Speak Bird Speak Again

by Folktales

  Then he lived happily with his wife, and he made her brother a sultan - and may you wake up to blessings in the morning!

  8.

  Sumac! You Son of a Whore, Sumac!

  TELLER: Testify that God is One!

  AUDIENCE: There is no other god but God.

  Once there was a man and his wife, and they had three sons. They also had a flock of sheep. The wife had not given birth to any daughters, and the whole family yearned for a little girl. One day the woman cried out, "O Lord, would you give me a little girl, even if she turns out to be a ghouleh!" Allah fulfilled her wish, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. The whole family loved her very, very much.

  Soon after the birth of the girl, when they made their daily check of their herd, they would find that one sheep was missing. "By Allah," said the boys among themselves, "we're going to keep watch and find out who comes and steals a sheep every night." Taking the watch the first night, the eldest brother stayed awake till midnight, then fell asleep. When he woke up in the morning, he found one sheep missing. The following night the middle brother said he would keep watch. He stayed awake till dawn, then he too fell asleep. When he woke up in the morning, he counted the sheep and found one missing.

  "I want to keep watch tonight," said the youngest.

  "You're still young and can't stay up all night," his father and brothers said.

  "What's the matter with you?" he asked. "Why won't you let me give it a try?" He insisted so much that his father and brothers finally said, "All right, if you want to keep watch, you can stay up late."

  In the evening he went and filled his pockets with roasted fava beans. He also placed a thorn bush on either side of him; and, having got hold of a leather bottle, he made a small hole in it, filled it with water, and hung it above his head. Then he sat up to keep watch, munching on the fava beans. If he moved this way or that, a thorn pricked him. And if he started to doze off, the water dripping on his head kept him awake. This way he was able to stay up the whole night. Toward morning he was surprised to see his sister opening the door of the sheep pen. Taking hold of a sheep, she devoured it and wiped her mouth. Then she went back to sleep in her bed.

  "Ha! What did you see?" they asked him in the morning.

  "Listen," he answered. "Our sister is a ghouleh, and we must kill her." Not believing him, they all started to shout at him.

  "All right," he retorted. "If you're not going to kill her, I'm going to run away and leave this town to you."

  "If you want to run away, that's your business," they answered.

  He started on his way out of town, traveling for Allah knows how long, until he came on an old woman living in a shack. She had a small flock of sheep.

  "Mother," he asked her, "would you mind letting me stay here with you? I'll take your sheep out to graze, and you'll cook for me, wash my clothes, and take care of me?"

  "Why not?" she answered. "I don't have any children of my own, and you'll be like a son to me."

  "That will be just fine," he said.

  From that day on he took the old woman's sheep out to pasture, coming home in tile evening to eat and spend the night. One day, while roaming with the sheep in the rocky countryside, he came upon a lioness giving birth and having a difficult time of it.

  "Please help me," she begged him, "and I'll give you two of my cubs."

  He came to her aid, and when she gave birth she gave him two of her cubs. He took very good care of them, feeding them milk till they grew big, and he called one Swah and the other Lwah.

  One day the man thought to himself, "It's been ten or fifteen years since I've seen my brothers and my parents. I wonder what's become of them." He went to the old woman. "Mother," he said, "I've been away from my country and my family for a long time, and I'd like to go see what's become of them."

  "May Allah make your path easy!" the old woman said.

  He mounted his mare and set out. When he arrived at the edge of town, he discovered it was in ruins. His sister had emptied it of people.

  She had devoured her father, her mother, and everyone else. Nothing was left save a one-eyed rooster, and she was chasing it around town. When she saw her brother, she pretended she did not know what was happening.

  "Welcome, brother!" she greeted him. "Welcome!"

  What was he going to do? She had already spotted him. She spread something for him to sit on, and he came in and sat down. After he had sat down, she went outside where the mare was tethered. Moving this way and that, she gobbled up one of its legs and came back inside.

  "Brother!"

  "What is it, sister?"

  "Your mare," she asked, "is it on four legs or on three?"

  Understanding what had happened, he replied, "No, sister [it's not on four]. It's on three."

  Going back outside, she moved this way and that, gobbled up the second leg, and came back in.

  "Brother," she asked, "is your mare on three or on two legs?"

  "It's on two," he answered. "That's the way it is in our country."

  She kept going in and out until she had devoured the whole mare. Then she came back in and said, "Brother, did you come riding or walking?"

  "No, by Allah, sister," he answered, "I came walking."

  "Well, you son of a whore!" she roared.s "You're trapped now. What shall I do with you?"

  "Please!" he begged her.

  "Not a chance!" she answered, and she fell on him, preparing to eat him.

  "Just let me do my ablutions and pray before you eat me," he begged.

  "But you might run away," she said.

  "No," he replied. "I won't. You can fill this pitcher with water and let me go up to the roof to cleanse myself. Tie one end of the rope to my hand, and you keep hold of the other end while I'm washing myself."

  She tied his wrist, and he took the pitcher and went up to the roof. Finding a large stone there, he untied the rope from his wrist and tied it to the stone. Then, setting the pitcher against the stone so that the water dribbled out of it slowly, he climbed down from the roof and ran away.

