Speak Bird Speak Again (19 page)

"All
right," he agreed, "I'm willing."

He
started guessing: "nuts, lava beans, lentils, wheat, rice, sugar
..." It was no use; he could not guess. When he was stumped,
with no chance of guessing, the merchants took the lions with them
and moved on.

By
Allah, they had not led those lions very far away when a drop of
blood, which had fallen from his sister to the ground when the lions
ate her, shouted out, "Sumac! You son of a whore, sumac!""

After
the merchants the brother ran. "Wait! Uncles, wait!" he
exclaimed. "I can guess what your load is. It's sumac!"

Having
guessed, he took his lions back and got the caravan with its load.

This
is my tale, I've told it, and in your hands I leave it.

9.

Once
upon a time there was a man. He had a son and a daughter whose mother
had died. They had a neighbor who was a widow, and every day she kept
after the children, putting ideas in their heads.

"Tell
me," she would say, "doesn't your father intend to get
married?"

"No,
not yet," they would answer.

"Why,
then, don't you say to him," she would urge, "'Father,
marry our neighbor.'"

"Father,"
they would go to him and say, "marry our neighbor."

"Children,
you're still too young," he would answer. "If I get married
now, your aunt will beat you. When you're older I'll marry again."
And to his daughter he would say, "I'll wait until you're old
enough to fill the water jug."

The
girl would then go to the woman and say, "Such and such says my
father." And the neighbor would go fill the water jug [at the
spring], bring it to their house, and urge the girl to say to her
father, "Father, I'm now old enough. I've filled the water jug.
Marry our neighbor."

"I'll
marry when you're old enough to knead the dough," the father
would say. "When you're old enough to bake the bread. When
you're old enough to cook." Whatever chore he mentioned, the
neighbor would come to the house and do it, and the girl would go
back to her father and say, "Father, here! I've done this and
that. Marry our neighbor."

Eventually
the man did marry the neighbor, and she turned against the children
and beat them.

One
day her husband said, "Wife, by Allah, we've got a craving for
stuffed tripe."

"Bring
the tripe," she answered, "and we'll cook it."

He
went and got the tripe, and she scrubbed and cleaned it and put it on
the fire. Her husband was plowing in the fields. After she had placed
the food on the fire, she set to sweeping the floor. She swept a
stroke or two and thought to herself that she might as well check
'and see if the food was ready. She picked up a foot and ate it.
Another stroke or two with the broom, and again she said to herself,
"Let me poke the food and see if it's ready." She picked up
a portion of the tripe and ate it. By the time she realized what she
was doing, she had eaten up the whole meal, leaving nothing behind.

"Yee!"
she cried out. "The Devil take me! What's he going to do to me
now? Soon he'll be home from plowing, and what's he going to eat? By
Allah, I think he'll kill me. He'll blacken my face. Hey, you! Go
call your brother right away."

The
girl cried, knowing what the woman was up to.

"What
do you want with my brother, aunty?"

"I'm
telling you to call your brother. And, by Allah, if you don't call
him, I'll kill you right now."

The
girl went out, calling:

"Hey,
brother! Come and don't come!

Come
and don't come near!

For
you they've sharpened the knives

In
front of the shop doors."

Coming
back in, she said, "O aunty! I haven't been able to find him."

"I'm
telling you to call him," the woman snapped back. "Quick as
a bird! Otherwise, I'm going to slaughter you."

Back
out went the girl, and she called:

"Hey,
brother! Come and don't come!

Come
and don't come near!

For
you they've sharpened the knives

In
front of the shop doors."

This
last time the woman said, "I'll kill you if you don't bring
him." Finally the sister called her brother, and he came.

Taking
him inside, the woman locked the door. She slaughtered him, cut him
into pieces, and cooked him just as she would cook tripe and in the
same pot. The other one sat crying and crying, but the woman said to
her, "Consider yourself dead if you speak to your father or
anyone else."

The
father came home from plowing, hungry.

"Did
you cook the tripe, wife?" he asked.

"Yes,"
she answered.

Setting
the pot down, they cut pieces of bread, poured the sauce over it,
piled the meat on top, and set to it.

"Come,
girl," the father urged his daughter. "Eat!"

"I
don't want any," she said.

"How
can you not want any?" he asked. "Eat!"

"No,
father," she replied. "I'm full. I've just taken some food
and eaten."

"Leave
her alone!" his wife cut in. "What do you want with her?
All day long she's been hanging about and eating."

"All
right," said the father. "But where's your brother? Doesn't
he want to eat?"

"He
just ate and went out to play," answered the wife: "When.
he comes back, even if it's midnight, I'll give him some food."

From
that day on, the man would set out for the fields with his team early
in the morning and come home late in the evening, tired. He would •
ask about the boy, and his wife would say he had just eaten and gone
out to play.

Now
the sister, after they had finished their meal, took the bones and
dug a hole and buried them at the edge of the garden. And every
morning she would sit by the place where she buried the bones and cry
and cry until she had no more tears. Then she would go home.

