Speak Bird Speak Again (44 page)

"No,
brother," she answered, "I did no such thing. I wouldn't
dream of going into your place while you're out."

Going
to an elderly barber, he said, "Sir, I want to tell you a story.
Yesterday, such and such happened to me."

"Sir,"
answered the barber, "tomorrow, put the fish down and hide
behind the window. Then you'll see who comes into your place and does
them for you."

Well,
he went and caught a few fish and sold what he wanted to sell,
leaving only as many as he could eat. Bringing them home, he covered
them with the platter and said, "By Allah, I'm going out to the
coffee-house for a cup of coffee, and when I come back I'll prepare
them myself." Going out, he turned and stood guard behind the
window. The board dropped, and three girls came down. And what girls
they were! You might say they were nothing less than daughters of
kings. One of them swept the house, the other scraped the fish, and
the third put things in order. Quick as a wink, he did not wait for
them to finish but opened the door. Two of them disappeared, and the
youngest one remained.

"It's
settled," she said. "Fate has decreed I'm yours. Besides, I
don't dare go back home now. My parents will kill me."

Taking
her in, he lived with her. He sent for the cadi, who drew up a
marriage contract, and he married her and lived together with her. In
two or three days he said, "Are we going to stay in this shack?
You already know what I do for a living."

"Don't
worry," she answered. "Leave it to me!"

She
sent for people, put out a bid on a house, and had one built opposite
the king's palace. When she took possession of the house, she
furnished and arranged it, and then lived together with her husband.

One
day she got up early in the morning and went to the roof to hang out
her laundry, when the king saw her.

"To
whom does this woman belong, people?"

"This
is So-and-So's wife."

Sending
for the fisherman, he said, "I want your wife."

"O
Ruler of the Age," begged the fisherman, "how can I give
you my wife?"

"I
don't know how you're going to manage it," responded the king,
"but I want her. I'll set an impossible task for you, and if you
fail to do it, I'll cut off your head and take your wife."

"What
is it?"

"I
want you to bring me a grapevine, to be planted in the evening. And
in the morning I want to get up and find one bunch of grapes on it. I
want to eat from it with my whole army, and it should stay exactly as
it is."

The
fisherman went crying to his wife.

"It's
finished," he lamented. "I'm going to die."

"Don't
be afraid," she said. "Go back to the shack we were in and
call out, 'You whose height is two hand-spans and whose hat is two
finger-lengths, come out? and a creature will appear. Say to him, 'My
mistress Xadduj bids you tell my mistress Ayyus to give me a branch
of the grapevine growing in front of her house.'"

"All
right," he said, and went to call out as she had taught him,
bringing back with him a branch of the vine. He went and dug by the
door of the palace, planted it, and then headed home.

In the
morning, it is said (and if the teller is to be trusted), the king
came and found a full-grown grapevine with one duster of grapes on
it. He cut it down and ate from it with all his army, and it stayed
exactly as it. was. The king then excused the fisherman. But what was
he to do? He wanted the fisherman's wife. Waiting a week or two, he
sent for him again.

"What
do you want, my lord?"

"I
want your wife."

"O
Ruler of the Age! O son of worthy people! My wife?"

"This
time," said the king, "you must bring me a loaf of bread. I
will eat from it with my army, and it should stay exactly as it is.
Otherwise, I'll cut off your head and take your wife."

Again
he went crying to his wife, saying, "Such and such is the
story."

"Don't
worry," she answered. "Go and call on the same one you
called on last time, and say, 'Give me the loaf of bread sitting on
the shelf in my family's house.'"

The
fisherman went, called out, and the creature came. "My mistress
Xadduj," said he, "bids you tell my mistress Ayyus to give
me the loaf of bread sitting on the shelf in her family's house."
The creature disappeared and then came back with a loaf of bread and
said, "Here, master!"

Bringing
the bread with him, the fisherman put it in front of the king, who
ate from it with all his army, and it stayed exactly as it was. The
fisherman then took the bread home with him.

"It's
no use," declared the king finally. "Whether it cracks, or
whether it rings, I want the fisherman's wife."

And
again he sent for him, and said, "I want you to bring me an
infant the moment he's born, naked and with his umbilical cord still
attached. I want this infant to tell me a tale that's all lies, from
beginning to end."

"My
lord," said the fisherman, "by the honor of your womenfolk,
I beg you!"

"No
use," answered the king.

Back
to his wife went the fisherman, weeping.

"What's
the matter?" she asked.

"Such
and such is the story," he answered.

"Fine,"
she said. "My sister's just now giving birth. Go stand by the
door of the shack and call out again. Tell the creature to wait until
she's given birth, then have him wrap the baby in a piece of cloth
and bring it to you."

The
fisherman went and called the creature out, saying to him, "My
mistress tells you to give me the baby her sister's giving birth to
right now."

"Wait
until he's born," replied the creature.

The
fisherman waited by the door of the shack, and when she had given
birth, the other wrapped the baby in a piece of cloth and brought
him.

"Hurry!"
urged the fisherman's wife, "Take and put him in front of the
king, and don't worry about anything!"

The
fisherman carried the baby in his arms to the king's palace.

"Peace
to you!" declared the infant the moment they came in.

When
they had brought him a chair and the baby sat down in it in front of
the king, he said, "O Ruler of the Age, I want to tell you a
tale."

"Please
go ahead," responded the king, and the infant began his tale:

"By
Allah, O king, in the old days I used to go around selling olive oil
loaded on a rooster. One day the rooster's back broke. I was going
around wondering what to do for him, what to use on him, when someone
much like yourself showed up.

