Speak Bird Speak Again (37 page)

"What
sort of creature are you, uncle?" they asked.

"I
came back from the grave," he answered, "and I'm bringing
good news. The dwellers of these graves are all going to be coming
back home, and they're all naked. Go bring some clothes, and tomorrow
you'll find your loved ones here. They're all going to be coming
back."

"By
Allah, is it true what you're saying, uncle?"

"Yes,
it's true."

The
women went running back to their houses. She who had lost a daughter
brought her her jewelry, and she who had lost a young son brought him
his suits. Oh! What clothes they were! Each one had prepared a
bundle. You should have seen what these Christian women brought
together - the bundles and the jewelry! They went and gave it all to
the man in the cemetery.

"When
will the dead be coming back, uncle?" they asked.

"Come
back tomorrow at this time," he answered, "and you'll find
them dressed and waiting for you. But take care not to talk in front
of anyone about this! Come by yourselves, because only the Christians
will be coming back."

After
the women had gone home, he took the bundles, tied them together, and
ran away. The next morning the Christian women came back to the
graveyard - nothing had changed. "Yee!" they cried out, "By
Allah, that man must have tricked us." Back home they rushed and
told their men what had happened. He who had a donkey Or a nag
mounted it and set out. Sibli, Xalil, Salih - whoever had lost a
bundle of clothes mounted his animal and set out to search for the
man. Meanwhile, he had found a place, a cave, where he deposited the
big bundle and left. As they were searching, they came by him.

"O
uncle," they asked, "didn't you happen to see a man with
such and such a description carrying some bundles?"

"Yes,
uncles," he answered, "he just passed this way. But on your
animals, you can't follow him since it's so muddy. Better take off
your shoes and leave your animals here. You'll catch up with him in a
moment."

"Is
that true, uncle?" they asked.

"Yes,
it's true."

Dropping
their shoes from their feet, they left the animals behind. "Leave
them with me," he reassured them. "I'll take care of them."
But no sooner did they turn their backs than he gathered the shoes
and sandals, tied the animals together, and, dragging them behind
him, set off. The men ran and ran till they were tired. They could
barely breathe, but, not finding anyone, they came back. And see!
Where was he? He was already far away. Pulling themselves together,
they went home.

The
man, you might say, left his town behind and traveled until he came
to a village like Il-Izer, Rummane, and Id-Der, where the farmland is
below the village. As he approached he saw a farmer plowing. Waiting
until he was even with him, he said out loud, talking to the nag he
was riding, "Easy! Easy! May Allah damn your owner's father! If
someone were to offer me a meal, even if it's nothing more than
lentil soup, I'd give you to him in exchange."

When
the farmer heard this, he cried, "O uncle, what did I just hear
you say?"

"By
Allah," answered the other, "I was just saying that if
anyone were to offer me a meal of lentil soup I'd give him this horse
in exchange."

"Wait,
wait, uncle!" shouted the farmer, "I'll bring you something
in a moment."

Off he
went, running to his wife. "Come, come!" he said, "Right
away, boil some water and make a little lentil soup."

"What's
the story, my man?" she asked.

"You
won't believe this," he replied, "but we're getting a draft
horse for a dish of lentil soup."

She
went ahead, ground some lentils, and placed the water over the fire.

"Prepare
a feeding trough, woman," he said. "Plant a stake here, and
tie one end of a rope to it and the other end to my foot, and let me
check if there's enough room for people to pass behind the horse
without getting kicked."

When
she had prepared the trough, driven in the stake, and tied the rope
to his foot, he said, "Pass behind me, wife, and let me see if
the nag could reach you if you passed behind her and she kicked."
Turning around, she walked behind him. He kicked, throwing her down.
And lo! blood all over and she had miscarried. "Die and to hell
with you! Right now I want to go after the blue nag, which is more
valuable to me than anything. And when I come back, I'll deal with
the situation here."

Meanwhile,
by the time they had prepared the feeding trough and the soup and had
tested how she would pass behind the horse - by that time the other
man had untied the farmer's yoked team and (begging the listeners'
pardon!), having crapped on the tip of the ox goad, stuck it in the
ground and made off with the animals. Coming back down, our brother
in Allah did not find the horse, his own team, or anything else. And
when he saw the goad, he said, "By Allah, this man has tricked
me. And even if my wife has miscarried, what bothers me most, by
Allah, is how he could have managed to climb up the goad and shit.
How could he have done it? How could he possibly have sat on the tip
of the goad and shat?"

Having
collected the Christian women's clothes, the horses, and the draft
animals, the man came back home, only to find his wife still sitting
like a new bride on the piled-up mattresses. "O Mistress of All
and Flower of the House!" he cried out. "By Allah, many
other crazy people like you have I found." And he lived with
her, accepting her with her faults.

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

27.

TELLER:
Testify that God is One!

AUDIENCE:
There is no god but God.

Once
there was a man, and he had a daughter. He and his wife had no other
children except this daughter, and her name was Ese. One day people
from another town came to ask for Ese's hand. They asked for her
hand, took her for a bride, and departed.

The
days passed. Ese became pregnant and gave birth; she had a boy.

"Abu
Ese!" said the mother.

"Yes.
What do you want?" he replied.

"Our
daughter has given birth to a boy," she answered, "and we
ought to go visit her. What are we going to take her?"

They
took her a bolt of cloth, they took her a pitcher of oil.

Later
the mother said, "O Abu Ese! We want to take Ese a sheep, maybe
a ewe."

