The Bird from the Land of Gabour (, ) is a Moroccan folktale collected by author Dr. Françoise Légey and published in the early 20th century, sourced from a informant from Marrakech. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children". These tales refer to stories where a girl promises a king she will bear a child or children with wonderful attributes, but her jealous relatives or the king's wives plot against the babies and their mother. Variants are collected across Morocco.
Summary
Four women talk in the woods in front of the king's garden: the first promises to feed his troops (méḥalla, in the original) with only a plate of couscous, the second that she can sate the thirst of the troops with only a bucket of water, the third that she can weave head coverings (ḥaïk, in the original) for the troops with the hair of one horse only, and the fourth that she can bear the king a boy with a lock of silver and a girl with tresses of gold ("Nweld Lih would Zekkoura Enta 'Noqra ou Bent Guettaïta Enta 't Dhehb", in the original). The king summons all four women for them to display their talents: the first woman prepares two plates of couscous, a meagre one for the army and a delicious one for the king; the second woman is given a bucket of hot water which the horses do not drink from, but she lies to the king they did; and the third woman sews a haïk with her own hair. The three women are relegated to the king's harem, while he marries the fourth woman.
The fourth woman, who has become the official queen, earns the jealousy of the other three, who hire a wise woman to help them in their revenge: the wise woman poses as a midwife and takes the twins as soon as they are born, replaces them for puppies and casts them in the water. They are saved and raised by a fisherman and his wife. Years later, after their adoptive parents die, while going to the mosque, the girl is approached by an old woman, who insists to be her servant. She is brought to their palace, and she tells the girl the palace is beautiful, but lacks several items: on the first quest, the old woman tells about two jets of water, water of roses and water from orange blossoms; on the second quest, the water that "youyoute" ("makes sounds of joy"); on the third quest, the laughing pomegranate; on the fourth quest, the dancing reed. The brother simply delivers the items to the sister.
Later, the old woman tells them about the Ṭîr El-Gabouri, a bird from the land of Gabour, which can sing in their garden. The brother goes to the ends of the Earth and meets a Ghoul, who directs him to the bird. The brother fails and is petrified; the sister follows him, catches the bird and disenchants her brother and several others that were petrified by the bird. Lastly, the same old woman tells them to invite the king to their garden. The bird Ṭîr El-Gabouri reveals the truth to the king in the siblings' garden.Doctoresse Légey. Contes and Legendes Populaires Du Maroc. Casablanca, Maroc: Editions du Sirocco, 2010. pp. 52-57. .
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children": three sisters converse among themselves about their plans to marry the king, the youngest promising to bear children with wondrous aspect; the king decides to marry the youngest (or all three), and the youngest bears the wondrous children, who are taken from her and cast in the water by the jealous aunts; years later, the children, after many adventures, reunite the family, which leads to the aunts being punished.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 242–243.El-Shamy, Hasan. Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. pp. 385-387, 389 (entry nr. 69). The tale type, according to scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, is very popular in the Arab world. French ethnologist Camille Lacoste-Dujardin, in her study about the Kabylian oral repertoire, listed L'oiseau des pays de labour (sic) as a Moroccan variant of type 707.
Motifs French ethnologist , in regards to a Kabylian variant, noted that the sisters' jealousy originated from their perceived infertility, and that their promises of grand feats of domestic chores were a matter of "capital importance" to them.
Hasan El-Shamy remarked that in Middle Eastern tales the royal children, born of the third sister, are a brother-sister twin pair.
Philologist Johannes Østrup ascribed an "Oriental" origin to the motif of the monarch banning lighting candles at night, which appears in many of the variants.Ostrup, J. "Tyrkiske Folkeeventyr". In: Dania n. 9. 1903. p. 87.
Another motif that appears in these variants is the hero suckling an ogress's breastmilk during the quest for the objects.
Variants The Talking Bird In a Moroccan Arabic tale titled ṭ-ṭăyʁ l-mḥăddəθ ("The Talking Bird"), collected in Chefchaouen, Morocco, by researcher Aicha Ramouni from teller Lālla Ḥusniyya l-ʕAlami, the third sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl who can make the sun appear with their smiles and rain fall with their tears, and leave one brick of gold and other of silver whenever they walk. Their adoptive father is the one to give them the first items the old woman asks for; but the last item, the talking bird, is sought by the brother, who fails, and obtained by the sister. At the end of the tale, the twins' adoptive father becomes rich with the bricks of metal his children left, and invites the twins' biological father for a meal, where the biological father is told of the whole truth, and takes his children back with him.
