The Magic Grain (French: Le Grain Magique) is an Algerian tale collected by author Taos Amrouche in her book . It deals with a maiden going in search of her elder brothers in the company of a dark-skinned slavewoman who replaces her and passes herself as the youths' sister.
The tale is classified, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as type ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers" (formerly as tale type AaTh 451A, "The Sister Seeking her Nine Brothers"). Variants of this tale type exist in North Africa (among the Berbers), wherein the heroine and a black woman change races in order to trick the heroine's elder brothers into thinking the latter is their sister.
Summary In a village, seven brothers declare they will depart from home if their mother bears another son. Settoute, the evil witch, tells the brothers a boy was born to their mother, which causes their departure. However, their mother gave birth to a girl. Years later, when she goes to draw water, she is mocked for her missing elder brothers. The girl goes to ask her mother about it, and the woman tells her the whole story. The girl then decides to go and search for them. Her mother gives her a magic grain that will serve as means of communication between them, and warns her not to bathe in the pool for the black women, otherwise she will become one herself.
The girl then begins her journey on a horse and accompanied by a black servant. At certain times, her mother talks to her via the magic grain, until the duo reaches a place with pools for white women, where the servant bathes in and becomes white, and pool for black women, where the girl washes herself and becomes black. The duo keep walking until the girl's mother's voice can no longer reach her, and the servant forces the girl to dismount the horse and let her climb it, then reach the brothers' village, where the servant passes herself as their sister, while the true one is made to herd the camels.
Every day, the true sister is given a meager meal of wheat flour to eat, and cries her misfortune in the form of a song to the camels. Six of the camels cry with her, save for one that is deaf. In time, the youngest brother notices that the camels are getting thinner since they placed the servant in that function, and goes to investigate: he listens to her lament, and inquires her about it. The girl reveals she is the true sister, and they have welcomed an impostor in their house. The brothers consult with an old man, who tells them that, despite changing her appearance, the servant cannot hide her curly hair, so they must set up a feast and ask for both women to show their hair. It is done so: the brothers invite the girls for a henna session. The false sister is unmasked, and both girls are taken to the area of the pools, where they reverse the transformation. They kill the servant and bury her remains.
The following year, the sister plucks a mallow herb and prepares a meal for her brothers when they return from the hunt. After they eat, the seven brothers become pigeons, the sister a dove, and they fly to the sky.
Analysis Tale type Egyptian folklorist Hasan M. El-Shamy and French ethnologist classified the tale, according to the international Aarne-Thompson Index, as type AaTh 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers"El-Shamy, Hasan. Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. p. 226 (entry nr. 33). A related tale type is AaTh 451A, "The Sister Seeking her Nine Brothers": the heroine goes to search for her brothers, meets a girl on the road, and both change appearances when they take a bath in a lake.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. 155–156. However, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther revised the international classification system and subsumed previous type 451A under the new type ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers".Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 267. . The tale type is also one of many types listed in the international index that deal with a brother-sister relationship.El-Shamy, Hasan. "Sister and Brother, Motif P253". In: Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy (eds.). Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature. A Handbook. Armonk / London: M.E. Sharpe, 2005. p. 350.
Motifs The heroine's talisman
According to Zakia Iraqui Sinaceur and Micheline Galley, after her brothers depart, the heroine decides to go after them. In her journey she carries a magic object (one or two talismans) which is lost at some point. In the same vein, according to Hassane Benamara, the heroine carries an object named aεeqqa or Aεeqqa yessawalen, translated as a jewel or pearl in a Figuig tale (Sarsar) and as a grain in Kabylian stories, which prevents the black servant from replacing the heroine.
The heroine's replacement
According to Zakia Iraqui Sinaceur and Micheline Galley, after her brothers depart, the heroine decides to go after them. In her journey she is accompanied by one or more slaves. In type AaTh 451A, the sister is replaced by the false sister by changing races with the antagonist, a motif classified in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature as D30, "Transformation to person of different race".El-Shamy, Hasan. Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. p. 226. In addition, according to French researcher , in Maghrebian versions there is the "recurring motif" of the hostile black slave that forces the heroine to take a bath in the "fountain for black ones", while the slave takes a bath in the other fountain to whiten her skin and trick the heroine's brothers.
