Speak Bird, Speak Again Part 13

"Gladly," he answered. "I'll help you decide."

Taking a stick, he stood at the top of a hill and said, "I'm going to throw this stick down into the wadi. He who can bring it back gets all three things."

"By Allah," they agreed, "this is fine."

Lifting up the stick, he hurled it away right to the bottom of the wadi. The three brothers went running after it. Putting on the cap of invisibility, he took hold of the dub, mounted the magic carpet, and said, "Don't land except in the country where the tiger is to be found."

When he landed in that town, he came upon an old woman and her daughter. Introducing himself, he said, "Old lady, I'd like to stay with you."

"Welcome, welcome!" she responded.

She offered him some yogurt, and, to his surprise, it was reddish in color.

"Old lady," he asked, "why is this yogurt red like that?"

"Look here, son!" she answered. "Our town is surrounded. In this direction there's a giant scorpion, in that one a snake, in the other one a viper, and over there is a tiger. The sheep can't roam freely in any direction, and so they eat the dirt between the houses."

"All fight," he announced, "tomorrow morning I'm going to take your sheep grazing in the direction of the viper."

"But, dear son!" she protested. "The viper will bite you."

"No," he insisted. "I'm going to graze them."

Leading the sheep in the morning, he went roaming with them, and what did he find but that the gra.s.s was this high. The sheep fed on the tender tips of the gra.s.s. The viper came out, and lo! she had seven heads.

"Who's been grazing in my pasture?" she asked.

"A stranger who doesn't know any better," he answered.

"All fight," she said. "You're a stranger who doesn't know better. Today, you came. Tomorrow, you'd better stay away."

He let the sheep graze till evening, then went home and stayed with the old woman. In the morning he went back.

"Who's been grazing in my pasture?"

"A stranger who doesn't know any better."

"All right. Today, you came; another day, stay away."

"Every day you claim you're a stranger who doesn't know better," she said to him on the third day. "I don't know [what you're up to]. Come down to the battlefield!"

He came down and cut off all her heads. People said, "The son of the old woman has killed the viper. He has opened such and such a direction!" In our town you might say he opened up Wadi l-'En. The whole town took their sheep grazing there.

The next day he said, "I want to go in the direction of the snake."

"You won't be able to kill this one, dear son," she protested.

"No," he answered, "I want to go."

As he had done to the viper, he did to the snake. The townspeople proclaimed, "The son of the old lady has opened up the second direction." [In our town] you might say it was the direction of Ez-Zawye. The same thing he did with the scorpion and opened up that direction.

"I want to go in the direction of the tiger," announced Hasan the next day.

"No, son," said the old woman. "You opened up three directions, that's enough."

"No," he answered, "I want to go."

He pulled himself together and went. The tiger showed up and asked, "Who's grazing in my pasture?"

"A stranger who doesn't know any better."

"With me, there's no such thing as a stranger," responded the tiger. "Here, you must come down to the battlefield."

"You come down," Hasan challenged him.

A blow from this one and a blow from that one, and from here a blow and from there a blow. They kept it up till evening, and neither of them was able to win. The first day, the second, and the third, neither of them could win. The boy could not defeat the tiger, nor the tiger the boy.

On the fourth day, the tiger boasted, "Who knows but that I'll get the better of you and eat carrion over your belly."

"And who knows but that I will get the better of you," replied the other. "I'll eat a meal of flat bread rubbed with ghee and sugar, drink a flask of wine, and kiss my delicate young lady - all on a mat spread on your belly."

Now, the old woman was eating her heart out over him. She said to her daughter, "Daughter, stick your head over the wall and see if your brother's getting the better of the tiger, or if the tiger's got your brother down."

Allah was on his side. The girl peeked out, and listen! he was mouthing his boast. She rushed back in and said to her mother, "Yee! My brother is saying such and such and such."

"Yee, daughter!" said the mother. "Let's set to it."

So they quickly baked some fiat bread and rubbed it with ghee and sugar, and the girl bundled it up and brought it to her brother, along with a flask of water and a straw mat. And by Allah, the moment the girl showed up, the lad (with Allah's help) threw the tiger to the ground. Taking the mat, he spread it on the tiger's belly, ate the sugared bread, drank the flask of water, and kissed the young lady. He cracked the tiger's knee open, and behold! there was the other man's soul in a snuffbox this small. Reaching for it, he took and put it in his pocket and then came back - only to find the neighbors (Far be it from you!) wailing and lamenting.

