Speak Bird Speak Again

by Folktales

  With regard to what these tales reveal about sexuality, we find that the attitudes applicable to women are different from those applicable to men. Cultural practice dictates that women should be modest and not express their sexuality openly, yet women are not presented as being anxious about their sexuality. On the contrary, as we saw from earlier tales (e.g., "Sahin" and "Soqak Boqak!") and from "Im Ese" here, they are open in their approach to this question and honest in their feelings. The dark side of sexuality emerges from "The Seven Leavenings" and "The Golden Rod," where the men's fear or anxiety about their virility is projected as the women's sexual voraciousness, as we see from the behavior of the Golden Rod's three wives. This projection is condoned by the society. If the husband is sexually unsure of himself, the wife is assumed to be at fault; she must, as in "The Seven Leavenings" and "The Golden Rod," be having an affair with the black servant. (It is interesting that the literalized metaphor of "black on white" is used as a central image in both tales.)

  Equally as important as sexuality in a marriage relationship, and integral to it, is the question of offspring. A complex of problems for men and women alike arises out of the association of sexuality with virility and fertility. A man feels more manly and powerful when he has fathered many children, particularly sons, and society confirms this feeling by offering repeated congratulations and favorable comments on his manliness. The absence of male offspring makes a man vulnerable to social criticism, and he would be urged to marry another woman. Feeling inadequate when the marriage is infertile, he starts to question his manliness and vents his frustration by beating his wife ("The Seven Leavenings"). Lack of offspring is even more problematic for the woman. If for the husband male children represent manliness and virility, for the wife they are an essential part of her identity; indeed, a woman without a son has practically no identity, and no security in life. "The Seven Leavenings" is a case in point: before pregnancy the wife is guilty of a great sin, but once she claims to have conceived, her husband dotes on her and treats her with utmost respect.

  Although it is mentioned explicitly only in "The Seven Leavenings," absence of offspring (of sons in "Im Ese") is at the core of the couple's problem in each of these tales. This point is made dearly in the case of Minjal, who, alone among all the married women in the tales, is called by her first name - a name that denotes an ordinary tool - rather than "Im So-and-So." As her clever neighbor says of her name, "What! That's nothing more than a piece of iron!" In the other tales as well, there is a certain degree of tension between husband and wife. With time on their hands and no children, the males become dissatisfied with their wives and start finding fault with them.

  The tales in this group focus on the relationship between husband and wife at a certain stage in the marriage. Several open with a stagnating relationship, often caused by the absence of children, and end with a transformation. Fulfillment may be brought about through children ("The Seven Leavenings"), by finding the right partner ("The Golden Rod"), or by a change in character. "Minjal" is a pivotal tale, in this respect, for it shows the possibility of renewal. In "Minjal" - as in "Lady Tatar" (Tale 20), but at a later date in the marriage relationship – the woman insists on being addressed in a certain way, thereby guaranteeing respect for herself. But now two marriage relationships are portrayed: the one between Minjal and her husband, the second between the gulled farmer and his wife. The contrast between the two women could not be any clearer. In the second relationship the teller emphasizes the greed and cruelty of the husband, whose wife, though pregnant, is less important to him than a workhorse - merely another useful tool, though admittedly more precious than a scythe.

  FAMILY LIFE

  28.

  Chick Eggs

  TELLER: Once upon a time, O my listeners ... but not until you bear witness that God is One.

  AUDIENCE: There is no god but God!

  Once there was a girl, the daughter of a co-wife. And, as everybody knows, a co-wife's daughter usually turns out meaner than her own mother. Her stepmother hated her, always saying to her "Come here" and "Go there" and giving her endless work to do.

  The stepmother had a daughter of her own about the same age. One day she said to her mother, "Mother, I want to go to the countryside with my sister to gather wood." "Go ahead," said the mother.

  After the girls had left, lo! a salesman was crying his wares:

  "Chick eggs, chick eggs for sale!

  Will get a girl pregnant without a male!"

  Now, the woman had been wanting to do away with her co-wife's daughter. She called the salesman over, bought two eggs from him, and cracked them in a pan. For her own daughter she fried two ordinary eggs in a separate pan. When the girl came from gathering wood, her stepmother fed her the chick eggs.

  A day came and a day went, and the girl was sitting in the sun. The woman said to her, "O girl, come remove lice from my hair." The girl kept shifting her position and wriggling like this from the heat. One moment she'd say, "O my father's wife, I want to move into the shade," and the next moment she'd say, "O my father's wife, I want to move back into the sun."

  The woman went to her husband. "Look here, my man!" she said. "Your daughter's pregnant."

  "Speak again," he exclaimed, "and say it's not so!"

  "No, by Allah," replied the wife, "she's pregnant. And if she isn't, you can have whatever you want."

  A day went and a day came, and the girl's pregnancy began to show. The woman said to her husband, "O man, get rid of her!"

  "I will," he answered. "Prepare some provisions, and I'll take her and do away with her."

