Speak Bird Speak Again (22 page)

"I'm
wearing my very best!

Ya-la-lal-li

And
this is the day of my feast

Ya-la-lal-la."

"Eh!"
he thought. "Who is singing like that?" He listened
carefully, and behold! it was the little bird singing. Aiming his
gun, he fired and shot her. She sang her song:

"What
a sharp shooter!

Ya-la-lal-li

What a
sharp shooter!

Ya-la-lal-la."

He
then plucked her feathers, and she was singing:

"A
fine feather-plucker!

Ya-la-lal-li

A fine
feather-plucker!

Ya-la-lal-la."

Then
he cooked her, and still she chirped:

"What
a good cook!

Ya-la-lal-li

What a
good cook!

Ya-la-lal-la."

Putting
her into his mouth, he chewed her until she was soft, then swallowed
her. She went down into his stomach. In a while, he got up and shat
her. She then sang out:

"Ho!
Ho! I saw the prince's hole,

It's
red, red, like a burning coal."

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

12.

Once
there was a father, a merchant with three daughters. Two were from
one mother, while the third was from a different mother. She was the
youngest of the three and very beautiful. Her father loved her very
much, and had given her the name of Sitt il-Husun.

Wanting
to go on the hajj, the father one day asked his daughters what they
wished. "Name something I can bring back with me," he said.

"I
want a gold bracelet," announced the eldest. "And I want a
dress embroidered with the most expensive silk," said the
second. "As for me, father," said Sitt il-Husun, "I
want Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds. And if you don't bring him
to me, may your camels collapse in Aqaba and be unable to move!"

The
father went, completed the hajj, and returned. On the way back his
camels collapsed in Aqaba, and he remembered. "Ah, yes!" he
thought. "By Allah, I've forgotten to bring Jummez Bin Yazur,
Chief of the Birds." Returning [to Mecca], he wandered around
the city asking about Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds. Finally
he came upon an aged sheikh, who gave him directions to Yazur's
house. "Go stand by his door," the old man said, "and
call out three times, 'Jummez Bin Yazur, Chief of the Birds! My
daughter has asked for you.'"

The
father walked and walked, until he reached the house described by the
sheikh. It was a hot day, and he was thirsty. Seeing a water jar by
the door, he reached out his hand to drink, but listen! "Take
your hand away!" said the jar. "May it be cut off! You dare
to drink from your master's house?" He was afraid, poor man!
Stepping back, he shouted out three times, "Jummez Bin Yazur,
Chief of the Birds! My daughter has asked for you!" and headed
straight home.

Three
nights after he arrived, look! a bird was beating his wings against
Sitt il-Husun's window. She got up and opened it for him, and he came
in. Fluttering his wings, he turned into a youth, one of the
handsomest of young men. Every night after that he came and stayed
with her, and at dawn he would turn back into a bird and fly away,
leaving her a purse full of gold under the pillow.

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 glass. If a
piece of glass were to cut him, he would never be able to recover.

When
she told her sisters, they went behind her back and broke the glass
of the window where he came in. That evening when he came to visit
her he tried to pass through the window, but the broken glass 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 passed 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 scrapes 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
scraped against the wall, shaking the whole world and waking up the
ghouleh. Snatching 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!

13.

Once
upon a time there was a woman who could not get pregnant and have
children. One day, when a cheese vendor passed 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!