, 35); rather, women generally constitute the active element. Whether in preparing herself for marriage (Tale 11), in pursuing a husband (Tales 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 23), in helping him out of a crisis (Tale 37), in avoiding danger (Tale 29), in defending her children (Tale 38), or in claiming her right to be taken seriously (Tale 26), a woman initiates the action. As a sister, she is protective of her brother (Tales 7, 9, 31), although toward her sisters she tends to be jealous and envious (Tales 10, 12, 43). As a daughter she can be manipulative of her father (Tales 5, 15), and as a wife, of her husband (Tale 7). She can also be harsh, especially to her co-wives (Tales 20, 30). As a stepmother she may be very cruel (Tales 7, 9, 28), but as a foster mother she is very kind, even when outwardly portrayed as a ghouleh. In fact, the image of the fearful ghouleh who at the same time shows only kindness to her own children and to her adopted son, the hero, is as complex as any we are likely to find for women in folk literature. For, despite her terrifying appearance and her superhuman power, the ghouleh is still a nourishing female, as symbolized by her huge breasts, which, because they dangle over her shoulders, allow the young hero to approach her from behind and receive nourishment from her before having to face her directly (Tales 10, 22). In contrast to the figure of the ghouleh, who outwardly inspires fear but is gentle on the inside, stands the figure of the jinni, whose exterior is enchantingly beautiful, but whose reality could be something else entirely (Tale 30). This complex image of women in these tales simply has no parallel in the portrayal of men.

  Food in Society and the Tales

  In a peasant society that relies on labor-intensive agriculture on limited land, and in which the size of an individual household could be thirty or more, food is the most important material resource at the family's disposal. The cultivation, consumption, storage, sale, and distribution of food are the family's primary concerns and take up the greatest portion of its time. It is therefore not surprising that food assumes such an important role in the tales, and not merely as nourishment but as a motivator for the action in some and a source of metaphor and symbol in others. The titles of four tales refer to foods: "Jummez," a type of fig (12); "Jbene," cheese (13); "Chick Eggs" (28); and "Pomegranate Seeds" (35). In Tale 12 the name of the food is also that of the hero, and in 13 and 35 it is that of the heroine - and in all three the symbolic association of food imagery with sexuality is fairly clear. Food is the basic motivator of action in all the "Environment" tales in Group IV, an
d it figures prominently in several others as well (e.g., Tales 1, 9, 14, 15, 27, 29, 34, 36, 45). In its symbolic aspect food has magical properties, being used, for example, to make a woman conceive, as in Tales 6 and 28. The symbolic figures of ghouls and ghoulehs have as their most outstanding characteristic an insatiable appetite. As metaphor, food in the tales designates a state of well-being and satisfaction, especially when available in abundance, as in Tales 29, 43, and 44. It is also used as a sign of love (Tales 14, 15).

  In using food and the processes associated with it - from growing and storing it to eating and then defecating - to generate metaphor and symbol, the tales accurately reflect cultural attitude and practice. Although consumed collectively, food, like all other material goods belonging to the family, is considered the property of the patriarch, and his permission must be sought before it is given away. The patriarch's authority in this respect extends even to mother's milk, which belongs not to her but to her husband. Thus she may not nurse another woman's baby without his permission. (Actually, the concern here may be less over the loss of the milk than over the fact that milk siblings, who will likely be first cousins, are forbidden by religious law from marrying each other.)

  The distribution of food is the responsibility of the patriarch's wife, and it represents her authority in the family. If the family is small, its members eat together, but if large, she divides the food among them. The proper message of that division, which children are taught from a very early age, is fairness to all. Sometimes, however, food is distributed not according to need but according to position in the family hierarchy. The family, for example, may wish to honor its head by serving him food prepared separately and with better ingredients than those used for the rest of the family. If the food is prepared in the same way for all, the patriarch is usually given first preference and served the best pieces of meat. Certain situations, of course, call for special treatment without attracting attention. Invalids are served rich meat broths to help them recover (Tale 22), even though the rest of the family may not taste meat more than three or four times a year. Newlyweds are also favored, as exemplified in the wedding feasts at the ends of many tales. On their wedding night the groom's mother brings the couple dinner, appropriately called the "mouthful of happiness" (luqmit is-saade); she will also bring them a good breakfast the next morning. They may receive this special treatment for a few days, but if it goes on too long the other members of the family will begin to complain. A pregnant woman who craves a particular food can also reasonably expect her craving to be satisfied (Tale 2). It is up to her mother-in-law to see to her desires, and although this is not done openly, no one minds much if the women are found out. After giving birth, too, a mother may be served meat dishes for several days (Tale 24), if the family can afford it; and if the newborn is a boy, the mother may be favored more openly and for a longer period of time.

  The very importance of food production in the family economy and the emphasis placed on fair distribution make it an ideal tool for showing favor. Although not necessarily scarce, food was not always plentiful, as we see in Tale 29, where the family crosses the river into Trans-Jordan in search of food. Two contradictory forces are at work here: the love (and need) of Palestinian fellahin for large families on the one hand, and the limited productivity of land parcels that were becoming smaller with each succeeding generation on the other. Clearly, then, the extended-family ethic of equal treatment is based not only on the utilitarian imperative of keeping the family together but also on objective conditions of near scarcity. Favoritism in food distribution is thus not an act that could be easily overlooked, and its occurrence beyond the relatively few permissible occasions outlined above can lead to envy, jealousy, and conflict. Those who conspire in this favoritism are considered traitors to the collective interests of the family and thieves who allocate to themselves a resource that rightfully belongs to all.

