The Bird from the Land of Gabour

Summary

Four women converse in the woods before the king's garden. The first promises to feed his troops (méḥalla) with a single plate of couscous; the second, to quench the troops' thirst with one bucket of water; the third, to weave head coverings (ḥaïk) for the troops using the hair of one horse; and the fourth, to bear the king a boy with a lock of silver and a girl with tresses of gold. The king summons them to demonstrate their claims. The first woman prepares two plates of couscous—a meager one for the army and a delicious one for the king.

The second woman is given a bucket of hot water, which the horses refuse, but she lies that they drank. The third woman sews a haïk with her own hair. The three women are placed in the king's harem, while he marries the fourth. The new queen's three rivals, jealous, hire a wise woman who poses as a midwife.

She takes the newborn twins, replaces them with puppies, and casts them into the water. A fisherman and his wife rescue and raise them. After the adoptive parents die, the siblings go to the mosque. An old woman insists on becoming the girl's servant and is brought to their palace.

She tells the girl the palace is beautiful but lacks certain items: first, two jets of water—rose water and orange blossom water; second, water that 'youyoute' (makes sounds of joy); third, the laughing pomegranate; fourth, the dancing reed. The brother delivers each item to his sister. Later, the old woman tells them of the Ṭîr El-Gabouri, a bird from the land of Gabour that can sing in their garden. The brother seeks the bird, meets a Ghoul who directs him, but fails and is petrified.

The sister follows, catches the bird, and disenchants her brother and others petrified by it. Finally, the old woman tells them to invite the king to their garden, where the bird reveals the truth.

Analysis

The story is known as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children." It begins with three sisters discussing marriage to a king; the youngest promises to bear children with remarkable qualities. The king marries her, but jealous aunts steal the children and throw them into water. Years later, the children reunite the family, and the aunts are punished.

Scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana note this tale type is widespread in the Arab world. French ethnologist Camille Lacoste-Dujardin identified a Moroccan variant called L'oiseau des pays de labour. In a Kabylian version, she observed the sisters' jealousy arises from a sense of infertility, and their boasts about domestic chores hold "capital importance" to them. Hasan El-Shamy points out that in Middle Eastern versions, the royal children are a brother-sister twin pair.

Philologist Johannes Østrup traced the motif of a king banning nighttime candle lighting to an "Oriental" origin. Another recurring motif involves the hero suckling an ogress's breastmilk while searching for magical objects.

Variants

A Moroccan Arabic tale from Chefchaouen, collected by Aicha Ramouni from storyteller Lālla Ḥusniyya l-ʕAlami, features a third sister who promises to bear twins—a boy and a girl whose smiles bring sunshine, whose tears bring rain, and who leave a gold brick and a silver brick with every step. Their adoptive father provides the first two items an old woman demands, but the brother fails to capture the talking bird, while the sister succeeds. In the end, the adoptive father grows wealthy from the bricks, invites the twins' biological father to a meal, and reveals the whole truth, leading the biological father to reclaim his children.

In a Moroccan variant called L'Oiseau Conteur, a king with two co-wives has no son. A tribe gives him a young woman who becomes pregnant. Each time she gives birth—to two boys and a girl over three pregnancies—the co-wives swap the infants for puppies and throw them into a river. A fisherman rescues and raises them.

When the children grow into brave warriors, the king's jealous vizir urges the king to send them after the Oiseau Conteur. The two elder brothers fail and are pulled underground; the sister traps the bird in a cage and compels it to restore her brothers. The bird is brought before the king, where it reveals that the fisherman's children are actually the king's own.