My little one whom I raised,
Achol, my beloved one
Come, meet me my daughter.’
They met and embraced, and then cooked for themselves and ate. Achol’s mother told her, ‘Daughter, if human beings come, do not run away from them; be nice to them. That is how you will get married.’
Maper was attracted to Achol, and that same evening he returned with a friend to court her. Achol’s mother gave her a separate hut in which to entertain her age-mates. So when Maper came with his friend and asked to be accommodated, she let them into that hut. She made their beds on one side of the hut, while she herself slept on the other side.
At night, Maper’s desire for Achol increased and he wanted to move over to her side of the hut. But whenever he tried to move, a lizard on the wall spoke, saying, ‘The man is about to violate his own sister!’ So he stopped. Then he tried to move again, and a rafter on the ceiling spoke and said, ‘The man is about to violate his sister!’ When he tried again, the grass said the same.
Maper’s friend woke up and said, ‘Who is speaking? What are they saying?’ Maper said, ‘I do not know and I do not understand what they mean by “sister”.’
So they asked the girl to tell them more about who she was. Achol then told them the story of how she and her brother had been abandoned and how the lioness had found them.
‘Really?’ said Maper with excitement.
‘Yes,’ said Achol.
‘Then, let us leave for home. You are my sister.’
Achol embraced him and cried and cried. When she became calm she told Maper and his friend that she could not leave the lioness, for the lioness had taken very good care of her. But they persuaded her to leave with them. Their camp moved on the next morning to avoid meeting the lioness.
That morning, the lioness left very early to hunt. When she returned in the evening, she sang to Achol as usual, but Achol did not reply. She repeated the song several times, and Achol did not answer. She went inside the hut and found that Achol was gone. She cried and cried and cried: ‘Where has my daughter gone? Has a lion eaten her or have the human beings taken her away from me?’
Then she ran, following the cattle camp. She ran and ran and ran.
The cattle camp arrived at the village, and Achol was hidden.
The lioness continued to run and run and run until she reached the village. She stopped outside the village and began to sing her usual song.
As soon as Achol heard her voice, she jumped out of her hiding place. They ran towards one another and embraced.
Achol’s father took out a bull and slaughtered it in hospitality for the lioness. The lioness said she would not go back to the forest but would rather stay among the human beings with her daughter, Achol.
Achol was married and was given to her husband. Her mother, the lioness, moved with her to her marital home. And they all lived happily together.
PART TWELVE
MARRIED WOMEN
STORY OF A BIRD WOMAN
(SIBERIAN TRIBAL: CHUKCHI)
lad went to a lake in the open country. There he saw many birds, of which some were geese and some were gulls, but both geese and gulls left their garments on the shore. The youth seized their clothing, whereupon all the geese and gulls said, ‘Restore it.’
He gave back the stolen things of all the goose-girls, but kept the clothes of one gull-maiden and took her for himself. She bore him two children, real human children. When the women went to collect leaves the gull-wife went with them into the fields, but as she gathered grasses badly, her mother-in-law scolded her. All the birds were flying away, and the wife, who pined to return to her own land, went with her children behind the tent as the geese passed by.
‘How would it be,’ she said, ‘for me to carry away my children?’ The geese plucked their wings and stuck feathers on the children’s sleeves, and the wife and her children flew away together.
When the husband came he could not find his wife, for she was gone. He could learn nothing about her, so he said to his mother, ‘Make me ten pairs of very good boots.’ Then he departed to the birds’ country and saw an eagle who said to him, ‘Go to the seashore; there you will find an old man cutting down wood; he is making firewood. He is of a monstrous aspect behind, so do not draw near to him from that direction; he would swallow you. Approach him face to face.’
The old man said, ‘Whence have you come, and whither are you going?’
The lad answered, ‘I married a gull-maiden, who bore me two children, but she has now disappeared with them. I am looking for her.’
‘How will you travel?’
‘I have ten pairs of boots,’ was the reply.
The old man said, ‘I will make you a canoe.’ He made a beautiful canoe, with a cover like a snuff-box. The young man took his place in it, and the old one said, ‘If you desire to go to the right, say to the canoe, “Wok, wok”, and move your right foot. A little later, if you wish to go to the left, you will say, “Wok, wok!” and move your left foot.’
The canoe was swift as a bird. The old man continued, ‘When you reach the shore and wish to land, say “Kay!” and push the cover with your hand!’
The young man approached the shore, pressed the cover, and the canoe grounded. He saw many bird-children at play on the ground. It was bird-land. He found his children and they recognised their father. ‘Father has come!’
He said, ‘Tell your mother I have arrived.’
They soon returned, and with them came the wife’s brother, who approached the young man and said, ‘Your wife has been taken as the wife of our chief, a great sea-bird.’
The man entered his wife’s house. The chief bird kissed her on the cheek, and said to the young man, ‘Why have you come? I will not restore your wife to you.’
The brother-in-law sat down in the tent. The husband and the great bird grappled with one another, and the young man, seizing his opponent by the neck, thrust him out. The chief bird departed to his country and was loud in complaint, whereupon many birds flew hither, and many gulls of various kinds.
