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
"This is the way," she answered. The hunter went in to the middle of the
cave, loaded his gun, and waited. At sunset the ogre arrived. The hunter
took aim and fired, hitting the ogre between the eyes as he was sitting
down. Approaching him he saw that he had brought with him two men to cook
and eat them. In the morning he employed the day in collecting the hidden
silver, took what he could, and set out on the return. On the fourteenth
day he arrived at the place where he had left his comrades, and found them
there.
"Leave the game you have secured and return with me to the cave," he said
to them. When they arrived they took all the arms and clothing, loaded it
upon their camels, and set out to return to their village. Half way home
they fought to see which one should marry the woman. The powder spoke
between them. Our man killed four, and took the woman home and married her.
THE FALSE VEZIR
A king had a wife who said to him: "I would like to go and visit my
father."
"Very well," said he; "wait to-day, and to-morrow thou shalt go with my
vezir." The next day they set out, taking the children with them, and an
escort lest they should be attacked on the way. They stopped at sunset, and
passed the night on the road. The vezir said to the guards, "Watch that we
be not taken, if the robbers should come to seize us." They guarded the
tent. The vezir asked the King's wife to marry him, and killed one of her
sons because she refused. The next day they set out again. The next night
he again asked the King's wife to marry him, threatening to kill a second
child should she refuse. She did refuse, so he killed the second son. The
next morning they set out, and when they stopped at night again he asked
the King's wife to marry him.
"I'll kill you if you refuse."
She asked for delay, time to say her prayers. She prayed to God, the Master
of all worlds, and said: "O God, save me from the vezir." The Master of the
worlds heard her prayer. He gave her the wings of a bird, and she flew up
in the sky.
At dawn she alighted in a great city, and met a man upon the roadside. She
said: "By the face of God, give me your raiment and I'll give thee mine."
"Take it, and may God honor you," he said. Then she was handsome. This city
had no king. The members of the council said:
"This creature is handsome; we'll make him our king." The cannon spoke in
his honor and the drums beat.
When she flew up into the sky, the vezir said to the guards: "You will be
my witnesses that she has gone to the sky, so that when I shall see the
King he cannot say, 'Where is she?'" But when the vezir told this story,
the King said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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