Moorish Literature Part 2

They also show great scorn for those who lead a life relatively less barbarous, and who adorn themselves as much as the Touaregs can by means of science and commerce:

"The Tsaggmaren are not men, Not lance of iron, nor yet of wood, They are not in harness, not in saddles, They have no handsome saddle-bags, They've naught of what makes mankind proud; They've no fat and healthy camels, The Tsaggmaren; don't speak of them; They are people of a mixed race, There is no condition not found with them.

Some are poor, yet not in need; Others are abused by the demon, Others own nothing but their clubs.

There are those who make the pilgrimage, and repeat it, There are those who can read the Koran and learn by that They possess in the pasturage camels, and their little ones, Besides nuggets of gold all safely wrapped."[4]

[4] Hanoteau, p. 213.

Another style, no less sought for among the Berbers inhabiting cities, is the "complaint" which flourished in lower Morocco, where it is known under the Arab name of Lqist (history). When the subject is religious, they call it _Nadith_ (tradition). One of the most celebrated is that wherein they tell of the descent into the infernal regions of a young man in search of his father and mother. It will give an idea of this style of composition to recite the beginning:

"In the name of G.o.d, most clement and merciful, Also benediction and homage to the prophet Mohammed, In the name of G.o.d, listen to the words of the author, This is what the Talebs tell, according to the august Koran.

Let us begin this beautiful story by Invoking the name of G.o.d.

Listen to this beautiful story, O good man, We will recite the story of a young man In Berbere; O G.o.d, give to us perfection; That which we bring to you is found in truthful tradition, Hard as a rock though thy heart be, it will melt; The father and mother of Saba died in his childhood And left him in great poverty; Our compa.s.sionate Lord guided him and showed him the way, G.o.d led him along toward the Prophet, And gave to him the Koran."[5]

[5] R. Ba.s.set, Le Poeme de Sabi, p. 15 et suis. Paris, 1879.

Other poems--for instance, that of Sidi Hammen and that of Job--are equally celebrated in Morocco. The complaints on religious subjects are accompanied on the violin, while those treating of a historical event or a story with a moral have the accompaniment of a guitar. We may cla.s.s this kind of poems among those called _Tandant_, in lower Morocco, which consist in the enumeration of short maxims. The same cla.s.s exist also in Zouaona and in Touareg.

But the inspiration of the Khabyle poets does not always maintain its exaltation. Their talents become an arm to satirize those who have not given them a sufficiently large recompense, or--worse still, and more unpardonable--who have served to them a meagre repast:

"I went to the home of vile animals, Ait Rebah is their name; I found them lying under the sun like green figs, They looked ill and infirm.

They are lizards among adders, They inspire no fear, for they bite not.

Put a sheepskin before them, they Will tear your arms and hands; Their parched lips are all scaly, Besides being red and spotted.

"As the vultures on their dung heaps, When they see carrion, fall upon it, Tearing out its entrails, That day is for them one of joy.

Judging by their breeches, And the headdresses of their wives, I think they are of Jewish origin."[6]

[6] Hanoteau, Poemes Populaires de la Khabyle, pp. 179-181, Du Jurgura.

This song, composed by Mohammed Said or Aihel Hadji, is still repeated when one wishes to insult persons from Aith Erbah, who have tried several times to a.s.sa.s.sinate the poet in revenge.

Sometimes two rival singers find themselves together, and each begins to eulogize himself, which eulogy ends in a satire on the other. But the joust begun by apostrophes and Homeric insults finishes often with a fight, and the natural arm is the Basque drum until others separate, the adversaries.[7] We have an example in a dialogue of this kind between Youssuf ou Ka.s.si, of the Aith Djemnad, and Mohand ou Abdaha, of the Aith Kraten. The challenge and the jousts--less the blows--exist among the ch.e.l.lahs of lower Morocco, where they are called _Tamawoucht_; but between man and woman there is that which indicates the greatest liberty of manners. The verses are improvised, and the authors are paid in small money. Here is a specimen:

_The woman_: "When it thunders and the sky is overcast, Drive home the sheep, O watchful shepherd."

_The man_: "When it thunders, and the sky is overcast, We will bring home the sheep."

_The woman_: "I wish I had a bunch of switches to strike you with!

May your father be accursed, Sheepkeeper!"

_The man_: "Oh, G.o.d, I thank thee for having created Old maids to grind meal for the toilers."[8]

[7] Hanoteau, p. 275 et seq.

[8] Stemme, p. 7, 8.

