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The Quest for the Spouse 16. The Brave Lad TELLER: Allah has spoken, and His word is a blessing! AUDIENCE: Blessings abound, Allah willing!l There was once the king of a city who had a very beautiful daughter. He announced that he would give her hand to anyone who could kill the ghoul. He also let it be known that the ghoul would be easy to kill: all one had to do was remove three hairs from his head. If they were removed, the ghoul would die. The ghoul had been giving the people a hard time, eating them and their animals, and they wanted to be rid of him. He lived in a cave in the forest, not far from the city. A lad in love with the girl but too poor to become the king's son-inlaw2 one day decided to try his fortune against the ghoul, even though he could not be sure if he would come back alive or not. No one except him dared agree to the king's condition. The lad went to the ghoul's cave while it was still daylight, but did not find him at home. He was roaming about, looking for someone to eat. In the cave the youth found the ghoul's wife, who was a girl from their city. The ghoul had fallen in love with her and had abducted her. The moment she saw the young man, the girl gave him some advice. "You'd better go back where you came from," she said. "When the ghoul comes home in the evening, he'll make a feast of you." 1. The unusual opening formula, —qdl alia w-qal xer —xer insalla (literally, "Allah has spoken, and He spoke blessings"; "Blessings, God willing!"), carries profound significance: first, it glorifies the power of speech by attributing it to a divine source; second, it equates material blessings (xer) with the Logos, the divine word; and third, it demonstrates the importance of folktales to the community, since the formula implies that telling them is a blessing. See also Tale 6, n. i. 2. Perhaps he could not afford the girl's fed (bridewealth, for which see Tale 15, n. 10). Furthermore, he could not possibly have been able to afford the costs of the wedding, which are borne entirely by the bridegroom's family, since for a king's daughter the festivities would have to be lavish. A Palestinian proverb says, "He who has money can have the king's daughter for his bride" (Hit c indofluso, bint is-sultan c amso}. See also Tale 15, n. 16. 148 i6. The Brave Lad 149 But he refused to listen and stayed with her, telling her his story. The girl agreed to help him because she hated the ghoul, who had abducted her when she was engaged to her first cousin, whom she loved and who loved her. By helping the lad, perhaps she could get rid of the ghoul and go back to her cousin. When the ghoul came home, he was growling from hunger. He had not been able to find anyone to eat. The girl hid the young man in the wardrobe.3 "I smell a human being," roared the ghoul as he came in. "Nonsense!" replied the girl. "You brought that smell with you."4 The ghoul then ate whatever he could find and went to sleep. She lay down to sleep next to him. As soon as he was fast asleep, she plucked one of the hairs from his head. "What's going on?" the ghoul grumbled, waking up. "I dreamt you were drowning in the sea," she answered. "And by the time I got to you, your whole body was under water. Nothing was above except your head. So I pulled you by your hair to save you from drowning , but you woke up and woke me up, and it turns out I really was pulling your hair." Believing her, the ghoul closed his eyes again, and no sooner was he fast asleep than she plucked another hair from his head. He woke, jumping up like a madman. "What's the matter with you?" he asked. "I was dreaming," she lied, "that you and I were traveling together on a boat and I fell overboard. If I hadn't taken hold of your hair, I would certainly have drowned. And when you shouted at me, I woke up. It turns out I really was...

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