Moorish Literature | Page 7

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.
But if the Berbers have borrowed the majority of their tales, they have
given to their characters the manners and appearance and names of
their compatriots. The king does not differ from the Amir of a village,
or an Amanokul of the Touaregs. The palace is the same as all those of
a Haddarth, and Haroun al Raschid himself, when he passes into Berber
stories, is plucked of the splendor he possesses in the "Thousand and
One Nights," and in Oriental stories. This anachronism renders the
heroes of the tales more real, and they are real Berbers, who are alive,

and who express themselves like the mountaineers of Jurgura, the
Arabs of the Atlas; like the men of Ksour, or the nomads of Sahara. In
general there is little art in these stories, and in style they are far below
other collections celebrated through the entire world.
An important place is given to the fables or stories of animals, but there
is little that is not borrowed from foreign lands, and the animals are
only such as the Berbers are familiar with. The adventures of the jackal
do not differ from those of the fox in European stories. An African trait
may be signalled in the prominence which it offers the hare, as in the
stories of Ouslofs_ and _Bantous. Also, the hedgehog, neglected so
lamentably in our fables, holds an important place; and if the jackal
manages to deceive the lion, he is, in spite of his astute nature, duped
by the hedgehog when he tries a fall with him. As to the lion, the
serpent, the cock, the frog, the turtle, the hyena, the jackal, the rat, their
roles offer little of the place they play in the Arab tales, or even the
Europeans.
If we pass from Berber we find the Arab tongue as spoken among the
Magreb, and will see that the literature is composed of the same
elements, particularly in the tales and songs. There are few special
publications concerning the first, but there are few travellers who have
not gathered some, and thus rendered their relations with the people
more pleasant. In what concerns the fairy tales it is, above all, the
children for whom they are destined, "when at night, at the end of their
wearisome days, the mothers gather their children around them under
the tent, under the shelter of her Bon Rabah, the little ones demand
with tears a story to carry their imaginations far away." "Kherrfin ya
summa" ("Tell us a story"), they say, and she begins the long series of
the exploits of Ah Di Douan.[36] Even the men do not disdain to listen
to the tales, and those that were gathered from Tunis and Tripoli by Mr.
Stemme,[37] and in Morocco by Messrs. Souin and Stemme,[38] show
that the marvellous adventures, wherein intervene the Djinns, fairies,
ogres, and sorcerers, are no less popular among the Arab people than
among the Berbers.
We must not forget that these last-named have borrowed much from the

first ones, and it is by them that they have known the celebrated Khalif
of Bagdad, one of the principal heroes of the "Thousand and One
Nights," Haroun al Raschid, whose presence surprises us not a little
when figuring in adventures incompatible with the dignity of a
successor of the Prophet.
As in the Berber tales, one finds parallels to the Arab stories among the
folk-lore of Europe, whether they were borrowed directly or whether
they came from India. One will notice, however, in the Arab tales a
superior editing. The style is more ornate, the incidents better arranged.
One feels that, although it deals with a language disdaining the usage of
letters, it is expressed almost as well as though in a cultivated literary
language. The gathering of the populations must also be taken into
consideration; the citizens of Tunis, of Algiers, and even in the cities of
Morocco, have a more exact idea of civilized life than the Berber of the
mountains or the desert. As to the comic stories, it is still the Si Djeha
who is the hero, and his adventures differ little with those preserved in
Berber, and which are common to several literatures, even when the