Another manifestation, and not less important of the popular Berber literature, consists in the stories. Although no attempt has been made in our days to gather them, many indications permit us to believe that they have been at all times well treasured by these people. In the story of Psyche that Apuleius inserted at the end of the second century A.D., in the romance of Metamorphoses,[9] we read that Venus imposed on Psyche, among other trials, that of sorting out and placing in separate jars the grains of wheat, oats, millet and poppy pease, lentils and lima beans which she had mixed together. This task, beyond the power of Psyche, was accomplished by the ants which came to her aid, and thus she conquered the task set by her cruel mother-in-law.

[9] Hanoteau, Essai de Grammaire Khabyle, p. 282 et seq. Alger.

This same trial we find in a Berber story. It is an episode in a Khabyle story of the Mohammed ben Sol'tan, who, to obtain the hand of the daughter of a king, separated wheat, corn, oats, and sorghum, which had been mingled together. This trait is not found in Arab stories which have served as models for the greater part of Khabyle tales. It is scarcely admissible that the Berbers had read the "Golden a.s.s" of Apuleius, but it is probable that he was born at Madaure, in Algeria, and retained an episode of a popular Berber tale which he had heard in his childhood, and placed in his story.

The tales have also preserved the memory of very ancient customs, and in particular those of adoption. In the tales gathered in Khabyle by General Hanoteau,[10] T. Riviere,[1] and Moulieras,[2] also that in the story of Mizab, the hero took upon himself a supernatural task, and succeeded because he became the adopted son of an ogress, at whose breast he nursed.[3] This custom is an ancient one with the Berbers, for on a _bas relief_ at Thebes it shows us a chief of the Machouacha (the Egyptian name of the Berbers) of the XXII Dynasty nursed and adopted by the G.o.ddess Hathor. Arab stories of Egypt have also preserved this trait--for instance, "The Bear of the Kitchen,"[4] and El Schater Mohammed.[5]

[10] Hanoteau, p. 266. Le cha.s.seur.

[1] Contes Populaires de la Khabylie du Jurgura, p. 239. Paris, 1892. Le chausseur.

[2] Legendes et contes merveilleuses de la grande Khabylie, p. 20. 2 vols.

Tunis, 1893-1898. Le fils du Sultan et le chien des Chretiens, p. 90.

Histoire de Ali et sa mere.

[3] R Ba.s.set, Nouveaux Contes Berbers, p. 18. Paris, 1897. La Pomme de jeunesse.

[4] Spitta-bey, Contes Arabes modernes, p. 12. Ley de 1883.

[5] Arless Pasha, Contes Populaire de la vallee du Nil. Paris, 1895.

During the conquest of the Magreb by the Arabs in the seventh century A.D., Kahina, a Berber queen, who at a given moment drove the Mussulman invaders away and personified national defiance, employed the same ceremony to adopt for son the Arab Khaled Ben Yazed, who was to betray her later.

a.s.sisted by these traits of indigenous manners, we can call to mind ogres and pagans who represent an ancient population, or, more exactly, the sectarians of an ancient religion like the Paganism or the Christianity which was maintained on some points of Northern Africa, with the Berbers, until the eleventh century A.D. Fabulous features from the Arabs have slipped into the descriptions of the Djohala, mingled with the confused souvenirs of mythological beings belonging to paganism before the advent of Christianity.

It is difficult to separate the different sources of the Berber stories.

Besides those appearing to be of indigenous origin, and which have for scene a grotto or a mountain, one could scarcely deny that the greater part, whether relating to stories of adventure, fairy stories, or comical tales, were borrowed from foreign countries by way of the Arabs. Without doubt they have furnished the larger part, but there are some of which there are no counterparts in European countries. "Half a c.o.c.k," for instance, has travelled into the various provinces of France, Ireland, Albania, among the Southern Slavs, and to Portugal, from whence it went to Brazil; but the Arabs do not know it, nor do they know Tom Thumb, which with the Khabyles becomes H'ab Sliman. In the actual state of our knowledge, we can only say that there is a striking resemblance between a Berber tale and such or such a version. From thence comes the presumption of borrowed matter. But, for the best results to be gained, one should be in possession of all the versions. When it relates to celebrated personages among the Mussulmans, like Solomon, or the features of a legend of which no trace remains of the names, one can certainly conclude that it is borrowed from the Arabs. It is the same with the greater number of fairy tales, whose first inventors, the Arabs, commenced with the "Thousand and One Nights," and presented us with "The Languages of the Beasts," and also with funny stories.

