Speak Bird Speak Again (18 page)

"Uncle,"
she asked the shepherd, "do you happen to know where there's
water for us to drink?"

"Listen,
daughter," he replied. "You'll come upon two springs. Drink
from the lower one, but the other one - don't drink from it! A
gazelle has pissed in it, and whoever drinks from it now will turn
into a gazelle."

"Thank
you," said the girl.

They
reached the springs, and quenched their thirst from the lower one.

"By
Allah," insisted the brother. "I must drink from the other
spring too, just to see what will happen."

"O
brother, brother, please!"

He
would not listen to her, and drank from the upper spring. When he
drank, he turned into a gazelle. The girl led him away, her tears
flowing into her mouth. She arrived by the walls of a palace and sat
down. A servantgirl looked out and saw her.

"Sir,"
said the servant to her master, "down by the palace wall there's
one so beautiful she'll take your mind away."

"Go
call her for me!" he said. She went and called over to her,
"Girl, come up and see my master," and the girl replied, "I
have a gazelle with me." The king said to his servants, "Take
the gazelle and tether him down below, and have her come up here!"

"No,"
said the girl. "This gazelle - wherever I stay, he stays with
me."

"Very
well," said the king. "Let him come up with her."

She
led the gazelle up the stairs with her, and stayed. She stayed a
month, perhaps two, Allah knows!

"Young
woman," the king asked one day, "would you rather have me
for a brother or for a husband?"

"No,
by Allah [not as a brother]," replied the girl. "Marriage
is shelter."

He
married her. A day went and a day came, she became pregnant, and he
set out on the hajj. But before leaving he said to the women of the
house, "Take good care of so and so. And this lamb here - when
she gives birth, have it slaughtered for her!"

"Yes,"
they said. But after he left, they whispered, "This one's so
beautiful and well behaved, he'll sell us all for her sake when he
comes back. What're we going to do with her?" They dropped her
into a well, slaughtered her lamb, and ate it themselves, burying its
skin under the floor of the house.

Now,
the gazelle, whenever they fed him a mouthful of bread, would take it
and drop it into the well.

The
king returned from the hajj. "Where's my wife?" he asked.

"Allah
have mercy on her soul!" they said. "She died. And, by
Allah, since she was so dear to us, we've dug a grave for her fight
under the floor here."

Looking
the gazelle over, how thin the king found him! He said, "What
use do we have for him now that she's gone? Let's feed him till he
fattens up, then slaughter him."

But
the gazelle still took the mouthful of bread and went away. The king
thought, "By Allah, I've got to follow this gazelle and find out
where he takes the food." He followed him, and behold! the
gazelle carried the piece of bread in his jaws, went to the mouth of
a well, dropped it in, and started calling out:

"O
my little sister, O Bdur!

For me
they've sharpened the knives

And
raised the pots over the fire."

And
she answered:

"O
my little brother, O Qdur!

My
hair's so long it covers me,

In my
lap sits the son of the king,

And
the whale has swallowed me."

Looking
into the well, the king asked, "Are you down in this well?"

"Just
as you see," she answered.

He had
a young man like Mhammad Musa lowered into the well. The man went
down and brought her and her child up. Then she told the king what
had taken place. "My story is such and such and such," she
said, "and so and so. We drank from the springs, this gazelle is
my brother, and the women of your house dropped me into the well.
This is exactly what has happened to me."

After
she was out of the well, the king took her brother and made him drink
from the same spring again, and he turned back into this youth that
you should come and see.

He
then brought together his mother, his sister, and his servantgirl and
had it announced that he who loves the sultan must in the morning
bring a lapful of wood and a burning coal to, you might say, the
town's threshing grounds. He lit a fire and dropped his mother, his
sister, and the servant into it, and burned them.

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.

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."