"Well, mother," he asked, "I've opened four directions. So why are the neighbors wailing?"

"You should know, son," she answered. "There's a demon guarding the spring, and every year around this time he must have a bride. This year it's our neighbors' turn. They will dress her up and leave her in a room, and they don't know where the demon of the spring will take her."

"I was ready to leave for home," he said, "but now I've changed my mind."

In the morning they clothed the girl in a bridal dress and put her in the room so that the guardian of the spring could come take her and release the water for them and their animals to drink. By Allah, he did not take long to show up.

"Who's this sitting with my bride?" he roared.

"By Allah, it's only me," answered the youth. "Stretch out your neck and take her!"

When the demon stretched out his neck, the lad cut off his head, and water gushed from the spring. And how pleased were the townspeople! They were overjoyed. Some of them said, "My sister's yours [for a bride]!" Others said, "My daughter's yours!" While others were saying, "You have so much and so much money coming!"

"No! No!" he announced. "I'm not staying. Not for an inheritance, or for money!"

By Allah, he said, "Magic carpet, don't bring me down except [at the house] of such and such a family!" And when the carpet landed, he thought to himself, "By Allah, I'm going to see what's in this snuff box." (You know that an unfortunate one remains so always.) Taking hold of the snuff box, he struck it to open it, but it flew down into a well. "And what in the world's going to bring it back?" he thought. Then, remembering the hairs his brothers-in-law had given him, he rubbed them, and lo! some rams appeared. They threw themselves down into the water and kept stirring it until they recovered the box. After they recovered it, they fought [over it]. It came open, and 1o! a bird flew up into the sky.

Again he rubbed his brother-in-laws' hairs, and a whole flock of birds, so thick they blocked the sun, appeared. They chased and chased the bird until they brought it to him. Holding on to it tightly, he said [to his carpet], "This time don't land except in Gazelle's town!"

He found Gazelle and her foe still sparring. "Who knows," he was saying, "but that I'll kill you and take away your soul?" And she was answering, "Not at all! Who knows but that I'll be getting the better of you and taking your soul away?"

"I told you where my soul was," mocked the other. "How are you going to get to it?"

Hasan immediately squeezed the bird, showing no mercy.

"Ouch!" the jinni cried out. "By Allah, I'm in a tight spot."

"What!" she yelled back. "Are you mocking me?"

"No, by Allah," he confessed. "This time, I really am pressed."

Meanwhile, her husband kept tearing the bird's limbs. When he tore the bird's foot apart, the man's foot would fall, a wing from the bird, and a hand from the man - until there was nothing of him left at all.

The bird of this tale has flown, and now it's someone else's turn.

Lolabe

TELLER: Testify that G.o.d is One!

AUDIENCE: There is no G.o.d but G.o.d.

Once there was a king who had a son - an only son and no other. He made a vow. If his son survived and grew up, he would run two channels into the city for the benefit of the poor and the dest.i.tute. One channel would be filled with honey, and the other with ghee.

One day the boy grew up and started school, and an old crone began annoying him. Every day she would meet him and say, "Tell your mother to fulfill the vow, or I'll cut short your life!" But when he reached home, he forgot. The next day, she would wait for him on his way to school and say, "Tell your mother to fulfill the vow, or I'll cut short your life!" And he would answer, "But, grandmother, I keep forgetting."

"You forget," she said one day. Gathering some pebbles from the road, she put them in his pocket and said, "These stones are to remind you. The moment you put your hand in your pocket, you'll remember."

"Very well," he said. But when he came home from school he changed clothes without putting his hand in his pocket. When they washed his clothes, his mother found the pebbles in his pocket. "Yee!" she thought to herself. "Allah forgive me! A king's son with a craving. O my little baby! It looks like he wanted to put candy in his pocket, but look, he put in pebbles." The moment he came home, she asked him, "Son, why did you put these pebbles in your pocket? My darling boy, if you've been craving something, tell me and I'll give you the money to buy it."

"Ah yes, mother," he recalled. "No, I don't crave anything. Rather there's an old woman who meets me every day and says, 'Tell your mother to fulfill the vow, or I'll cut short your life.'"

"Yes, all right," she said.

