The Cricket
TELLER: Testify that God is One!
AUDIENCE: There is no god but God.
Once there was a woman who could not get pregnant and have children. One day she cried out, "O Lord, would you grant me a little girl, even if she's nothing more than a cricket!" It so happened that Allah heard her plea, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a cricket. A day went and a day came, and the cricket grew up. Once upon a day she wanted to get married.
"Mama," she said, going to her mother, "I want to get married."
"What can I do for you?" asked the mother. "You must look for a bridegroom as small as you are."
The cricket went away, and came upon a camel.
"Ba! Ba!" said he. "Will you marry me?"
She answered:
"Cricket, cricket, your mother!
And you are cousin to the whore.
I'll put the gold in my sleeve,
And talk to my mother some more."
"O mama!" she said to her mother. "His eyes are very big, his head is very big, and his ears are very big. All of him is very big."
"No!" said the mother. "This one's not your size. Don't marry him."
Back to the camel the cricket went, and said, "I don't want to marry you."
She wandered around some more, and met a bull.
"Ba! Ba!" said he. "Will you marry me?"
She answered:
"Cricket, cricket, your mother!
And you are cousin to the whore.
I'll put the gold in my sleeve,
And talk to my mother some more."
She went to her mother and said, "O mama! His eyes are large, his head is large, and his ears are large. All of him is large."
"Better not marry him," said the mother.
Back to the bull went the cricket. "I don't want to marry you," she said.
She went away, and walked and walked until a little mouse found her wandering about and chirping, "Tzee, tzee, tzee."
"What're you looking for?" he asked.
"I'm wandering around looking for a bridegroom."
"Will you marry me?" he proposed.
She answered:
"Cricket, cricket, your mother!
And you are cousin to the whore.
I'll put the gold in my sleeve,
And talk to my mother some more."
"O mama!" she said to her mother. "His eyes are wee, his head is wee, and his ears are wee. All of him is very small."
"Yes," said the mother, "this one's your size. Marry him."
So back to the mouse the cricket went. "Yes," she said, "I'll marry you." And she went to live with him in his house.
One day (it is said) their clothes became dirty, and they wanted to go somewhere to wash them. "Well," they said, "let's go look for water. Where shall we go?" They wandered about, with her walking behind him, and both of them going "Tzee, tzee, tzee," until you might say they reached the Sea of Acre. Looking over this sea, they said, "Well, how is this going to be enough? There's barely enough water here to get our clothes wet." They turned around and went down to the Sea of Tiberias. They searched everywhere, up and down, but found no water. "There isn't enough water for us anywhere!" they exclaimed.
As they wandered, they saw a donkey's hoofprint with a little water in it. Calling her husband over, she said, "These waters will be enough for us to wash ourselves and our clothes, with some left over."
"Fine," he answered. "Let me go and get some soap."
He went over to Acre to bring the soap, and she sat at the edge of the hole.
"By Allah," she said to herself as she sat waiting, "I might as well wash myself until he gets back." Down into the water she went, and washed herself, but she could not climb back out. She tried and tried, but she failed.
As it happened, a man on a horse passed by. Hearing the pounding of his horse's hooves, she called out to him:
"O uncle, riding your horse
And jingling your bell!
Say to the mouse,
'The Flower of the House
In the treacherous water fell.'"
The horseman cocked his ear to listen. "Eh!" he thought, "Who is this talking?" Meanwhile, she was saying:
"O uncle, riding your horse
And jingling your bell!
Say to the mouse,
'The Flower of the House
In the treacherous water fell.'"
"And if you don't tell him," she added, "may your bottom get stuck to your horse?
The rider went his way, and by the time he reached Acre he had forgotten what the cricket had said to him. When he had finished his business in the city, he went home and tried to get down from his horse, but he could not. Again and again he tried, without success. He called his wife and children to help him, and they pushed and pulled, but they failed. Then he remembered what the cricket had bid him do. "Eh!" he exclaimed, "It seems as if Allah has heard the call of the one who put this spell on me. I might as well go look for the mouse. But how am I ever going to find him?"
He went back to Acre and searched around the shops, asking their owners, "O uncle, did the mouse come in here? O uncle, did the mouse come in here?" The people in the marketplace looked at him in wonder. "What's this?" they asked among themselves, laughing. "Who is this man, riding around looking for a mouse? What's the matter with him? Is he crazy?"
As he was asking about, however, the mouse heard him. The rider, having searched and searched without success, went back home and dismounted easily. He was no longer stuck to his horse.
Now the mouse ran about his business. He stole a piece of meat from the butcher and a bar of soap from the grocer, and he ran back - "tzee, tzee, tzee" - until he arrived. When he discovered his wife had fallen in the water, he went crazy with fear for her. Putting the things he was carrying down on the edge of the hole, he lowered his head into the hole, but he could not reach her. He put his ear in the hole, his paw, then all parts of his body, and still he could not reach her. What was he going to do? He turned his back and dangled his tail in the water. Taking hold of it, she was able to climb out.
