Speak Bird Speak Again (27 page)

"All
fight, brothers," Hasan announced. "You must go back now.
She's my quarry, and I'm going to chase her."

He
gave chase, and as he approached her, the gazelle would run away from
him. She kept this up [until they stood] below his oldest sister's
town. Once he arrived in the town, he had no idea which way the
gazelle had turned. Where was he to go? After tying his horse, he
looked around, and behold! there was the servantgirl of his oldest
sister. "Mistress, mistress!" she called out to his sister.
"That man tying his horse could almost be you. Perhaps you come
from the same blood."

"Where
is anybody going to come from to see me?" asked the mistress.
"In any case, tell him to please come in!"

When
she asked him to come in, the brother could not believe his ears. He
had not known where to find lodging. On entering, he discovered his
own sister. How happy they were! They celebrated with singing and
dancing.

"And
what brought you this way, brother?" she asked.

"Gazelle
brought me," he answered.

"Good,"
she said. "Now relax."

By
Allah, in a little while her husband showed up.

"Welcome,
welcome to our brother-in-law!" he saluted him. "And what
brings you to this part of the world?"

They
held each other in friendly embrace, kissing each other on the
cheeks. The host ordered dinner for his guest.

"By
Allah," replied the brother. "Gazelle brought me."

"By
Allah, I'm more than a match for a hundred hosts," returned the
brother-in-law. "But I haven't been able to overcome Gazelle."
(He meant hosts of jinn - In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the
Compassionate!)

"By
Allah, this is my lot," the brother replied.

In the
morning he mounted his horse and moved on. Gazelle appeared and did
as she had done before, slowing down, then running away as soon as he
came near, until she came below the palace of the second sister. As
the other sister had asked, so did this one: "Brother, what has
brought you here?"

"Gazelle
brought me, sister," he answered.

"Welcome,
welcome!"

They
had dinner and amused themselves, enjoying each other's company.

"I
can overcome two hundred hosts," announced the brother-in-law,
"but I'm no match for Gazelle."

The
next day he again mounted his horse and moved on, with Gazelle
jumping here and there, until she reached the town where his youngest
sister lived and his third brother-in-law was. He said, "I have
more power than three hundred hosts, but I can't overcome Gazelle."

That's
right. Now, each of his brothers-in-law had given him a hair, saying,
"If you're ever in a tight spot, just rub this hair, and before
you know it we'll be there."

On the
fourth day she again jumped here and there until she reached her own
city. When they arrived there, he did not know which way she had
turned. Stopping to visit an old woman in a hut, he said, "Here's
the price of my dinner! Take it and go bring me dinner and some feed
for my horse. And tonight, mother, I'd like to stay here with you."

"One
hundred welcomes!" replied the old woman.

They
sat around chatting, and she asked him, "What brought you here,
son?"

"Gazelle
brought me," he answered.

"This
Gazelle," she advised, "has suitors all over the world. See
her castle? It's that one over there. And every time one of them
comes asking for her hand, her father says, 'He who can move this
mountain away from the front of my house can have her hand. And he
who can't move it - I'll have his head.' And every morning you find
him cutting off their heads."

"By
Allah," he said, "it's all destiny and fate. I'm going to
ask for her hand."

He
came and asked this person and that, and they all said, "Don't
go! You're a nice young man, and it would be such a loss if he were
to cut off. your head."

"It's
no use," he replied.

Remembering
the hairs his brothers-in-law had given him, he rubbed all three of
them, and behold! six hundred hosts of jinn appeared. Gazelle, too,
she loved him and came to his aid. He started on the mountain, and
before day had risen, look! it was (In the name of Allah, the
Merciful, the Compassionate!) as if there was no mountain there at
all.

When
the sun rose, it shone on her father's bed. "Alas!" he
cried out. "He's going to take her, damn his parents!"

Now,
there was one among the jinn who wanted Gazelle, but she did not want
him because she preferred Clever Hasan. He and Gazelle always fought,
but now that the mountain was gone, she overcame him. Taking hold of
him, she hung him up by his hair.

She
lived a month or two with Clever Hasan in the palace. And what a
palace it was! Fit for a king! As she was used to roving, she said to
him, "I'm going to roam for a while, and you look after
yourself. This room you can open, and that room also. I'm going to
take the air for a couple of weeks, and will be back."

Opening
one room, he found treasure. And here were weapons. And here . . .
[He opened them all] except a certain room. "This room," he
thought to himself, "why did she give me its key and say, 'Don't
open it!'? What's she hiding from me? By Allah, I've got to open it."

He
opened it and found a young man hanging by his hair.

"Please!"
he called out. "I beg you! Release me! I put myself at your
mercy!"

The
young man begged so much that Hasan took pity on him and released
him, and no sooner had he done so than the mountain returned as it
had been. He looked around, and there was Gazelle! Realizing what had
happened, she came running.

"Why
do you give me so much trouble?" she scolded him. "May
Allah give you as much trouble in return! Just like that, you
released him! If I hadn't defeated him, do you think the mountain
could've been moved, or anything else have happened for that matter?"

Ashamed,
he dragged himself below, while she went back up to deal with the man
who had been bickering with her for so long.

"Who
knows," he bragged, "but that this time I'll defeat you and
take away your soul."

"And
this time," she snapped back, "who knows but that I'll
overpower you and finish you off. This time, I won't be satisfied
just to let you dangle."

"What!"
he mocked. "Go away! My soul is lodged in the kneebone of a
certain tiger who lives in such and such a country. So, how are you
to get hold of it?"

Now,
her husband heard this, and he immediately set out for the country
where that tiger was to be found. On his way he came upon three men
arguing over their inheritance from their father. They were fighting
over three things: a club giving anyone able to lift it power over
forty men, a magic carpet, and a cap of invisibility. Haggling over
these things, one of them said, "No! I won't take this. It won't
be fair." And another said, "No! I won't take that. I'll be
the loser."

"What
are you arguing about?" he asked.

"We're
arguing about which of these three things was intended for whom. You
judge for us."

"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 grass was this high. The sheep fed on the tender
tips of the grass. 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.