  The wife brought together a cow pie (she said it was bread), a donkey turd (she said it was stuffed cabbage), and ass's urine (she said it was ghee). She put these things for her in a basket and waited.

  The man took his daughter to a place where there was no one coming or going, then said, "Daughter, wait for me here! I'm going for a walk and I'll be right back."

  The sun set and it was getting dark. The place was rough, rocks everywhere! with no one coming or going. What was she to do? She said:

  "Father, you're taking so long to crap

  The thyme has started to sprout!"

  In a while, look! an old man on a white mare was approaching.

  "O girl," he said, "what are you doing here?"

  "It's my fate," she answered. "I came here."

  "And what are these things you're carrying?"

  She answered, "This is bread," and he said, "May it be so, God willing!"

  "This is stuffed cabbage."

  "May it be so, God willing!"

  "This is ghee."

  "May it be so, God willing!"

  Then he said, "Look here, do you see that cave?"

  "Yes," she answered.

  "You must go sleep in it," he continued. "Three or four ghouls will arrive. One of them will come limping, and right away you must remove the thorn and bandage his foot."

  She gathered herself and went up to the cave, and before long the ghoul with the limp arrived, just as the man had said. She went over to him and removed the thorn from his foot and bandaged it. "No one is to devour her!" he announced. After that they would bring some of what they had caught for her to eat. By Allah, a day went and a day came, and she gave birth.

  She was absent ten, maybe twelve months or more. Her father said to his wife, "By Allah, I want to go back to the place I left my daughter. I want to find out what became of her." He went back to the place he had left her. Looking in the distance, he spied a cave with smoke rising from it.

  "If you're my mother," said the girl, "come in. If you're my uncle's daughter, come in; if you're my sister, come in; and if you're one of my relatives, come in. But if you're my father, keep out!"

  He begged so much to be forgiven that she opened for him. When he entered, she felt shy in front of him and went to hide her child.

  "Daughter, it's enough!" he said. "You must come home now."
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  "No, father," she answered. "Not only do I not want to go back, it didn't even cross my mind. I'm alive and comfortable. Allah's looking lifter me."

  "You can't stay by yourself in this rocky wilderness," he insisted. "You must come home with me!" He swore divorce and forced her. She prepared herself, and they set out.

  As she was leaving, she said by the door of the cave, "Father, I forgot my kohl pencil." She went back for it. Then again she would get as far as from here to there and she'd say, "I forgot my little bottle of kohl." She could not find it in her heart to go back home and leave her baby behind.

  They had not been on their way for long when again she said, "Father, I've forgotten such and such a thing."

  "Why are you taking the long way around this, daughter?" the father finally asked. "If you have a son, bring him along!" Lifting the baby, she wrapped him and brought him with her.

  Now, the ghouls used to bring her everything - money, gold, jewelry, and clothes. They would carry it with them and bring it to her. She took a little of everything, wrapping it in a bundle and loading it on the donkey. They set out on their journey, the grandfather placing the child in front of him.

  When his wife saw them, she said, "You didn't leave your daughter in the wilderness. You put her in the lap of luxury! Exactly where you took your daughter, you must take mine!" "Fine," he said. "Let's go."

  She went and prepared real bread and stuffed grape leaves for her daughter. Her father took her and left her in the same place he had left his first daughter.

  "Daughter," he said, "I want to go take a crap." In a while the same old man appeared. "What's this?" he asked. Red with anger because her father had abandoned her, she answered (Far be it from my listeners!), "Shit!"

  "And this?"

  "Shit!"

  "And that?"

  "Shit also!"

  He would say "God willing" every time, and all her food turned into that which she had named.

  "Do you see that cave?" he asked. "Go up to it. Three or four ghouls will arrive. One of them is huge and will be limping from a thorn in his foot. Take hold of his foot and twist it like this to increase his pain."

  The girl made her way up to the cave. The ghouls came, and she did as the man had told her. "Cut her up and devour her!" said the big ghoul. They ate her all up, leaving only the liver and lungs, which they hung by the entrance to the cave.

  Now, by Allah, the mother did not wait long for her daughter. "Go bring her? she said to her husband. "It's been long enough. Just right." He went. In the meantime she gathered the daughters of their relatives and neighbors, and she said to them, "Sing! When my husband returns in a while, he'll give you all gold and necklaces. Sing!"

  Reaching the cave, the father found nothing of his daughter, only the liver and lungs hanging by the door.

  Meanwhile the girls were singing, and the mother was dancing in their midst.

  The father, however, was cursing her, "O you daughter of damned parents! Nothing did I find but this liver and lungs hanging by the door of the cave. Hey, you! Your parents be damned! I found nothing but this liver and lungs hanging by the door of the cave."

  She, on the other hand, was saying to the girls, "Sing! Sing! Do you hear my husband calling? He's saying, 'Sing! Sing!'"

  When he arrived, the husband said to her, "Get out of here! You are divorced! If people usually swear divorce three times, I hereby swear a hundred times." He divorced her, and his daughter stayed with him.

