Part Two of the Moroccan shelf: folk tales from Morocco, in fresh translations made for this reading. Albert Socin and Hans Stumme's The Arabic Dialect of the Houara of the Wad Sus in Morocco (Leipzig, 1895) sets down the tales of the Houara in their own tongue together with the collectors' German translation. Rene Basset's New Berber Tales (Paris, 1897) prints tales told in the Chelha tongue of the Sous and of Taroudant. 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.
Halblorber — a boy no bigger than half a laurel berry hides inside a cow and speaks out of her head, frightens the women at the spring and a rich rider off his mule; and the neighbour who tries to copy the trick is left with a mantle of turnip leaves — until the cow eats that too. The Student and the Magic Ring — three poor students come by a merchant's magic ring, whose spirits feed them and fill a chest with gold; and when the ring is tricked away on the road to Mecca, a cat and two mice win it back. The Magic Horse — a magician gives a king an iron horse with springs that flies through the sky; the prince rides it by night to another king's palace, and when the magician steals horse and princess both, the prince carries her home again. Haroun er Rachid and the Daughter of the King of the Genies — the caliph, wandering his city at night, is carried sleeping to the sea-palace of the king of the genies and marries his daughter; years later their son comes in search of his father, and is known by the crescent and the sabre he wears.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:15 Halblorber
7:37 The Student and the Magic Ring
12:47 The Magic Horse
16:26 Haroun er Rachid and the Daughter of the King of the Genies
Albert Socin and Hans Stumme, Der arabische Dialekt der Houwara des Wad Sus in Marokko (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1895), and Rene Basset, Nouveaux contes berberes (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1897) — public domain.
Narrated by Mira. Music: opening and closing theme, "Golden Monologue," also heard as short separators between the stories — the tales themselves are read dry.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
