Speak Bird, Speak Again Part 9

Her sisters found out, and jealousy crept into them. One day her eldest sister came and said, "Ask Jummez what's most precious to him where he comes from." Now Sitt il-Husun was simple and innocent of heart, and when he came in the evening, she asked, "What does you most harm in your natural environment?"

"Why?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"Because," she answered, "I just want to know." And she kept after him till he told her the thing that did him most harm was gla.s.s. If a piece of gla.s.s were to cut him, he would never be able to recover.

When she told her sisters, they went behind her back and broke the gla.s.s of the window where he came in. That evening when he came to visit her he tried to pa.s.s through the window, but the broken gla.s.s wounded him. Away he flew, back where he came from.

Sitt il-Husun waited a day then two, a week then two, and when he did not come back, she realized her sisters had tricked her and that Jummez was now sick. Putting on the disguise of a beggar, she wandered from one place to another in search of him. One day while she was sitting under a tree, two doves landed in the branches and began a conversation.

"You see, sister," said one, "it turns out Jummez's wife had been wanting to kill him."

"If only there were somebody," replied the other, "(Far be it from my feathers and yours, and my blood and yours!) if there were someone who would slaughter a dove, drain her blood and mix it with the feathers, and then rub it on his legs, he'd get well again."

Sitt il-Husun rose up. She went and got a dove, slaughtered it, drained its blood, burned its feathers. Mixing them together, she carried the medicine with her and wandered about the city, calling out, "I am the doctor with the cure!"

One day she pa.s.sed in front of a certain house, and listen! there were girls crying by the window. When they saw her, they called her up, saying their brother was sick and no one had been able to cure him. Sitt il-Husun came in and rubbed the medicine into his wounds, staying up with him day and night for two weeks, until he woke up. When he awoke, he recognized her.

"O Sitt il-Husun!" he cried out. "You did me a great wrong!"

"It wasn't me!" she answered. "My sisters did that to you."

"It's no matter," he responded. "Don't let it worry you."

When his sisters discovered she was his sweetheart and he wanted to marry her, they said, "You can't marry our brother until you've swept and mopped this whole town."

She started to weep, but Jummez said, "Go to the top of that mountain and cry out, 'O you there, sweep! O you thing there, mop!'" Going to the top of the mountain, she did as he had told her, and indeed, the whole town was swept and mopped.

Seeing that she had accomplished that, the sisters said, "You won't marry our brother until you've brought enough feathers to fill ten mattresses for the wedding." She went crying to Jummez, but he said, "Don't be afraid. Go up the mountain and repeat three times, 'Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds, is dead!'" Going back to the top of the mountain, she called out three times, "Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds, is dead!" No sooner had she said it than all the birds gathered and started wailing and lamenting, plucking out their feathers over their chief. Soon there were piles and piles of feathers on the ground.

Gathering the feathers, she took them to Jummez's sisters, but they said, "You can't marry our brother until you've fetched the straw tray hanging on the wall of the ghouleh's house."

Again she went crying to Jummez. "Don't cry," he comforted her. "This one's easy! Go to the ghouleh's house, and you'll find meat in front of the horses and barley in front of the lions. Switch the meat and the barley. You'll also find the stone terrace by the ghouleh's house collapsed. Repair it, then go into the house and pull the tray down. But take care! If it sc.r.a.pes against the wall, the ghouleh will wake up."

So to the ghouleh's house went Sitt il-Husun, to do as Jummez had told her. But when she went in to take the straw tray, she saw the ghouleh sleeping and shook with fear. As she was pulling the tray down, it sc.r.a.ped against the wall, shaking the whole world and waking up the ghouleh. s.n.a.t.c.hing the tray, Sitt il-Husun ran with it, the ghouleh following her.

"Retaining wall, catch her!" shrieked the ghouleh.

"For twenty years I've been collapsed, and she repaired me," answered the wall. "I won't do it."

"Horses, catch her!" commanded the ghouleh.

"For twenty years we haven't tasted barley, and she fed us. No!"

"Lions, catch her!"

"For twenty years we haven't tasted meat, and she fed us. No, we won't!"