  Those singled out for favor through food appreciate its value as a sign of love. The giving and sharing of food are associated with the expression of love in all its forms. Mothers use food to establish special relationships with their children; young men bring sweets when visiting their intended brides; and newlyweds use food on the first night of marriage to help break the ice. In the tales, as in life, the rituals of love are always accompanied by rituals of food (e.g., Tales 10, 14, 15). There is in fact a whole corpus of tales and jokes concerning the theme of illicit love in which the affair is always discovered as a result of missing food. (Indeed, when food starts to, disappear from a house, an affair is always suspected.) A common expression people use when faced with a confusing situation, "Is this the cat or the meat?," has its origin in one such tale, in which the husband brings home two kilograms of meat and asks the wife to prepare it. The meat, however, disappears; she claims that the cat ate it, whereupon he, taking hold of the cat and weighing it, discovers it weighs two kilograms. Turning to his wife, he asks, "If this is the cat, where's the meat? And if this is the meat, where's the cat?"

  Food is also important outside the confines of the extended family. Two of the most basic values of Arab culture, hospitality and generosity, are expressed through the giving or sharing of food. Hospitality is shown to all guests (Tale 41), who were traditionally welcome for three days with no questions asked. In the tales, even the hostile ghoulehs show hospitality to the aspiring young hero. Even today a poor family might slaughter its best lamb or go into debt in order to show hospitality to a visitor. The guesthouse (madafe), where strangers were received, was a feature of Palestinian villages and towns well into the period of the British Mandate. The ideal form of generosity is to give food to someone who cannot be expected to reciprocate, such as a beggar or a poor family - and to ensure that reciprocation is not even attempted, those who wish to exercise the purest form of generosity will give anonymously, usually during major religious festivals.

  Food is also used to give other messages, entailing less noble motives. In competing for prestige, a family may take advantage of the numerous ceremonial occasions that present themselves to prepare huge feasts, offering much more food than their guests can possibly eat. They thus seek not reciprocation, but a general recognition of their generosity on the part of the community, and comparison with other prominent families. Such splurging and shows of wealth are even more striking when the competition is for power. By offering an individual or family a big feast, the host puts them under the social obligation of having to reciprocate. If they do not, they incur a social debt; but if they do, the competition could continue with the exchange of even bigger feasts.

  All major stages in the life of an individual or a family, whether in joy or in mourning, are celebrated with the sharing of food. Among these occasions are the birth of a son (Tale 18), his circumcision or first communion, his marriage (several of our tales end with a wedding feast), the raising of a roof on a house, or the death of a family member. On this last occasion food is also given as alms to the poor on behalf of the soul of the deceased (Tale 45). Other occasions include dinner invitations for the sake of establishing a relationship of friendship between two families, for exploring the possibilities of nasab (in-laws), and for sealing a reconciliation (sulha) between two warring families. The sharing of food, in short, is a regular and very important feature of Palestinian social life, forming an important link in the bonds that give the society its coherence and its distinctive character. This importance is accurately reflected in the tales, although the emphasis there, by the genre's nature, is more on romantic than social relationships.

  Religion and the Supernatural

  Whereas food provides the tales with a social ethic reflected in action and imagery and based on the interactions of human beings both among themselves and with the physical environment, the supernatural imbues them with an entirely "other" apprehension of reality based on the beliefs and superstitions of the folk. Thus action in the tales, as we have explained, has its basis in Palestinian social reality, but management
of this action is never free of supernatural influence, as dictated by the genre. Sometimes the supernatural takes specific shape in the form of jinn, ghouls, giants, or other supernatural beings (e.g., Tales 5, 6, 8, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40); at other times it remains an abstract force, such as chance or predestination (e.g., Tales 13, 14, 28, 32, 42, 43, 44, 45). In some tales the supernatural helps the action along, whereas in others it presents obstacles to be overcome so that the desired result, such as the completion of a quest or the ridding of an evil influence from the community, may be achieved.

  The pattern of action in most of the tales has as its dominant motif the journey. In a few (e.g., Tales 2, 7, 12, 34), the journey motivates the action only when the authority figure (father or husband) decides to leave; in the rest, however, the journey itself constitutes the major action. In this latter case, the journey motif serves the tale's purposes well, for it accommodates the occurrence of marvelous or magical events. The tellers usually open and close the tale in the home or village environment familiar to the audience, but in between they send their heroines and heroes on journeys in which they travel to strange places, encounter supernatural beings, or both. One location popular with Palestinian tellers is under the ground (Tales 15, 16, 20, 30, 32, 36, 42, 43). This place may be a duplicate of the world above, as in Tale 43; a well in which ghouls (Tale 20) or jinn (Tale 36) dwell, or into which human beings have been thrown for punishment (Tales 7, 30); or a generalized cavern in which treasure may be found (Tale 44) or unusual events take place (Tale 15). If the location of the action is not under the ground, it could be in a tower (Tale 18), at the top of a mountain (Tale 12), in a cavern under the sea (Tale 25), in a cave remote from civilization (Tale 28), on an island (Tale 45), or in a mysterious country beyond the seas (Tale 5).