The (Story)telling Bird In a variant from Morocco titled L'Oiseau Conteur, a local king is married to two co-wives, but has not fathered a son yet. A tribe gives him a young woman to marry and she becomes pregnant. Every time a child is born to her (two boys and a girl, in three consecutive pregnancies), the co-wives replace them for puppies and cast them in the river. Each time the children are rescued by a fisherman, who raises them. Seeing that the boys and the girl are becoming fine and brave warriors, the king's jealous vizir advises the king to send the fisherman's children to seek the Oiseau Conteur ("The [Story]telling Bird"). The two elder brothers fail in getting the bird, and are dragged below the earth; the sister traps the bird inside a cage and forces the bird to restore her brothers. The bird is then brought to the king's presence and tells them the fisherman's children are truly his children.Khatibi, Abdelkebir. La Blessure du nom propre. Les Lettres nouvelles. Paris: Denoël. 1974."Annexe". In: Gauthier, Robert (ed.). Le Conte. Université Toulouse-le Mirail. CALS, 1986. pp. 329-334.
The Story of the Singing Bird In an Eastern Moroccan story from Figuig translated as The story of the Singing Bird, three women talk to a man: the first promises to give birth to Gold-horn and Silver-horn, the second that she wants to feed the king, and the third that she wants to marry the king. The king marries the one that wanted to feed him, gives her salt and flour, and makes an inedible dish. The king then takes the woman that promises to bear her children, and nine months later twins are born: a boy with a golden horn and a girl with a silver horn. The king's co-queen becomes jealous and hires a woman to replace the twins for puppies and cast them in the water. The twins are found by a fisherman and his wife, who have magical powers, and raised by them. As for their mother, the king banishes her to pasture the dogs. Back to the children, years later, an old woman appears in the twins' house and tells her about the Singing Bird that makes people mad. After the old lady leaves, the female twin asks her brother to fetch her the Singing Bird. The male twin goes on a journey and meets ogresses that advise him not to interact with the bird, who has divinatory knowledge and can turn him to stone, just as it has done to countless people before. The male twin fails and is turned to stone, and the female twin goes to rescue him. The girl obeys the ogresses' advice and captures the bird in a sack, then forces the animal to restore her brother and everyone. The twins bring the bird to their house and place it in a cage. One day, the king, the twins' father, meets the female twin and wishes to marry her. The Singing Bird, after some singing, flies on the king's head and urinates on him, mocking the monarch for marrying his own daughter. The king demands an explanation, and the Singing Bird tells the whole story. The king then restores his wife, embraces his children, and punishes the evil women.
The King's Children In a Jewish-Moroccan tale collected in Skoura, in the Dadès River valley, with the title Les enfants du roi ("The King's Children"), a king has three wives, but no son. A magician advises the monarch to go to a fountain and marry the first woman that appears, for she will give him heirs. It happens thus, and the king takes the woman at the spring as his fourth wife. She becomes pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl, who are replaced by a dog and cat by the midwife the other co-wives bribed. The twins are abandoned in a cave. A shepherd grazes his she-goat, when the animal finds the twins and suckles them. The shepherd raises the twins. When they are of age and ready to marry, the midwife learns of their survival and convinces them to ask their adopted father to provide wedding gifts for them: first, a large garden with all the trees of the world. Their shepherd father sells his flocks and builds the garden. The midwife appears again and mentions the garden should have a castle made of golden and silver bricks. The shepherd does as asked. Finally, the midwife convinces the brother to seek for a nightingale that talks to decorate their garden. The male twin goes on a long journey, meets a man-eating fairy and suckles of her breasts to gain her help. The male twin explains he is looking for the nightingale, but the fairy, who has visited a hundred souks, knows nothing of it, and directs him to her sister, who has travelled to two hundred souks. The male twin passes by the fairy who walked three hundred souks, and lastly to the one who walked four hundred souks. The last fairy shows the male twin a field with the heads of those that failed to get the bird, and advises him how to get the bird by avoiding the guardian of the garden. The male twin takes the nightingale and goes back home. Some time later, the king learns of the shepherd and his children who live in the castle and goes to pay them a visit, taking his fourth wife with him. The nightingale sings day and night in the garden, but begins to talk as soon as the king's fourth wife sees it. The bird reveals the truth of the twins to the king and his wife and they reunite. The king marries his son to a girl of the royal family and his daughter to a cousin, then punishes the three co-wives and midwife to be pulled by horses in a wasteland.
The Singing Bird