The princ.i.p.al personage of these last is Si Djeha, whose name was borrowed from a comic narrative existing as early as the eleventh century A.D. The contents are sometimes coa.r.s.e and sometimes witty, are nearly all more ancient, and yet belong to the domain of pleasantries from which in Germany sprung the anecdotes of Tyll Eulenspiegel and the Seven Suabians, and in England the Wise Men of Gotham. In Italy, and even in Albania, the name of Djeha is preserved under the form of Guifa and Guicha; and the Turks, who possess the richest literature on this person, have made him a Ghadji Sirii Hissar, under the name of Nasr-eddin Hodja (a form altered from Djoha). The traits attributed to such persons as Bon Idhes, Bon Goudous, Bon Kheenpouch, are equally the same as those bestowed upon Si Djeha.

But if the Berbers have borrowed the majority of their tales, they have given to their characters the manners and appearance and names of their compatriots. The king does not differ from the Amir of a village, or an Amanokul of the Touaregs. The palace is the same as all those of a Haddarth, and Haroun al Raschid himself, when he pa.s.ses into Berber stories, is plucked of the splendor he possesses in the "Thousand and One Nights," and in Oriental stories. This anachronism renders the heroes of the tales more real, and they are real Berbers, who are alive, and who express themselves like the mountaineers of Jurgura, the Arabs of the Atlas; like the men of Ksour, or the nomads of Sahara. In general there is little art in these stories, and in style they are far below other collections celebrated through the entire world.

An important place is given to the fables or stories of animals, but there is little that is not borrowed from foreign lands, and the animals are only such as the Berbers are familiar with. The adventures of the jackal do not differ from those of the fox in European stories. An African trait may be signalled in the prominence which it offers the hare, as in the stories of _Ouslofs_ and _Bantous_. Also, the hedgehog, neglected so lamentably in our fables, holds an important place; and if the jackal manages to deceive the lion, he is, in spite of his astute nature, duped by the hedgehog when he tries a fall with him. As to the lion, the serpent, the c.o.c.k, the frog, the turtle, the hyena, the jackal, the rat, their roles offer little of the place they play in the Arab tales, or even the Europeans.

If we pa.s.s from Berber we find the Arab tongue as spoken among the Magreb, and will see that the literature is composed of the same elements, particularly in the tales and songs. There are few special publications concerning the first, but there are few travellers who have not gathered some, and thus rendered their relations with the people more pleasant. In what concerns the fairy tales it is, above all, the children for whom they are destined, "when at night, at the end of their wearisome days, the mothers gather their children around them under the tent, under the shelter of her Bon Rabah, the little ones demand with tears a story to carry their imaginations far away." "Kherrfin ya summa" ("Tell us a story"), they say, and she begins the long series of the exploits of Ah Di Douan.[6] Even the men do not disdain to listen to the tales, and those that were gathered from Tunis and Tripoli by Mr. Stemme,[7] and in Morocco by Messrs. Souin and Stemme,[8] show that the marvellous adventures, wherein intervene the Djinns, fairies, ogres, and sorcerers, are no less popular among the Arab people than among the Berbers.

[6] Deeplun, Recueil de textes pour l'etude de l'Arabe parle, v. 12, p. iv.

Paris, 1891.

[7] Iumsche Marchen und Gedichte. Leipzig, 1898. 2 vols. Marchen und Gedichte. Aus der Stadt Tripolis in Nord Afrika. Leipzig.

[8] Zum Arabischen Dialekt. Von Markko. Leipzig, 1893. Vers. 8.

We must not forget that these last-named have borrowed much from the first ones, and it is by them that they have known the celebrated Khalif of Bagdad, one of the princ.i.p.al heroes of the "Thousand and One Nights,"

Haroun al Raschid, whose presence surprises us not a little when figuring in adventures incompatible with the dignity of a successor of the Prophet.

As in the Berber tales, one finds parallels to the Arab stories among the folk-lore of Europe, whether they were borrowed directly or whether they came from India. One will notice, however, in the Arab tales a superior editing. The style is more ornate, the incidents better arranged. One feels that, although it deals with a language disdaining the usage of letters, it is expressed almost as well as though in a cultivated literary language.

The gathering of the populations must also be taken into consideration; the citizens of Tunis, of Algiers, and even in the cities of Morocco, have a more exact idea of civilized life than the Berber of the mountains or the desert. As to the comic stories, it is still the Si Djeha who is the hero, and his adventures differ little with those preserved in Berber, and which are common to several literatures, even when the princ.i.p.al person bears another name.

The popular poetry consists of two great divisions, quite different as to subject. The first and best esteemed bears the name of Klam el Djedd, and treats of that which concerns the Prophet, the saints, and miracles. A specimen of this cla.s.s is the complaint relative to the rupture of the Dam of St. Denis of Sig, of which the following is the commencement:

"A great disaster was fated:[9]

The cavalier gave the alarm, at the moment of the break; The menace was realized by the Supreme Will, My G.o.d! Thou alone art good.