  The bird of this tale has flown; one of you owes another one.

  29.

  The Ghouleh of Trans-Jordan

  Once there was a poor man. One day he said to his family, "Let's cross over to Trans-Jordan. Maybe we can find a better life there than we have here." They had (May Allah preserve your worth!) a beast of burden.

  Crossing eastward, they came upon some deserted ruins. When they found an empty house in the ruins, they wanted to move into it. A woman came upon them. "Welcome!" she said to the man. "Welcome to my nephew! Since my brother died, you haven't dropped in on me, nor have you visited me."

  "By Allah," he answered, "my father never mentioned you to me. And in any case, we came here only by chance."

  "Welcome!" she replied. "Welcome! Go ahead and stay in this house."

  Now, the house was well stocked with food, and they settled in. The man had only his wife and a daughter. They would cook meals, and in the evening the daughter took the woman her dinner. She lived in the southern part of the ruined town, and they lived in the north, with some distance between them.

  One evening the girl went to bring the woman her dinner. She came up to the door, and 1o! the woman had thrown to the ground a young man with braids like those of a girl gone astray, and she was devouring him. Stepping back, the girl moved some distance away and called out, "Hey, Aunty! Aunty!" The ghouleh shook herself, taking the shape of a woman again, and came to the terrified girl.

  "The name of Allah protect you, niece!" exclaimed the ghouleh.

  "A black shape crossed my path," the girl explained, "and I became frightened."

  Taking the dinner from the girl, the ghouleh said, "Don't worry! I'll wait here until you get inside the house." But she followed her to the door of the house to find out what the girl was going to say to her mother.

  "How's your aunt?" asked the mother.

  Now the girl was a clever one, and she answered, "When I got there, I found her sitting quietly with her head in her lap, like this."

  After the ghouleh had gone back to her house to finish what she was eating, the girl said to her mother, "Mother, it turns out our aunt is a ghouleh."

  "How do you know she's a ghouleh?" asked the mother.

  "I saw her eating a lad with locks like those of a seductive girl," said the girl.

  Her husband was sleeping. "Get up, get up!" she said. "It turns out your aunt is a ghouleh."

  "What! My aunt a ghouleh! You're a ghouleh?

  "All right," the wife replied. "Sleep, sleep! We were only joking with you."

  When he had gone back to sleep, they went and filled a sack with flour. They brought a tin can full of olive oil and (May it be far from the listeners!) the beast of burden. Loading the provisions on it, they called upon the Everlasting to watch over their journey.

  Meanwhile, the man slept till morning, and when he woke he found neither wife nor daughter. "So," he thought, "it seems what they said is true." He mounted to the top of the flour bin and lowered himself in.

  After sunrise the ghouleh showed up, but when she went into the house, there was no one there. Turning herself back into a ghouleh, she started dancing and singing:

  "My oil and my flour, O what a loss!

  Gone are the masters of the house!"

  When he heard her singing and prancing about, the man was so scared

  he farted, scattering flour dust into the air. She saw him.

  "Ah!" she cried out. "You're still here!"

  "Yes, Aunty!" he answered.

  "Well, come down here," she said. "Where shall I start eating you?"

  "Eat my little hand," he answered, "that did not listen to my little daughter."

  After eating his hand, she asked again, "Where shall I eat you now?"

  "Eat my beard," he answered, "that did not listen to my wife."

  And so on, until she had devoured him all.

  Now we go back to the girl and her mother. When they had reached home, the mother said to her daughter, "She's bound to follow us and turn herself (God save your honors!) into a bitch. She'll scratch against the door. I'll boil a pot full of olive oil, and you open for her. When she comes in, I'll pour the oil over her head."

  In a while the ghouleh came and scratched at the door, and the girl opened for her. No sooner had she gone in the door than the woman poured the oil onto her head. She exploded, and behold! she was dead. There was no moisture in her eye.

  In the morning the woman filled the t
own with her shouts, and people rushed to her rescue.

  "What's the matter?" they asked.

  "Listen," she said. "There's a ruin, and it's full of provisions. It was protected by a ghouleh, and here! I've killed the ghouleh. Any one who has strength can go load up on wheat, flour, and oil. As for me, I'll be satisfied with the food in the house where we stayed."

  30.

  Bear-Cub of the Kitchen

  Once there was a king who had three wives. One day a mosquito crept into his nose. Try as he would, he could find no doctor or medicine, east or west, that could cure him. It did not come out, and soon his nose had swollen up, like this. "It's all over," they said. "The king is going to die." One day, as he sat contemplating his condition, the mosquito said

  to him, "Look here, I'll come out of your nose, and you will get well. But will you take me for your wife? I'm from the jinn (In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful!), and I must be free to do with your wives as I see fit." He wanted to be cured, and thinking he could manage just as well without his other wives, he said, "All right, just come out!"

  Out the mosquito jumped, and behold! it was a girl (Praise be to her Creator!) so beautiful she took one's mind away. "These wives of yours," she said, "where am I going to send them?"