Folk Tales of Afghanistan — Part 2: The Poor Wood-seller · There Is Nothing Impossible · Faith versus Sanctity · The Henpecked Husbands
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Thirteen more tales of the Pathans of the Bannu valley, on the Afghan frontier, collected and translated by S. S. Thorburn of the Indian Civil Service and published in his Bannu; or, Our Afghan Frontier (London, 1876) — the remaining humorous and moral tales of his first class, and the opening tales of his second class, the comic and jocular tales.
A wood-seller cheated out of his ox wins it back with a bargain taken literally. Solomon, stripped of his sacred ring, wanders unknown and marries the sweeper's daughter whose impossible wish set the tale going. A traveller steeps his fine robe in the ghi he was served, because it was his clothes that were entertained. A Vizier buries a donkey, raises a shrine over it, and proves to his King that faith, not sanctity, answers prayer. And two henpecked husbands divide an old man's salute between them.
Stories in this episode:
0:35 Introduction
1:51 The Poor Wood-seller
3:28 There Is Nothing Impossible
6:40 The Way to Win a Lawsuit
7:26 Host and Guest
8:36 The Tables Turned
9:41 The Invitation Accepted
10:40 Hospitality Returned
11:58 The Choice of a Wife
13:51 Faith versus Sanctity
17:04 The Henpecked Husbands
19:11 Which Is the Fool?
20:08 An Irishism
20:49 The Height of Folly
Source: Bannu; or, Our Afghan Frontier (London, 1876) by S. S. Thorburn — public domain. Reading texts are faithful in-house renderings of Thorburn's printed English. A few tales of the chapter that turn on bloodshed are left untold, as this programme leaves such tales aside; they are named in this episode's notes. Narrated by Amos.
Music: "Glacial Forest 3" (instrumental) — opening and closing theme, with a short excerpt between stories.
Afghan folk tales, Pathan tales, Bannu, Thorburn, Afghan frontier stories, trickster tales, bedtime stories, KacheliTV