While the young man was sleeping with his wife she called out, ‘Countless warriors have come, wake up quickly!’
But he remained asleep and, as there were cries and noise around the house, she grew alarmed. Soon the birds drew feathers and poised them like arrows, but the young man went out and, seizing a stick, waved it in various directions; he struck one bird’s wing, another’s neck and another’s back. Then all the birds fled, but on the morrow there came twice as many; they seemed as numerous as a swarm of gnats. But the young man filled a flat vessel with water and sprinkled the birds with it. Afterwards they could not fly, being frozen to the spot, and no more came.
The young man now bore his wife and children home to his own people. Taking his seat in the canoe, he covered it over as before, and coming to the shore, found the little old man.
‘Well?’ said the latter.
‘I have brought them!’ was the reply.
‘Then depart! Here are your boots, take them and set off.’
When, in time, they forsook the canoe, they found the eagle in the old place. They were exhausted. The eagle said, ‘Put on my clothing.’ The young man attired himself in the eagle’s clothing and flew home. The eagle had said to him, ‘You will assume my attire, but do not take it into the house; leave it a little way off in a field!’
So the young man left the garment on the ground, and it flew back to the eagle. They arrived home. The youth now pushed some fallen wood with his foot, and it became a great herd. He drove the herd before him, then anointed his wife with blood and married her. Ceasing to be a bird, she became human and dressed herself as a woman.
FATHER AND MOTHER BOTH ‘FAST’
(USA: HILLBILLY)
h, yes. Well a fella stayed with a girl, and by and by he went to his father and he said, ‘Father, I’m going to marry that girl.’ He says, ‘John, let me tell you – I’se fast when I was young, and that girl’s your sis
ter.’
Well, he felt bad and he left her. By and by, he picked up another one, and he stayed with her for a while, and he went to his father and he said, ‘Father, I’m going to marry that girl.’ He said, ‘Johnny, I was fast when I was young – that girl’s your sister.’
Felt awful bad, and so one day he’s setting up by the stove with his head hung down, and his mother said, ‘What’s the trouble, John?’ ‘No nothing.’ She says, ‘There’s something, and I want to know what it is. Why did you leave that girl, the first one you stayed with, and you left your second one?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘Father told me he was fast when he was young, and they’s both my sisters.’ Says, ‘Johnny, I want to tell you something, I was fast when I’se young, and your father ain’t your father at all.’
REASON TO BEAT YOUR WIFE
(EGYPTIAN)
wo friends met. The first said to the second, ‘How are you, So-and-so? We have not met for a long time. Those were the days. How are things going for you now?’
The second answered, ‘Well, by God, I got married, and my wife is the “daughter of good people”. Just as one wishes a wife to be.’
The first asked, ‘Have you beaten her yet or not?’
‘No, by God, there is no reason to beat her. She does everything as I wish.’
‘She has to get at least one beating, just so that she may know who the master of the house is!’
‘By God, yes! You are right.’
A week passed, and they met again. The first asked the second, ‘Hey, what did you do? Did you beat her?’
‘No! I just can’t find a reason!’
‘I will give you a reason. Buy fish, plenty of it, and take it to her and say, “Cook it, because we will have a guest for dinner”, and leave the house. When you go home later, whatever she has cooked, say that you wanted it some other way!’
The man said, ‘Fine.’ He bought some catfish and went home. At the door, he shoved the fish at his wife and said, ‘Cook it, for we will have guests’, and he flew outside.
The woman said to herself, ‘My girl, what are you going to do with all this fish? He didn’t tell you how to fix it.’ She thought and thought and finally said, ‘I will fry some, bake some, and make some in a casserole with onions and tomatoes.’
She cleaned the house and prepared everything As dinner time approached, her infant son made a mess on the floor right next to the table where they sit cross-legged on the floor to eat. As she went to get something to clean it, she heard her husband and his friend knocking at the door. She ran to the door, and in order not to leave the mess like that, she covered it with a dish which happened to be in her hand.
They walked in and sat down on the floor at the table and said to her, ‘Bring the food, mother of So-and-so.’
First she took out the fried fish. He said, ‘Fried! I want it baked!’ Immediately she took out the baked fish. He shouted, ‘Not baked; I mean in a casserole!’ Immediately she took out the casserole. He became frustrated and confused. He said, ‘I want – I want—’
She asked, ‘What?’
He replied in bafflement, ‘I want shit!’
She immediately said, lifting the dish off the floor, ‘Here it is!’
THE THREE LOVERS
(USA: NEW MEXICO)
nce there was a woman who lived in a city and was married to a man named José Pomuceno. This man owned sheep. He was obliged to look after his business in the country. And whenever he would go out of the city, his wife never missed a chance to betray him. So it was that things got so bad that she had three lovers.
It so happened that one night when the husband wasn’t at home the three were going to come the same night. That’s the way this woman had things arranged when the first one came. Then the second one arrived. He knocked at the door. The wife said to the first one who was there, ‘My husband.’
‘Where shall I hide?’
‘Hide in that wardrobe.’