  Every once in a while she pulled on the rope and, finding it still tied and the water dribbling, put her mind at ease. Eventually, however, she thought he was taking a rather long time, so she called out, but no one answered. Rushing to the roof to find out what he was up to, she found he had escaped. She looked, and behold! Where was he? He was already on the outskirts of town. She came running after him, and almost caught up with him. What was he to do? Looking about, he saw a palm tree and climbed to the top. She ran after him.

  "Where're you going to go now?" she asked.

  Transforming her hand into a scythe, she said, "Sharpen, O my scythe, sharpen!" and started to chop the tree down. When it was about to fall, the brother suddenly remembered his lions. "O Swah! O Lwah!" he cried out. "Your dear brother's gone!" And, behold! like the blowing of the wind the two lions came. No sooner did his sister see them than she started to run away, but they followed her, tore her to pieces, and devoured her. The brother could now come down from the tree safely.

  As he was resting with the lions beside him, two merchants approached, leading a loaded caravan. When they saw the lions, they admired them and wanted them for themselves.

  "Young man!" they called out.

  "Yes," he answered, "what can I do for you?"

  "How would you like to make a bet with us?" they asked. "If you can guess what merchandise we're carrying, you can take the caravan and itsload. But if you can't guess, we'll take these two lions."

  "All right," he agreed, "I'm willing."

  He started guessing: "nuts, lava beans, lentils, wheat, rice, sugar ..." It was no use; he could not guess. When he was stumped, with no chance of guessing, the merchants took the lions with them and moved on.

  By Allah, they had not led those lions very far away when a drop of blood, which had fallen from his sister to the ground when the lions ate her, shouted out, "Sum
ac! You son of a whore, sumac!""

  After the merchants the brother ran. "Wait! Uncles, wait!" he exclaimed. "I can guess what your load is. It's sumac!"

  Having guessed, he took his lions back and got the caravan with its load.

  This is my tale, I've told it, and in your hands I leave it.

  9.

  The Green Bird

  Once upon a time there was a man. He had a son and a daughter whose mother had died. They had a neighbor who was a widow, and every day she kept after the children, putting ideas in their heads.

  "Tell me," she would say, "doesn't your father intend to get married?"

  "No, not yet," they would answer.

  "Why, then, don't you say to him," she would urge, "'Father, marry our neighbor.'"

  "Father," they would go to him and say, "marry our neighbor."

  "Children, you're still too young," he would answer. "If I get married now, your aunt will beat you. When you're older I'll marry again." And to his daughter he would say, "I'll wait until you're old enough to fill the water jug."

  The girl would then go to the woman and say, "Such and such says my father." And the neighbor would go fill the water jug [at the spring], bring it to their house, and urge the girl to say to her father, "Father, I'm now old enough. I've filled the water jug. Marry our neighbor."

  "I'll marry when you're old enough to knead the dough," the father would say. "When you're old enough to bake the bread. When you're old enough to cook." Whatever chore he mentioned, the neighbor would come to the house and do it, and the girl would go back to her father and say, "Father, here! I've done this and that. Marry our neighbor."

  Eventually the man did marry the neighbor, and she turned against the children and beat them.

  One day her husband said, "Wife, by Allah, we've got a craving for stuffed tripe."

  "Bring the tripe," she answered, "and we'll cook it."

  He went and got the tripe, and she scrubbed and cleaned it and put it on the fire. Her husband was plowing in the fields. After she had placed the food on the fire, she set to sweeping the floor. She swept a stroke or two and thought to herself that she might as well check 'and see if the food was ready. She picked up a foot and ate it. Another stroke or two with the broom, and again she said to herself, "Let me poke the food and see if it's ready." She picked up a portion of the tripe and ate it. By the time she realized what she was doing, she had eaten up the whole meal, leaving nothing behind.

  "Yee!" she cried out. "The Devil take me! What's he going to do to me now? Soon he'll be home from plowing, and what's he going to eat? By Allah, I think he'll kill me. He'll blacken my face. Hey, you! Go call your brother right away."

  The girl cried, knowing what the woman was up to.

  "What do you want with my brother, aunty?"

  "I'm telling you to call your brother. And, by Allah, if you don't call him, I'll kill you right now."

  The girl went out, calling:

  "Hey, brother! Come and don't come!

  Come and don't come near!

  For you they've sharpened the knives

  In front of the shop doors."

  Coming back in, she said, "O aunty! I haven't been able to find him."

  "I'm telling you to call him," the woman snapped back. "Quick as a bird! Otherwise, I'm going to slaughter you."

  Back out went the girl, and she called:

  "Hey, brother! Come and don't come!

  Come and don't come near!

  For you they've sharpened the knives

  In front of the shop doors."

  This last time the woman said, "I'll kill you if you don't bring him." Finally the sister called her brother, and he came.

  Taking him inside, the woman locked the door. She slaughtered him, cut him into pieces, and cooked him just as she would cook tripe and in the same pot. The other one sat crying and crying, but the woman said to her, "Consider yourself dead if you speak to your father or anyone else."