The mother went up to see the king, and he gave orders, "Dig two channels, clean them well and paint them, and run honey in one and ghee in the other!" Now there was one who had news of the channels and who also knew the old woman. He was (Save your honors!) mean, a rascal. He went to the old woman and called out, "Hey! Old lady! The sultan has declared he will cut off the heads of all the old women." She locked herself in and hid.

Meanwhile, the king had the channels built, one for honey and the other for ghee. People scooped the honey and ghee up until there was no more. The old woman's neighbor came to her, saying, "Hey, neighbor! What's the matter? Why do you have yourself locked in?"

"O, dear neighbor," she answered, "so and so told me such and such."

"Yee! G.o.d help you!" exclaimed the other. "He's tricked you. Didn't you know the king was today fulfilling the vow he'd made for his son? He's had a channel dug for honey and another for ghee. You'd better hurry."

Taking with her a piece of cotton, two small pots, and a little gla.s.s, she set out. She sat under the king's palace by the channels and started soaking her piece of cotton and squeezing it into the gla.s.s. The few drops of honey she poured into one pot, and the few drops of ghee into the other. Now the son of the king looked over and found it was the old crone who used to pester him every day, and she was letting [whatever she could get] soak into the cotton. She was too late to get much. Waiting until she had filled her gla.s.s, he brought a pebble and threw it out the window fight down at her gla.s.s, and lo! he spilled it. Looking up like so, she exclaimed, "Yee! So it's you, the son of the king! For over an hour I've been trying to fill this gla.s.s, and you've spilled it for me just like that! May Allah afflict you with Lolabe, daughter of Lolabe!"

"Don't worry, old woman," said the boy. "Come around this way, and I'll replace it for you."

She brought the two pots with her, and he filled them up and said, "Go your way!"

Afterwards, he went to his mother and said, "Mother, prepare food and provisions for me. I want to go searching for Lolabe."

"O my son, my darling! Son of worthy people! Where are you going to search?"

"No use," he insisted. "I'm going to search for her."

His horse having been prepared, he took the provisions and set out with the crowing of the c.o.c.k. He traveled and traveled, moving from place to place, until he reached a castle on a hill in the wilderness. He must have been tired, for he lay down to rest by the wall of the castle. Looking out, Lolabe saw him at the foot of the castle.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you Clever Hasan?" (I don't know his name.) "Yes," he answered.

"My mother's coming any moment, and she'll gobble you up. You'd better come up?

And (if the story is to be trusted) she let down her hair, he hung on to it, and she pulled him up into the castle with her. Her mother arrived.

"Lolabe! Lolabe!" she called out. "Let your hair down for your mother! Your sad, miserable, and tired mother, who's eaten a hundred trees and a hundred cows and still hasn't had enough."

Lolabe let down her hair and pulled her mother up. It is said, however, that as soon as she heard her mother's voice she blew on Hasan and changed him into a pin, which she stuck in her headband.

"You reek of human, human," said the mother when she came in. "Not for a little while, or since yesterday, but as of right now, even before sunrise!"

"O mother!" replied Lolabe. "It's you who goes running into all sorts of things! It's you who leaves early. As for me, I'm here in the castle. How could a human being possibly reach me?"

"I don't know," said the mother. "But you do smell of human."

"There is no human here," insisted Lolabe.

Looking about, the mother noticed the pin in Lolabe's headband.

"Lend me that pin so I can remove a thorn from my foot," she said.

"All day long you're wandering around running into things and knocking trees down under your feet," answered Lolabe. "And if there were a thorn in your foot, it would've fallen out."

"No, daughter," groaned the mother. "This is a big thorn. Give me the pin so I can remove it."

Removing the pin, Lolabe turned it into a watermelon, which she hid among their store of watermelons, and she gave her another pin to remove the thorn. Her mother pa.s.sed it this way and that over her foot and gave it back. (Could it be true that a ghouleh would really want to remove a thorn?) She looked around again and said, "Give me that watermelon to eat."

"All day long you're running around in the wild to fill your belly," complained Lolabe. "And now you've come to eat what I have in the house."

"By Allah," said the mother. "I'm really tired" (and I don't know what else), "go bring me a watermelon to eat."

Lolabe went and rolled a watermelon over to her mother, who said, "Not this one! That one!" "Not this one! That one!" and so on, insisting so much that Lolabe took hold of the watermelon and dashed it to the floor, spilling seeds all over. Now Lolabe (if the teller is not lying) covered one of the seeds with her foot, while her mother set about licking up the watermelon - seeds, find, and all - and started on her way out.