Part One of a new shelf: folk tales from Morocco, in fresh translations made for this reading. Hans Stumme's Tales of the Shluh of Tazerwalt (Leipzig, 1895) prints the tales of the Shilha of Tazerwalt in southern Morocco in their own tongue together with the collector's translation; they were told to him by Haz Abdallah Ben Mhammed. Rene Basset's Tales of Africa (Paris, 1903) prints The Owl from Albert Socin and Hans Stumme's collection of the Arabic dialect of the Houara of the Wad Sus. Billed by collector and book, as the tales these books gather; not a survey of all Moroccan tradition, and no completeness is claimed. The tales were screened in the order they stand in their books under this shelf's standing rule, and a great many were set aside — every one stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
The Woodcutter — a poor woodcutter spares the spirit in a tree trunk, and receives a hand-mill that grinds by itself, a bowl that fills itself with couscous and meat, and a cat that voids gold; each is stolen from him by a swap for its double, until the spirit gives him three little sticks that beat whoever speaks the word, and will not stop until the stolen things are given back. The Owl — a poor shepherd sells his flock to an owl for a hundred reales, and collects the price from the owl's own pot. The Falcon and the Owl — a falcon takes a featherless old owl for a young one, and warms her until her memories give her age away. The Sea and the Mosquito — how the sea lost its pride, and why its water is salt.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:12 The Woodcutter
10:49 The Owl
13:36 The Falcon and the Owl
15:27 The Sea and the Mosquito
Hans Stumme, Märchen der Schluh von Tazerwalt (J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1895), and Rene Basset, Contes populaires d'Afrique (Librairie Orientale et Américaine, 1903) — public domain.
Narrated by Bruno. Music: opening and closing theme, "The River's Dying Vision No. 2," also heard as short separators between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
Moroccan folk tales · Morocco fairy tales · Hans Stumme · Rene Basset · Tazerwalt · Shilha tales · The Woodcutter · world folk tales · free audiobook