  The father came home from plowing, hungry.

  "Did you cook the tripe, wife?" he asked.

  "Yes," she answered.

  Setting the pot down, they cut pieces of bread, poured the sauce over it, piled the meat on top, and set to it.

  "Come, girl," the father urged his daughter. "Eat!"

  "I don't want any," she said.

  "How can you not want any?" he asked. "Eat!"

  "No, father," she replied. "I'm full. I've just taken some food and eaten."

  "Leave her alone!" his wife cut in. "What do you want with her? All day long she's been hanging about and eating."

  "All right," said the father. "But where's your brother? Doesn't he want to eat?"

  "He just ate and went out to play," answered the wife: "When. he comes back, even if it's midnight, I'll give him some food."

  From that day on, the man would set out for the fields with his team early in the morning and come home late in the evening, tired. He would • ask about the boy, and his wife would say he had just eaten and gone out to play.

  Now the sister, after they had finished their meal, took the bones and dug a hole and buried them at the edge of the garden. And every morning she would sit by the place where she buried the bones and cry and cry until she had no more tears. Then she would go home.

  One day there was a wedding at a neighbor's house. Her father, her stepmother, and all the girls. [in the neighborhood] put on their best clothes and went to the wedding. "Now that nobody's around," she thought to herself, "I'll dig up the bones and look at them again." She went and dug and (so the story goes) found a marble urn. She dug deeper, unearthed it, and out of it flew a green bird. And what else? The urn was full of gold bracelets, tings, and earrings. There was also a dress, which was something to look at. Putting it on, the girl set out for the wedding wearing all the jewelry. Everyone noticed her, admiring the clothes and the jewelry, but no one recognized her.

  In a while, as the wedding procession moved along, a green bird came circling over the head of the bride. He sang:

  "I am the green bird

  Who graces this gathering!

  My stepmother slaughtered me

  And my father devoured me

  Only my kind sister

  (Allah shower mercy on her!)

  Gathered up my bones

  And saved them in the urn of stone."

  "Look! Look!" they all shouted. "There's a bird, and it's speaking!" They forgot about the wedding procession and turned their attention to the bird.

  "Speak, bird!" they clamored, "Speak again! How beautiful are your words!"

  "I won't say anything more," he replied, "until that woman over there opens her mouth."

  His stepmother opened her mouth, and he dropped a handful of nails and needles into it. She swallowed them, and behold! she died.

  "Speak bird!" urged the crowd. "Say morel How beautiful are your words!"

  "I won't speak again," he answered, "until that man over there opens his mouth." His father opened his mouth, and the bird dropped a handful of needles and nails into it. He, too, fell dead.

  Again the crowd urged the bird. "Speak, bird! How beautiful are your words!"

  "I won't say more," he answered, "until that girl over there opens her lap."

  His sister opened her lap like this, the bird landed on it, and behold! he turned into a boy again. Her brother had returned as he was before, and they went home and lived together.

  This is my tale, I've told it, and in your hands I leave it.

  10.

  Little Nightingale the Crier

  TELLER: Testify that God is One!

  AUDIENCE: There is no god but God.

  Once upon a time there were three girls. They were spinners and had nothing but their spinning. Every day they used to spin and go down to the market to sell their product and buy food. One day the town crier announced that it was forbidden to put on a light in the city, because the king wanted to test
his subjects - to see who was obedient and who was not. That night the king and his vizier went through the city to check whose lights were on and whose were not.

  What were the girls to do? They had nothing but their spinning. Every day one of them would spin, and they would sell her yarn and buy food for all of them to eat. What could they do? They wanted to continue with their spinning, but they dared not put on a light. So the eldest one called out, "O my Lord, my beloved! May the king be passing this way and hear me, and may he wed me to his baker so I can have my fill of bread!" The middle sister prayed, "And may he wed me to his cook so I can have my fill of food!" Then the youngest made her plea, "O my Lord, my beloved! May the king pass this way and hear me! And may he wed me to his son, and I give birth to two boys and a girl. I will call one of the boys Aladdin and the other Bahaddin, and the girl Samsizzha. If she smiles while it's raining, the sun will shine; and if she cries while the sun's shining, it will rain."

  As chance would have it, the king was passing that way, and he heard them.

  "Councillor!" ordered the king, "Manage it for me!"

  "The owner manages his own property, O Ruler of the Age," replied the vizier. They put a mark on that shack and went home. In the morning the king sent soldiers, who said to the girls, "Come and see the king!" And they came.

  "Obedience is yours, Majesty!" they said.

  "Come here," said the king. "What's your story?"

  "We are three girls, Your Majesty," they replied, "and we have no one to take care of us and nothing to eat. You ordered the lights out, so what could we do? What you heard, we actually said."

  "All fight," he said. "Let it be as you wish!"

  He married the eldest to his baker, the middle one to the cook, and the youngest to his son. Seeing that she had married the king's son, whereas they were the wives of the baker and the cook, her sisters became jealous and wanted to take revenge on her. When she became pregnant the first time and was ready to deliver, they went to the midwife and bribed her.