Thus the ghouleh was not able to catch her, and Sitt il-Husun brought the tray and presented it to Jummez's sisters. When they were satisfied that she had done all her tasks, they gave their consent to their brother's marriage.

They held wedding celebrations. Sitt il-Husun married Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds, and he lifted her up and flew away with her.

The bird has flown, and a good night to all!

Jbene

Once upon a time there was a woman who could not get pregnant and have children. One day, when a cheese vendor pa.s.sed through, she gathered herself and cried out, "You who ask, your wish be granted! May Allah grant me a daughter with a face as white as this piece of cheese!" Allah spoke with her tongue, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter with a face so fair it was like a square of cheese, and she called her Jbene.

When Jbene grew up she was very beautiful, and all the girls in the neighborhood became jealous of her. One day her companions came to her and said, "Jbene, let's go pick dom together."

"Not until you ask my mother," she answered.

So to her mother they went and said, "O Jbene's mother, for the life of Jbene, won't you let Jbene come pick dom with us?"

"It's not my concern," she answered. "Go speak with her father!"

They went to her father and said, "O Jbene's father, for the life of Jbene, won't you let Jbene come pick dom with us?"

"It's not my concern," he answered. "Go speak with her paternal aunt!"

They went to her paternal aunt and said, "O Jbene's aunt, for the life of Jbene, won't you let Jbene come pick dom with us?"

"It's not my concern," she answered. "Go speak with her maternal aunt!"

So to the maternal aunt they went and said, "O Jbene's aunt, for the life of Jbene, won't you let Jbene come pick dom with us?"

"Fine," said the aunt to them. "Let her go with you."

The girls gathered together and went to pick dom . When they reached the dom trees, they asked, "Who's going to climb the tree for us?"

Jbene was the youngest and the best behaved among them. "I'll climb it," she said.

Climbing the tree, she picked dom and dropped it for them under the tree.

"We'll fill your basket," they said to her.

They filled their baskets with dom, but they filled hers with snails. As the sun was setting, they abandoned her up in the tree and went to their homes. Night fell, and Jbene could not climb down from the tree.

Her mother went and asked her friends, but they said, "Jbene didn't come with us."

Later a horseman came by, riding a mare. The mare approached the tree but backed away in fear. Looking up into the tree, the horseman saw the girl. "Come down!" he said, but she would not because she was afraid. "I swear by Allah your safety's guaranteed," he said to her, and only then did the gift heed him. She came down, and he set her behind him on the mare and rode home with her?

During the night Jbene painted herself black all over because she did not want anyone to know who she was. In the morning they thought she was a servant and sent her out to graze the herds of sheep and camels.

Every day after that, while roaming with the herds, Jbene would cry out: "O birds that fly Over mountains high!

Greet my mother and father And say, 'Jbene's a shepherdess.

Sheep she grazes, and camels.

And rests in the shade of the vine.'"

Then she would cry, and the birds would cry, and the sheep and camels would stop grazing and cry.

The son of the emir noticed that the animals were going out to pasture and were coming home without having eaten. They were getting thinner day by day. "By Allah," he thought, "I must follow her and find out what the matter is."

He followed the herds until they reached their grazing ground. Jbene sat down and cried out: "O birds that fly Over mountains high!

Greet my mother and father And say, 'Jbene's a shepherdess.

Sheep she grazes, and camels.

And rests in the shade of the vine.'"

Then she started crying, and the birds cried. The herds all stopped grazing and stood in their tracks and cried. Everything around her cried, and the son of the emir himself stood up and cried.

In the evening he said to her, "Come here! Confess the truth! Who are you, and what's your story?"

"My name's Jbene," she answered. "This and that and that happened to me." She then removed the soot from her face, and behold! what was she like but the moon?

The son of the emir made her his wife. They arranged festivities and beautiful nights. He married her, and she brought her mother and father to stay with her. I was there, and have just returned.

The bird of this tale has flown, and now for another one!

Sackcloth

TELLER: Testify that G.o.d is One!

AUDIENCE: There is no G.o.d but G.o.d.