One
day there was a wedding at a neighbor's house. Her father, her
stepmother, and all the girls. [in the neighborhood] put on their
best clothes and went to the wedding. "Now that nobody's
around," she thought to herself, "I'll dig up the bones and
look at them again." She went and dug and (so the story goes)
found a marble urn. She dug deeper, unearthed it, and out of it flew
a green bird. And what else? The urn was full of gold bracelets,
tings, and earrings. There was also a dress, which was something to
look at. Putting it on, the girl set out for the wedding wearing all
the jewelry. Everyone noticed her, admiring the clothes and the
jewelry, but no one recognized her.

In a
while, as the wedding procession moved along, a green bird came
circling over the head of the bride. He sang:

"I
am the green bird

Who
graces this gathering!

My
stepmother slaughtered me

And my
father devoured me

Only
my kind sister

(Allah
shower mercy on her!)

Gathered
up my bones

And
saved them in the urn of stone."

"Look!
Look!" they all shouted. "There's a bird, and it's
speaking!" They forgot about the wedding procession and turned
their attention to the bird.

"Speak,
bird!" they clamored, "Speak again! How beautiful are your
words!"

"I
won't say anything more," he replied, "until that woman
over there opens her mouth."

His
stepmother opened her mouth, and he dropped a handful of nails and
needles into it. She swallowed them, and behold! she died.

"Speak
bird!" urged the crowd. "Say morel How beautiful are your
words!"

"I
won't speak again," he answered, "until that man over there
opens his mouth." His father opened his mouth, and the bird
dropped a handful of needles and nails into it. He, too, fell dead.

Again
the crowd urged the bird. "Speak, bird! How beautiful are your
words!"

"I
won't say more," he answered, "until that girl over there
opens her lap."

His
sister opened her lap like this, the bird landed on it, and behold!
he turned into a boy again. Her brother had returned as he was
before, and they went home and lived together.

This
is my tale, I've told it, and in your hands I leave it.

10.

TELLER:
Testify that God is One!

AUDIENCE:
There is no god but God.

Once
upon a time there were three girls. They were spinners and had
nothing but their spinning. Every day they used to spin and go down
to the market to sell their product and buy food. One day the town
crier announced that it was forbidden to put on a light in the city,
because the king wanted to test his subjects - to see who was
obedient and who was not. That night the king and his vizier went
through the city to check whose lights were on and whose were not.

What
were the girls to do? They had nothing but their spinning. Every day
one of them would spin, and they would sell her yarn and buy food for
all of them to eat. What could they do? They wanted to continue with
their spinning, but they dared not put on a light. So the eldest one
called out, "O my Lord, my beloved! May the king be passing this
way and hear me, and may he wed me to his baker so I can have my fill
of bread!" The middle sister prayed, "And may he wed me to
his cook so I can have my fill of food!" Then the youngest made
her plea, "O my Lord, my beloved! May the king pass this way and
hear me! And may he wed me to his son, and I give birth to two boys
and a girl. I will call one of the boys Aladdin and the other
Bahaddin, and the girl Samsizzha. If she smiles while it's raining,
the sun will shine; and if she cries while the sun's shining, it will
rain."

As
chance would have it, the king was passing that way, and he heard
them.

"Councillor!"
ordered the king, "Manage it for me!"

"The
owner manages his own property, O Ruler of the Age," replied the
vizier. They put a mark on that shack and went home. In the morning
the king sent soldiers, who said to the girls, "Come and see the
king!" And they came.

"Obedience
is yours, Majesty!" they said.

"Come
here," said the king. "What's your story?"

"We
are three girls, Your Majesty," they replied, "and we have
no one to take care of us and nothing to eat. You ordered the lights
out, so what could we do? What you heard, we actually said."

"All
fight," he said. "Let it be as you wish!"

He
married the eldest to his baker, the middle one to the cook, and the
youngest to his son. Seeing that she had married the king's son,
whereas they were the wives of the baker and the cook, her sisters
became jealous and wanted to take revenge on her. When she became
pregnant the first time and was ready to deliver, they went to the
midwife and bribed her.

"Take
this little puppy," they said. "Put it under our sister and
give us the baby. We'll be waiting for you outside the door of the
house. Wrap the baby and hand him over to us, and put the puppy in
his place."

The
sister had no sooner given birth than the midwife wrapped up the
baby, putting the puppy in his place, and handed him over to them.
She then went back inside.

"What
did the daughter-in-law of the king's household give birth to?"
people asked.

"Yee!"
they said, "What did she give birth to? She gave birth to a
puppy!"

The
king's family, however, brought up the puppy and were proud of it.

Meanwhile,
what did the sisters do? Taking the baby, they wrapped him well, put
him in a box, and threw it into the river. On the bank of the river
was an orchard, in which lived an old man and an old woman. The aged
couple went out in the morning and found a box on the water. They
picked it up and opened it, and found a baby. Since they had no
children, the old man said, "Why don't we bring him up, old
lady? He might be useful to us in the future." They adopted him.

Now we
go back to the king's daughter-in-law. She became pregnant again, and
was ready to deliver. As soon as she was about to give birth, her
sisters went to the midwife. "Take this newborn kitten,"
they said, "and put it under her. And as much money as you want,
we'll give you. Just hand the baby over to us."