They
traveled and came upon a shepherd with some ewes.

"O
uncle!" Abu Ese said to him, "We ask in Allah's name that
you sell us a ewe good for slaughter. But it has to be a good one;
fat must be dripping from its nose."

The
shepherd brought out the first ewe, but Im Ese said to him, "No!
We want the fat to be dripping from its nose!" He went and
brought back a ewe with snot dripping from its nose - and what a
state she was in! She was tottering. And there was Im Ese saying,
"Yes. This is the one we want."

"That's
fine," said the shepherd.

They
took their ewe and walked on. As they approached Ese's town, they
looked and, behold! the surface of the earth was cracked. The ground
had cracks in it.

"Abu
Ese!" the mother called out.

"Yes."

"By
Allah, this land of Ese's is thirsty. Let's pour out the pitcher of
oil and water it." They poured it out.

Before
they arrived, look! there was a tree shaking like this in the wind.

"Abu
Ese!"

"Yes."

"By
Allah, this olive tree of Ese's is shivering from the cold. Let's
wrap this cloth around it." They wrapped it around.

When
they came close to town, they found a watchdog whining.

"Abu
Ese!"

"Yes."

"By
Allah, this dog of Ese's is hungry. Let's feed him these provisions."
They fed him what they had brought.

They
arrived, came in, and she said to her daughter, "By Allah,
daughter, we brought you oil, cloth, and meat. But we found your land
thirsty and watered it with the oil; we found your olive tree cold
and wrapped it with the cloth; and we found your bitch hungry and fed
her the meat."

"Never
mind, mother!" Ese said. "But take care not to tell anyone!
Those who ask you, tell them 'we brought what we brought,' and don't
let anyone know what you did!"

In two
or three days Im Ese said to her husband, "You go home, Abu Ese,
look after the chickens and the house, and I'll stay a few more days
to help Ese, since she's an only child and now has a baby."

After
the father had left for home, Ese said to her mother, "Mother,
you stay with the baby and look after him, and let me go out and
gather a few pieces of wood." She left the baby with her mother
and went to the countryside in search of wood.

The
baby started crying. "Poor boy!" thought Im Ese. "By
Allah, maybe his head's itching from lice." She went and heated
water in a cauldron until it boiled. She then dropped the baby in it,
lifted him out, and put him back to bed.

When
Ese came home, her mother said, "You see, your son was crying
from the lice and the dirt. Here I've washed him and put him to
sleep, and from the time I put him in bed he's had his head down and
he's been sleeping."

Ese
waited. Now the baby will wake up. In a little while he'll wake up.
She went to check on the boy and found him dead.

"O
you daughter of a cursed father!" she said. "This baby's
dead! Soon my husband will be coming home from Hebron, and he'll kill
you. You had better go home!"

Im Ese
went home, and found that her husband had locked himself in.

"O
Abu Ese! Open!"

"No.
You'll kill me!"

"Open!"

"No.
You'll kill me!"

"What
did you do?"

"I
slaughtered the chickens."

"That's
all right! Open up!"

"I
spilled the jar of oil."

"To
hell with it! Just open!"

"No.
You'll kill me!"

"What
did you do?"

"I
said to the cow, 'Give me some food!' but she wouldn't. So I
slaughtered her."

"Let
it be a sacrifice! You're worth everything. Just open!"

"You'll
slaughter me!"

"Why?
What did you do?"

"The
camel was chewing his cud. I said to him, 'Give me some food!' but he
wouldn't. He came at me, and I covered my pecker with a cauliflower
leaf. He goes and bites me, eats the leaf, and eats my pecker too!"

"Alas!
Alas!" cried Im Ese. "Nothing in the world mattered like
your balls, and now you're a gelding!"

The
bird of this tale has flow - and a good evening to all!

Afterword

The
issues addressed in these tales can touch on any established marriage
relationship. We find sexuality, which was a central theme in the
"Brides and Bridegrooms" group, a vital issue here as well.
It is clearly articulated in the last tale, "Im Ese," in
which the couple are willing to tolerate each other's mutual follies
and even the loss of their material possessions. The one loss the
marriage cannot sustain, that of the husband's virility, poses a
problem for both husband and wife. For the husband it represents a
source of anxiety and fear about himself. We have already come across
this anxiety in "Soqak Boqak!" (Tale 21), where the young
man, married before he is ready, runs away in fear and must be
seduced back by his more mature wife. Here we see it again in the
second half of "The Seven Leavenings" and in "The
Golden Rod in the Valley of Vermilion," where the husband asks,
"Is there anyone handsomer than me? ... more manly than me?"

With
regard to what these tales reveal about sexuality, we find that the
attitudes applicable to women are different from those applicable to
men. Cultural practice dictates that women should be modest and not
express their sexuality openly, yet women are not presented as being
anxious about their sexuality. On the contrary, as we saw from
earlier tales (e.g., "Sahin" and "Soqak Boqak!")
and from "Im Ese" here, they are open in their approach to
this question and honest in their feelings. The dark side of
sexuality emerges from "The Seven Leavenings" and "The
Golden Rod," where the men's fear or anxiety about their
virility is projected as the women's sexual voraciousness, as we see
from the behavior of the Golden Rod's three wives. This projection is
condoned by the society. If the husband is sexually unsure of
himself, the wife is assumed to be at fault; she must, as in "The
Seven Leavenings" and "The Golden Rod," be having an
affair with the black servant. (It is interesting that the
literalized metaphor of "black on white" is used as a
central image in both tales.)