Speak Bird Speak Again (10 page)

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.

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, and 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.

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).