Moorish Literature: Comprising Romantic Ballads, Tales of the Berbers, Stories of the Kabyles, Folk-Lore, and National Traditions
General
Moorish Literature: Comprising Romantic Ballads, Tales of the Berbers, Stories of the Kabyles, Folk-Lore, and National Traditions
Spanish literature -- Translations into English
Assisted by these traits of indigenous manners, we can call to mind ogres
and pagans who represent an ancient population, or, more exactly, the
sectarians of an ancient religion like the Paganism or the Christianity
which was maintained on some points of Northern Africa, with the Berbers,
until the eleventh century A.D. Fabulous features from the Arabs have
slipped into the descriptions of the Djohala, mingled with the confused
souvenirs of mythological beings belonging to paganism before the advent of
Christianity.
It is difficult to separate the different sources of the Berber stories.
Besides those appearing to be of indigenous origin, and which have for
scene a grotto or a mountain, one could scarcely deny that the greater
part, whether relating to stories of adventure, fairy stories, or comical
tales, were borrowed from foreign countries by way of the Arabs. Without
doubt they have furnished the larger part, but there are some of which
there are no counterparts in European countries. "Half a cock," for
instance, has travelled into the various provinces of France, Ireland,
Albania, among the Southern Slavs, and to Portugal, from whence it went to
Brazil; but the Arabs do not know it, nor do they know Tom Thumb, which
with the Khabyles becomes H'ab Sliman. In the actual state of our
knowledge, we can only say that there is a striking resemblance between a
Berber tale and such or such a version. From thence comes the presumption
of borrowed matter. But, for the best results to be gained, one should be
in possession of all the versions. When it relates to celebrated personages
among the Mussulmans, like Solomon, or the features of a legend of which no
trace remains of the names, one can certainly conclude that it is borrowed
from the Arabs. It is the same with the greater number of fairy tales,
whose first inventors, the Arabs, commenced with the "Thousand and One
Nights," and presented us with "The Languages of the Beasts," and also with
funny stories.
The principal personage of these last is Si Djeha, whose name was borrowed
from a comic narrative existing as early as the eleventh century A.D. The
contents are sometimes coarse and sometimes witty, are nearly all more
ancient, and yet belong to the domain of pleasantries from which in Germany
sprung the anecdotes of Tyll Eulenspiegel and the Seven Suabians, and in
England the Wise Men of Gotham. In Italy, and even in Albania, the name of
Djeha is preserved under the form of Guifa and Guicha; and the Turks, who
possess the richest literature on this person, have made him a Ghadji Sirii
Hissar, under the name of Nasr-eddin Hodja (a form altered from Djoha). The
traits attributed to such persons as Bon Idhes, Bon Goudous, Bon
Kheenpouch, are equally the same as those bestowed upon Si Djeha.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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