Fairy Tale Friday--The Jealous Mother (Morocco)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

This week we look at a tale from Morocco. I will be honest--it has been harder to find versions of Snow White out there for free. Every time I come across an interesting sounding one it is not in the public domain. Luckily, there is a blog called Crafty Moms Share that gives really good in depth summaries of unusual fairy tales which I will be using over the next few weeks.

This story entitled The Jealous Mother from Moroccan Folktales translated from the Arabic by Jilali El Koudia. This is a book I would like very much to read.

Worldcat.org has this to say about it:

The folktales collected here provide a glimpse into Morocco's rich past and cultural heritage. Drawing on stories he heard as a boy from female relatives, Jilali El Koudia presents a cross section of utterly bewitching narratives. Filled with ghouls and fools, kind magic and wicked, eternal bonds and earthly wishes, these are mesmerizing stories to be savored, studied, or simply treasured. Varied genres include anecdotes, legends, and animal fables. Many of the included tales bear some strong resemblance to European counterparts, for example "Aamar and His Sister" (Hansel and Gretel) and "Nunja and the White Dove" (Cinderella). All capture the heart of Morocco and the soul of its people.

This story begins with the moon taking place the place of the magic mirror. Usually these tales involve a child that has already been born and while the mother or stepmother figure was once the most beautiful is no longer after the daughter grows up. In this case the moon says that her unborn child is more beautiful than she is, so the poor daughter never stood a chance. She tells the midwife to bury the baby alive and replace it with a puppy. Luckily, the midwife brings the baby home and raises her instead of killing her. Sadly, the puppy also gets discarded.

Later when everyone keeps bragging about the midwife’s daughter being such a stunner, the mother asks to meet her to see for herself. In a sort of cross between Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs and Ariadne giving Theseus a ball of yarn to find his way out of the labyrinth we find our young heroine lost in the Land of Ghouls with no way out. She hides in the thatch roof of a family of seven ghoul brothers. They have a female slave that cooks for them. Our heroine Lalla is discovered and the youngest ghoul takes a fancy to her. The text says: The brother was kind and gentle and when he looked in her eyes, he fell in love with her. The next day the brothers held a wedding ceremony for them. Now, he may have been the least ghoulish of the ghouls being the kind and gentle one, but he is still a ghoul. And nowhere here do we see what Lalla wanted. Did she want to marry him? Or did she feel there was no choice because she had to exchange her body for room and board? Or perhaps she was happy proving that looks are not important, but kindness and gentleness are everything.

This attention  makes the slave jealous because before this she had received all their attention. Attention from ghouls is better than no attention at all. In a scene reminiscent of Baba Yaga, Lalla has to go ask a neighbouring ghoul for fire as the slave has let the light go out. He agrees but insists on a blood offering. The next day he followed the [trail of] blood to her and forced her to allow him to suck her blood from her finger or he would eat her. He did this every day. When this gruesome act is discovered, the brothers murder both the neighbour and the slave, but blame her Lalla for letting him in.

Later a travelling Jewish pedlar comes by. I do not know why it was important to mention he was a Jew. Her birth mother hears that her daughter is the Queen of the Ghouls and sends a ring back to her daughter through the pedlar. The instructions are to put the ring under her tongue which seems to me a very odd thing to do with a ring. But Lalla does and predictably drops down dead. Her body is paraded around on a type of sofa on the back of a camel until a Sultan sees it and falls in love with her beauty. There is no marriage or improper activities with her dead body in this tale, thankfully. The Sultan’s physician examines her straightaway, removes the ring and the Sultan marries her. Again, we see nothing of her feelings on the matter. The fact that she was already married didn’t even occur to him. Did she want to marry this guy who woke her from her death? We know nothing about his character—Is he kind? Is he gentle like her ghoul husband? Or is he just rich and can take what he wants? Is this the happy ending every girl dreams of or is this a nightmare?

Well, in an ending that reminded me of Beauty and the Beast Lalla runs away from the Sultan and back to the land of Ghouls where her husband and true family await. I was pleasantly surprised that she was able to make some choices about her own happiness and so many female characters in fairy tales never get to. And it was particularly gratifying that she chose kindness and gentleness over wealth and prestige. Sadly, we don’t get to see any revenge on her mother who tried to have her buried alive at birth.

Source

The Jealous Mother source

This version has a beautiful mother who talks to the moon. The moon tells her that the child in her womb is more beautiful and of course the mother gets jealous. The mother has the trusted midwife bury the baby as soon as it is born and to replace it with a puppy dog. The mother paid the midwife a great deal of gold to do this. The midwife produced a puppy, but she took the girl away and secluded her inside her own house and took care of her. 