Variants Algeria A Girl Searching for her Seven Brothers French linguist collected and published an Algerian variant in the Chenoua language with the title Aventures d'une jeune fille qui va a la recherche de ses sept frères ("Adventures of a Girl that is searching for her Seven Brothers"): a woman has seven sons already and becomes pregnant again. Her sons ask her to wave a red flag for a son, and they'll leave home, and a white flag for a girl. A girl is born, but their mother's black slave waves a red flag and they depart. Years later, the girl learns of her brothers' departure and decides to visit them joined by a personal slave woman. During the journey, her slave woman asks her to ride the mule, but the girl asks her mother through a little magical bell. Some time later, the girl stumbles and falls, and her little bell breaks. The girl and the slave woman pass by two fountains: the girl bathes in one of the fountains and her skin becomes black, while the other's skin becomes white. The slave woman replaces the girl as the brothers' true sister. She is made to graze the brebis and laments her situation. A man passes by and overhears her mournful lament, and reports the finding to the brothers. They unmask the false sister and restore their true sister to her rightful place. The tale then continues with the sister's pregnancy and further adventures.Laoust, Émile. Etude sur le dialecte berbère du Chenoua. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1912. pp. 95–98 (original text), 165–168 (French translation).
The Orphan and the Two Slaves
In a tale from M'zab translated into Spanish with the title La huérfana y las dos esclavas ("The Orphan Girl and the Two Slaves"), a young Mozabite girl lives with alone her mother, but longs to play and talk to siblings, since other girls in her village have one. So one day, she asks her mother about it, and the latter tells her about her seven elder brothers who left home to find work elsewhere. Despite their village lying on the other side of the desert, and her mother's protests, the girl decides to journey there, takes her things and leaves for the village's gates. There, she finds two black slaves that coincidentally are travelling to the same location. So the trio travel together until they stop just before the next village where the brother live. The black slaves tie up the Mozabite girl and paint her skin with black ink, so she can look like a slave, and paint one of the slave's skins white. The black slaves threaten the girl and force her to keep quiet about their plan, and go to meet the seven brothers. The girl, painted with black paint, is introduced as another slave and made to herd their camels. Every night, after she herds the camel to the stables, she exposes her sorrows in the form of a song, and a camel appears dead the next morning, until there is only one remaining. The brothers begin to notice the strangeness of the situation, and the younger one decides to investigate: he hides in the stables and listens to the girl's lament about the slaves trading places with her. The younger brother hatches a plan to unmask the false sister: he asks her to fetch some water and to help him wash his hands. When the false sister does, the water washes away her body paint. The younger brother reveals the deception to his siblings, who punish the two slaves and reinstate their true sister.Abénojar, Óscar; Khirennas, Messaouda. Las granadas de oro y otros cuentos tradicionales del oasis del Mzab (Argelia). Cádiz, España: QBooks/Publidisa, 2016. pp. 115–120. .
Kabylia The Seven Brothers French missionary Joseph Rivière collected and published a Kabylian tale from Djurdjura with the title Les Sept Frères ("The Seven Brothers"). In this tale, the king's seven sons pray that their mother gives birth to a girl, for they will raise a flag and celebrate her birth. If to a boy, they will still raise a flag, but leave home. The queen gives birth to a girl, but their aunt tells them it is a boy. They leave home. Years later, the little girl is fetching water when she accidentally breaks the jar. She is told by a passing woman that her brothers left home. She returns home, boils water and threatens to burn her mother's hand in the boiling water is she does not reveal the truth. The girl prepares a journey to her brothers and is gifted a magical pearl, a camel and a slave woman by her father. After some walking, they stop by two fountains: the princess, named Dania, washes herself in the fountain for the slaves, while the slave woman refreshes herself in the fountain for the freemen. Some miles later, the slave woman insists that the princess climbs down the camel, but she consults with the pearl that she cannot do it. After some distance, the pearl does not answer anymore and the slave woman replaces Dania as the brothers' sister. The seven youths embrace the slave woman as their sister, while Dania is made to herd their camels. Dania eats a piece of bread and laments over her fate to a nearby rock, which is heard by six of the camels, except a deaf animal. The youngest brother overhears it and consults with a wise man, who answers that their true sister has "chevelure [...] brillante" ("hair [that is] shining"). They unmask the false sister and kill her, and restore their sister in the fountain of the freemen.Rivière, Joseph. Recueil de contes populaires de la Kabylie du Djurdjura. Paris: E. Leroux, 1882. pp. 45–50.
"We Need a Sister"