The man hid in the wardrobe. The other man entered. A little while later the third one arrived and knocked at the door. The woman says to the second one, ‘My husband.’
‘No,’ he says. ‘If it is your husband, let him kill me. I’ll do as I please. I am sure that it isn’t your husband. You are giving several of us the run-around.’
When the woman saw that he didn’t believe that it could be her husband, she tried to drive the other one off, telling him to go away, that everything was off, that he should return some other time.
Then this fellow said to her from outside, ‘Since you can’t do anything else, why don’t you at least give me a kiss?’
‘Yes,’ the one who is with her tells her. ‘It’s all right. Tell him to come to the window.’
The one outside comes to the window and the other one holds up his rump for him there, and the fellow outside kisses it.
When the latter saw that he had kissed the other’s posterior, he felt rather bad and tried to get even some way; so he again called to him that he liked it, and for him to come back again. The second time that he appeared at the window he didn’t try to kiss as he had done the first time, but struck a match and set fire to him.
When the one inside felt the flame, he came away from there yelling and leaping through the room, ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’
Then the one who was shut up in the wardrobe answered, ‘Throw your furniture outside, lady.’
So ends the story of the wife of José Pomuceno.
THE SEVEN LEAVENINGS
(PALESTINIAN ARAB)
here was once in times past an old woman who lived in a hut all by herself. She had no one at all. One day when the weather was beautiful she said, ‘Ah, yes! By Allah, today it’s sunny and beautiful, and I’m going to take the air by the seashore. But let me first knead this dough.’
When she had finished kneading the dough, having added the yeast, she put on her best clothes, saying, ‘By Allah, I just have to go and take the air by the seashore.’ Arriving at the seashore, she sat down to rest, and lo! there was a boat, and it was already filling with people.
‘Hey, uncle!’ she said to the man, the owner of the boat. ‘Where in Allah’s safekeeping might you be going?’
‘By Allah, we’re heading for Beirut.’
‘All right, brother. Take me with you.’
‘Leave me alone, old woman,’ he said. ‘The boat’s already full, and there’s no place for you.’
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘Go. But if you don’t take me with you, may your boat get stuck and sink!’
No one paid her any attention, and they set off. But their boat had not gone twenty metres when it started to sink. ‘Eh!’ they exclaimed. ‘It looks as if that old woman’s curse has been heard.’ Turning back, they called the old woman over and took her with them.
In Beirut, she did not know anybody or anything. It was just before sunset. The passengers went ashore, and she too came down and sat a while, leaning against a wall. What else could she have done? People were passing by, coming and going, and it was getting very late. In a while a man passed by. Everyone was already at home, and here was this woman sitting against the wall.
‘What are you doing here, sister?’ he asked.
‘By Allah, brother,’ she answered, ‘I’m not doing anything. I’m a stranger in town, with no one to turn to. I kneaded my dough and leavened it, and came out for pleasure until it rises, when I’ll have to go back.’
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘Come home with me then.’
He took her home with him. There was no one there except him and his wife. They brought food, laughed and played – you should have seen them enjoying themselves. After they had finished, lo! the man brought a bundle of sticks this big and set to it – Where’s the side that hurts most? – until he had broken them on his wife’s sides.
‘Why are you doing this, grandson?’ the old woman asked, approaching in order to block his way.
‘Get back!’ he said. ‘You don’t know what her sin is. Better stay out of the way!’ He kept b
eating his wife until he had broken the whole bundle.
‘You poor woman!’ exclaimed the old lady when the man had stopped. ‘What’s your sin, you sad one?’
‘By Allah,’ replied the wife, ‘I’ve done nothing, and it hadn’t even occurred to me. He says it’s because I can’t get pregnant and have children.’
‘Is that all?’ asked the old woman. ‘This one’s easy. Listen, and let me tell you. Tomorrow, when he comes to beat you, tell him you’re pregnant.’
‘The next day, as usual, the husband came home, bringing with him the needed household goods and a bundle of sticks. After dinner, he came to beat his wife, but he had not hit her with the first stick when she cried out, ‘Hold your hand! I’m pregnant!’
‘Is it true?’
‘Yes, by Allah!’
From that day on, he stopped beating her. She was pampered, her husband not letting her get up to do any of the housework. Whatever she desired was brought to her side.
Every day after that the wife came to the old woman and said, ‘What am I going to do, grandmother? What if he should find out?’
‘No matter,’ the old woman would answer. ‘Sleep easy. The burning coals of evening turn to ashes in the morning.’ Daily the old woman stuffed the wife’s belly with rags to make it look bigger and said, ‘Just keep on telling him you’re pregnant, and leave it to me. The evening’s embers are the morning’s ashes.’
Now, this man happened to be the sultan, and people heard what was said: ‘The sultan’s wife is pregnant! The sultan’s wife is pregnant!’ When her time to deliver had come, the wife went to the baker and said, ‘I want you to bake me a doll in the shape of a baby boy.’
‘All right,’ he agreed, and baked her a doll which she wrapped and brought home without her husband seeing her. Then people said, ‘The sultan’s wife is in labour, she’s ready to deliver.’
Angela Carter's Book Of Fairy Tales Page 37