"'Young
man,' said he, 'you've got no recourse but walnuts. Crush a walnut
and rub it on the rooster's back, and it will heal.'

"So
I went, got hold of a walnut, and crushed and spread it on the
rooster's back. In the morning I woke up and found a tree on his
back, and it was loaded with walnuts. Even with forty pickers up in
it, not one could see the other; and with forty gatherers under it,
not one could reach out and touch another.

"Well,
I brought pickers and gatherers and had the tree picked and the nuts
gathered. Then I looked up and saw one nut still hanging from the tip
of the topmost branch. I reached for a handful of dirt and threw it
to knock the walnut down, and that handful spread into a plain the
size of Marj Ibn Amir on top of the tree. I hired a team of yoked
oxen, and set to plowing the plain and planting it with sesame. A
caravan passed by and said, 'Young man, what're you planting?'

"'By
Allah,' I answered, 'I'm planting sesame.'

"'No,'
they said. 'By Allah, it's a waste of this soil to plant sesame in
it. It's better to plant watermelons.'

"So
I hired laborers and had the sesame seeds picked up, one by one. When
they were finished, I counted the seeds and found one missing. As I
was going around looking for it, I found it in an ant's mouth. With
me pulling in one direction and the ant in the other, the seed split
and the ant got away with one half and I with the other. I pressed it
out, and it yielded a ton of sesame oil.

"After
that I started planting watermelons in the plain. I would no sooner
plant the seed than the watermelon would grow behind me as large as a
big jar. I wanted to cut open a watermelon, so I took hold of one and
did like this with the knife, and what should happen but that it
slipped from my hand into the watermelon. Taking off my clothes, I
jumped inside the watermelon and found I was in a market of butcher
shops. As I was wandering around looking for the knife, I found it
with one of the butchers. With me pulling in one direction and he in
the other, we ended up fighting over the knife. Eventually, I
snatched it away from him and struck him a blow that killed him. Then
I pulled myself together and came out. And here I am, O Ruler of the
Age! I came directly to see you. Whatever you want, I'm ready to do
it."

"Uncle,"
said the king to the fisherman, "take this boy away, and may
Allah bless you and your wife! And never again will I claim her."

The
fisherman took the boy back to his family, and he lived with his wife
in peace and comfort.

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

Afterword

These
tales take for their theme the relationship between the individual
and society, where family bonds and obligations do not necessarily
dictate the standard of conduct. In this group the fabric of society
in operation is shown, with the values of helping those in distress
and of neighborliness present or assumed in all of them. The women in
"Im Awwad" go to the spring to wash their clothes in
groups, both for protection and because people like to be together.
In "The Merchant's Daughter," the neighbor not only comes
to the girl's rescue, but he also assumes the father's role in
marrying her off. Pomegranate Seeds is helped by the shopkeepers,
who, out of a sense of social (and moral) obligation to help the
helpless, take her in for the night; and when their shops are turned
upside down, the shopkeepers' neighbors in turn assist them by
collecting money. In "The Woodcutter," the standards of
honesty and fair dealing are broken only at the risk of severe and
justified punishment. And in the last tale of this group, the
fisherman's in-laws help him in a difficult situation, and his
neighbor at the beginning of the tale cooks for him, taking pity on
him because he is alone and has nobody.

Yet in
spite of the social harmony that is presumed to reign, the
collectivity does break down. These tales show how disorder can arise
when individuals attract negative forces simply by virtue of
possessing things or qualities that the rest of society covets.
Indeed, envy is considered an active force, its instrument the evil
eye; and although the eye is not explicitly mentioned in any of the
tales, its power is nevertheless present, symbolized in the first
three tales by the actions of the destructive ghouls. As demonstrated
in "Im Awwad," it is not easy to protect oneself from these
forces, which are "supernatural" not in the sense of being
beyond nature but rather in being beyond human control. Although
presented in terms of ghoul and jinn imagery, the behavior of these
forces resembles that of human beings - as seen in the modesty of the
fisherman's jinn wife, which prevents her from returning home after
having visited a man's house for fear of parental retribution; or in
the greed of the ghouleh in "The Merchant's Daughter," who
has amassed a large hoard of treasure but does not use it to benefit
her family.

Three
broad categories of possessions - which accurately reflect the
concerns of the society - attract these negative forces: children,
wealth, and sexuality. In "Im Awwad," the simple fact of
having a male child is the source of envy, for aside from their
economic value to the family, sons are also its source of power in
the society. Boy children are envied for their own sake, and parents
frequently take precautions to protect them from the evil eye. The
woodcutter's sudden acquisition of wealth is envied by his neighbors,
whose greed resembles that of the ghouleh in "The Merchant's
Daughter." And in "The Fisherman," the extreme beauty
of the wife sets her apart from other women, thus drawing the power
of envy to her, and her sexuality turns her into an object that the
king wishes to possess. In "The Merchant's Daughter," the
forces of evil converge upon a single girl living by herself without
a male protector. Men would assume that someone in her position is
easily available, and they would be eager to take advantage of her if
they could. Pomegranate Seeds is made to suffer because she is a
special creature. She is so special that her mother had a pair of
golden slippers made for her, and she is envied for her beauty and
her faithfulness. Her encounter with the schoolmaster/sheikh at the
beginning of the tale carries clear sexual overtones, and her flight
from one place to another may be seen as an attempt to escape the bad
reputation that keeps following her. She must struggle for many years
to regain her reputation and her honor in the face of strong public
pressure, represented by the people who curse her children and urge
the king to marry another woman at any cost.