North African Tales

Sultans, Sorcery and the Supernatural- a collection of fairy tales
Written by Henri Burger
Illustrated by Bedriska Uzdilova
For a Beakful of Water
A partridge is desperate for a Beakful of water so she asks her mate to get her one from the stream. The mate refuses as he too is parched from the hot sun. Instead he proposes that she goes to the stream while he sits and guards her nest. When she arrives back and asks him to get off her nest he replies that he is too tired to move from the nest and the only thing that can revive him is a mulberry. The partridge flies off to the mulberry tree but the only way to get the fruit from the tree is when the wolf scratches its back against the tree. The wolf agrees to scratch its back but only in return for a lamb from the Shepard. The shepherd wants to help the bird but only in return for a pup to guard his flock. The bitch won’t give up a pup because she’s hungry and won’t cooperate until she gets milk from the mare. The mare will swap her milk for an armful of grass and for an armful of grass she must retrieve butter from the mountain goat. The herdsman agreed to give up the butter but first they need water from the well. By that time the partridge had lost all her strength. A jay that was flying past took pity on her and helped her out. The partridge completed all her tasks and at the end of the day gave the mulberry to her mate and settled back on her nest.

North African Fairy Tales are;
• Very moralistic
• Similar to Aesop’s fables. With the exception that all characters are not animals but still have animals in the stories which possess human characteristics such as thinking, feeling, and reasoning.
• The descriptions and settings in the story illustrate the time and place in which the stories were told. It highlights their origins- North African. ‘Unwinding his turban…one day he was crossing an arid desert’ (pp 32, 16 Sultans, Sorcery and the Supernatural). In stories from other times and places characters wouldn’t be unwinding their turbans or crossing arid deserts. The pictures in the book also reinforce the text and the surroundings of the fairy tales.
• Most of the stories have definite good versus evil moralistic approach.
• These stories often show the downfalls of man, e.g. sinning, distrust and betrayal.
• The names of places and people exemplify the origins of the story for example ‘Sidi Rahal, Marrakesh, the Sultan Marje’. (pp198, 130 Sultans, Sorcery and the Supernatural).
• The story of Ahmed is very similar to Rapunzel.