Once upon a time there was a king who had no children except an only daughter. One day his wife laid her head down and died, and he went searching for a new wife. They spoke of this woman and that, but none pleased him. No one seemed more beautiful in his eyes, so the story goes, than his own daughter and he had no wish to marry another. When he came into the house, she would call him "father," but he Would answer, "Don't call me 'father'! Call me 'cousin.'"

"But father, O worthy man! I'm your daughter!"

"It's no use," he insisted. "I've made up my mind."

One day he sent for the cadi and asked him, "A tree that I've cared for,' feeding and watering it - is it legally mine, or can someone else claim it?" "No one else can claim it," replied the cadi. "It's rightfully yours." No sooner had the cadi left than the father went out and brought his daughter jewelry and a wedding dress. He was preparing to take her for his wife.

The girl put on the new clothes and the gold, and sat in the house. Her father came home in the evening. When she realized that he was absolutely intent on taking her, she went to a sackcloth maker and said, "Take as much money as you want, but make me a tight-fitting sackcloth that will cover my whole body, except my nostrils, mouth, and eyes. And I want it ready by tomorrow morning."

"Fine," he said. "I'll do it."

[When it was finished] the girl went and brought it home. She put it in a shed in front of the house and locked the door. She then put on the bridal clothes and jewelry [again] and lounged about the house. Her father came home in the evening.

"Father!" she called to him.

"Don't call me 'father'!" he said. "Call me 'cousin.'"

"All right, cousin!" she replied, "But wait until I come back from the outhouse (All respect to the audience!)."

"But you might run away."

"No, I won't," she answered. "But just to make sure, tie a rope to my wrist, and every once in a while pull your end of it and you'll discover I'm still there."

There was a big stone in the lower part of the house, and on her way out she tied her end of the rope to it, together with the bracelets. She then went out to the shed, put on her tight sack, and, invoking the help of Allah, ventured into the night.

Meanwhile, the father tugged at the rope every few moments and, hearing the tinkle of the bracelets, would say to himself, "She's still here." [He waited and waited] till the middle of the night, then he said, "By Allah, I've got no choice but to go check on her." When he found the rope tied to the stone, with the bracelets dangling from it, he prepared his horse, disguised himself, mounted, and went out to look for her.

She had already been gone awhile, and by the time he left the house she was well outside the city. He followed after her, searching. When he caught up with her, she saw and recognized him, and clung to the trunk of a tree. Not recognizing her, but thinking she was a man, he asked, "Didn't you see a girl with such and such features pa.s.s this way?"

"O uncle, Allah save you!" answered the maiden. "Please leave me to my misery. I can barely see in front of me."

He left her and went away. Seeing him take one path, she took another. [She kept on traveling,] sleeping here and waking up there, till she came to a city. Hunger driving her, she took shelter by the wall of a king's palace.

The king's slavegirl came out with a platter to dump leftover food. Sackcloth fell on the sc.r.a.ps and set to eating. When the slave saw her, she rushed back inside.

"O mistress!" she called out, "There's a weird sight outside - the strangest-looking man, and he's eating the leftovers."

"Go call him in, and let him come here!" commanded the mistress.

"Come in and see my mistress," said the slave. "They want to have a look at you."

"What's the situation with you, uncle?" they asked, when she came inside. "Are you human or jinn?"

"By Allah, uncle," she replied, "I'm human, and the choicest of the race. But Allah has created me the way I am."

"What skill do you have?" they asked. "What can you do?"

"By Allah, I don't have any skills in particular," she answered. "I can stay in the kitchen, peeling onions and pa.s.sing things over when needed."

They put her to work in the kitchen, and soon everyone was saying, "Here comes Sackcloth! There goes Sackcloth!" How happy they were to have Sackcloth around, and she stayed in the kitchen under the protection of the cook.

One day there was a wedding in the city, and the king's household was invited. In the evening they were preparing to go have a look at the spectacle.

"Hey, Sackcloth!" they called out, "Do you want to come with us and have a look at the wedding?"

"No, Allah help me!" she exclaimed. "I can't go look at weddings or anything else like that. You go, and I wish you G.o.dspeed, but I can't go."