The husband of the beautiful woman was ashamed when he saw God had given them a puppy dog and threw the dog away. The midwife raised the baby as her own and named her Lalla Khallalt El Khoudra. She grew to be very beautiful and people would compare any woman's beauty to that of Lalla. Her birth mother heard of her and asked the midwife to send her over to help her untangle her ball of yarn. 

When the birth mother saw the girl she was overcome with jealousy. She gave the girl the ball of yarn and told her to walk until it was untangled. The girl ended up in the land of ghouls. Her mother cut the yarn when she guessed Lalla had walked that far. Lalla could not find her way home and night had fallen. When she saw all the strange creatures in the land, she guessed she had entered the land the midwife had told her about and she was afraid she would be eaten alive. She hid herself in a thatch roof. The house that she chose to hide in was one of seven ghoul brothers. They had a slave to cook for them. Every morning the ghouls went out to hunt and the slave remained to prepare their food. The slave heard something on the roof and saw the beautiful woman. Lalla begged her for food and drink. She gave her some but advised her to stay hidden from the owners. Lalla repeated this every day. She would join the slave and help her prepare the food and then hide herself again. The brothers noticed a difference in the food. They wanted to figure out what was happening, so they had the youngest brother stay behind hidden to see what the slave was up to. 

The youngest brother stayed hidden but saw the slave and Lalla cooking together. Then he jumped out. Lalla was scared, but the brother was kind and gentle and when he looked in her eyes, he fell in love with her. The next day the brothers held a wedding ceremony for them. With the presence of Lalla all the brothers were happy. Lalla took over the care of the brothers. The slave became neglected, but she made Lalla promise her that they would always share everything equally.

One day Lalla tried to wake the slave to share a bean with her. Since the slave pretended to be asleep, Lalla put the half bean away, but it was lost when she tried to find it for the slave later. The slave was very angry and took revenge later by putting the fire out. Lalla had to go to a neighbour to ask for fire. She went to the ghoul next door, but he insisted on cutting her for the fire. She allowed him to do it and she dripped blood home. The next day he followed the blood to her and forced her to allow him to suck her blood from her finger or he would eat her. He did this every day.

The brothers began to notice the changes in their food and in Lalla. They did not understand why she did not seem happy when they showered her with gold, silver and jewels. The youngest brother stayed home to find out what was happening. He saw the neighbour come and drink her blood. He waited for his brothers and they decided they would all stay home the next day. They captured the neighbour and set to kill him and then turned on Lalla for allowing him to visit. She wept and told them the whole story and they threw the slave into the pit with the neighbour and set them on fire. 

Awhile later a salesman who is referred to in the story as a Jew came selling his wares. Lalla came out and chose some and then gave him a large bag of silver and gold. She asked if he knew a certain tribe and he said he did and she sent a message to her mother through him.

A few months later, he was with that tribe and her birth mother was purchasing things from him. She paid with a few balls of wool. He made a comment about how she did not pay like Lalla and the mother asked for more details since she was her mother. He told her how she was like a queen to the ghouls. The mother ran to  find a gift to send to Lalla and she wrapped a ring in a cloth and asked the salesman to give it to her next time he saw her.

In two months the salesman returned to the land of ghouls and saw Lalla. She bought some of his wares and he gave her the gift her mother sent telling her she suggested she put the ring under her tongue. She said she would and after the salesman left, she did. She became in a deathlike state and the ghouls came home that evening and found her frozen in the spot. They were so sad. They built her an attoush (a sofa like thing) and put it on a camel. The camel was told to go everywhere and stop for no one unless she heard her code name which was Naala or a shoe. The camel rode everywhere and eventually wandered into a kingdom of a rich and famous sultan. His guards told him about the camel with gold and silver on it and he wanted to catch it. The camel outsmarted the guards, but an old woman promised to get it and then lost her shoe and the camel stopped when she heard the woman yell about her shoe. 

When the sultan saw Lalla, he fell in love with her. He had his physicians examine her. When they found the ring under her tongue, they removed it and she slowly came back to life. The sultan married her. She however never forgot her seven ghoul brothers. When the camel had healed after all the walking, Lalla made plans to return. She waited until her husband would be gone for the day and she left, but the guards saw her and the sultan told them to follow her. The camel however once again outsmarted them. Lalla returned to her griefstruck brothers and they were all happy again.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a tale with seven ogres.