"See what you've done!" she started blaming him. "You went away and left me, and I fell into the sea."
"How could I have helped it?" he answered. "Come, make us some kubbe and let's have lunch."
She set to it, my little darlings, and prepared the food. They ate lunch, washed themselves and their clothes, and hung them out on the bushes till they were dry. Then they folded their clothes, and - "tzee, tzee, tzee - went home to the mouse's hole.
This is my tale, I've told it, and in your hands I leave it.
Afterword
This group of tales deals with the marriage relationship, focusing on the newlyweds themselves and the pressures they experience regarding their choice of mate and their sexuality. Because (despite the emphasis on endogamy) none of the couples are cousins but rather are strangers to each other, they must learn to establish patterns of communication and to adapt to each other's needs and observe each other's limits. The tales explore ways in which success may be achieved in marriage, especially in the initial phases of the relationship, immediately following the wedding.
"The Old Woman Ghouleh" shows us some of the confusion a young bride must feel in her new environment. She has had little choice in the matter of her marriage, her role having been passive throughout the whole process, and everyone, including her husband, is a stranger to her. She does not know who is a friend and who is an enemy. In this situation the bride is quite vulnerable, and the tale shows that a marriage can get off to a bad start when she does not immediately place her trust in her husband to protect her from the potential evil around her. When, however, as in the case of the third bride, this trust and the communication that automatically goes with it are present from the beginning of the relationship, the couple can cooperate to overcome obstacles.
In "Lady Tatar," in contrast, the burden of communication is thrown on the husband rather than the wife. Here the husband learns that if he communicates with his wife by treating her as she desires, she is more than willing to cooperate with him and share his life. At the beginning of the tale the lack of communication leads to frustration and multiple marriages; at the end, however, mutual understanding and harmony prevail. This tale also focuses on the bride, who, having been mistreated at home and then adopted by a stranger, is shown to need a good marriage relationship.
Whereas the first two tales in the group focus on the problems facing the women in a marriage relationship, the second two, "Clever Hasan" and "Soqak Boqak!" shed light on the pressures faced by the men. "Clever Hasan" is a composite of two tales that are rarely brought together as here. The first half, the story of Hasan and his mother, could have been classified under Group I, "Children and Parents," for, like Swes, Swes!" it depicts a conflict between mother and son that centers on the mother's sexuality. The second half is usually narrated separately as the adventure story of a young hero who defeats the enemies of his potential father-in-law. By juxtaposing these two disparate tales, using the figure of Clever Hasan as a unifying device, the teller spotlights one of the major conflicts a young man faces upon marriage: being caught between his mother and his wife. No less important, the tale also shows a corresponding conflict for the bride: being caught between husband and father. The juxtaposition of the two tales, then, demonstrates that husband and wife can achieve a harmonious relationship only when, through cooperation and by having sufficient strength of character to be independent, they have been able to overcome the negative influence of their parents. In "Soqak Boqak!" parental pressure is felt in yet another way. Anxious for their only son to have offspring, the parents urge him to marry before he is ready. His fears about his manhood and what his bride might look like drive him from home, and it then becomes the task of his sexually more mature wife to bring him back.
Of course, the mutual suitability of the partners is essential for a harmonious marriage relationship, and, given the dynamics of the Palestinian social system, the question of mate choice is of utmost importance in the lives of the newlyweds (see also afterword to Group I, "The Quest for the Spouse"). Naturally, both bride and groom have much to worry about when their families choose their mates. Conversely, the family becomes anxious when the children make their own choices. The ideal balance is achieved when the mate selected is suitable to both parties. In this light, the last three tales in the group reveal an interesting pattern. In "Soqak Boqak!" the son discovers that the mate chosen by his family is the one he would have chosen for himself, and in "Clever Hasan" the father realizes that his daughter's choice of husband is the one he would have made for her. A perfect compromise between individual desire and family requirements is struck in "Cricket," which explores the very dynamics of mate choice. Although the tale does not outwardly conform to the norms of the culture (young maidens simply do not go out looking for husbands, nor would their mothers allow them to), it nevertheless does present the criteria essential for the ideal mate. The daughter's anxiety about finding a husband is moderated by her mother's concern that he
be a proper match for her physically, economically, and socially. Thus the daughter chooses the ideal mate, but only on the advice and approval of the mother. Under these conditions, husband and wife solve the problems they encounter in daily life through a combination of mutual affection, cooperation, and proper behavior based on each mate fulfilling her or his culturally prescribed role.
HUSBANDS AND WIVES
24.