Little Nightingale the Crier (Palestinian Arabic: Blebl is-sayyah) is a Palestinian Arab folktale collected by scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana. 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 from oral tradition across Middle Eastern and Arabic-speaking countries.
Origins According to researchers Yoel Shalom Perez and Judith Rosenhouse, the tale was collected by Muwahi and Kanaana in 'Arraba, in Galilee.Perez, Yoel Shalom; Rosenhouse, Judith. Bedouin Folktales from the North of Israel. Indiana University Press, 2022. p. 390.
Summary Three sisters earn their living by spinning and selling their products. One day, however, the king decides to see if his subjects are loyal to him, and decrees that lighting a candle at night is forbidden. The three sisters despair at the fact, since they spin day and night, but decide to obey the prohibition. The elder sister then hopes for the king to pass by their house and to have him wed her to his baker so she can have bread; the middle one makes the same vow, and hopes to marry the king's cook to have food, and the third and youngest sister makes a vow to marry the king's son and promises to give birth to three children, 'Aladdin, Bahaddin and Šamsizzha, who, if she smiles, the sun will shine when it is raining, and if she cries, it will rain when it is sunny.
The king just happens to pass by the sisters' house and orders his vizier to mark their house with a symbol, so they can return later to bring the sisters. It happens so and the three women are brought to his presence, where they reiterate their wishes. The king fulfills their requests and marries the two elder sisters, respectively, to the baker and the cook, while the youngest sister marries the king's son. Driven by jealousy of their cadette's fortune, they bribe the midwife to replace the first child for a puppy, while they cast the baby in a box into the river. The box with the baby washes ashore on a distant orchard and is found by an old couple.
A similar fate befalls the princess's second and third child, who are replaced, respectively, by a kitten and a stone, cast in the sea in a box and saved by the same old couple. Deceived by his sisters-in-law, the king's son deserts his wife. Meanwhile, the three children are raised by the old couple, until their deaths. Now alone in the world, the three siblings move out to his father's city and buy a plot of land just across from the palace and build there a palace.
The siblings' aunts realize the three siblings are their nephews, and hire an old crone to pay them a visit. The old crone peddles her wares in front of their palace and Šamsizzha invites her in. The old crone compliments her beautiful palace, but it is missing the bird called Little Nightingale the Crier. The old crone goes away and Šamsizzha cries; her brothers notice that the weather has changed and race to see their sister. She explains that she wants the Little Nightingale the Crier, and her elder brother offers to get it, giving Bahaddin a ring as token of life and warning him to seek him if the ring tightens around his finger.
'Aladdin rides on until he meets a ghoul, who directs him to his brother. The second ghoul directs him to his sister, a ghouleh (female ghoul) who is grinding salt, and advises him to taste the salt and to suckle her breasts. 'Aladdin follows the ghoul's instructions and manages to have the ghouleh take her in as a son. 'Aladdin tells her about his quest for Little Nightingale the Crier, and the ghouleh says her sons can help him.
The ghouleh's lame son offers to take him, and advises the human to approach the bird, which will begin to talk, but 'Aladdin must not reply. 'Aladdin is brought to the bird's orchard, which perches on a tree and begins to talk. The youth remains quiet and does not answer the bird a first time, but replies after the bird talks again. The animal blows on 'Aladdin and he becomes a stone.
Bahaddin senses something wrong with his elder brothers and follows the same trail as him, passing by the three ghouls and reaching the bird's orchard. Once again, Bahaddin talks to the bird and it turns the boy into stone.
Finally, Šamsizzha sees that Bahaddin's ring has tightened around her finger, disguises herself in male clothes and goes to the road of the ghouls. With the ghouleh's advice, she arrives at the bird's orchard. The bird begins to talk to her, but Šamsizzha keeps quiet. After three times, the bird returns to its cage, and Šamsizzha captures it inside it. The bird begs to be released, but the girl orders the animal to revert the spell on her brothers. The bird tells her to pick up some dirt and to press it on the stones.
Šamsizzha obeys the bird and smears the dirt on the stones, restoring her brothers to life, as well as many others. Šamsizzha and her brothers return home and hang the bird's cage in their palace. Now back to their routine, the 'Aladdin and Bahaddin go back to frequenting the city's coffee houses. One day, they meet their father and invite him for dinner at their palace.
Little Nightingale the Crier advises the siblings to serve a dish of carrots with the fruits. The king eats with the siblings, who bid the bird to come eat with them. The bird declines, and mocks the king for believing that a woman can give birth to a puppy, a kitten and a stone. The king is taken aback by the bird's reply, and asks it to speak again. The bird repeats the same words, and reveals that 'Aladdin, Bahaddin and Šamsizzha are his children.
The king brings in the midwife, who is forced to reveal the whole truth, and he punishes her and the envious sister by burning them in a pyre and scattering their ashes.Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. pp. 102–111. .
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 337. . In this cycle of stories, a woman promises to bear children of wondrous aspect, who are taken from her as soon as they are born by her jealous relatives (her sisters or her mother-in-law). The children survive and are adopted by a childless couple. Years later, the children are sent on a quest for marvellous items, which will eventually lead to reuniting the family.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.
Variants The tale type appears in fairy tale collections of Middle Eastern and Arab folklore, and across the Muslim world.Ritter, H., & Spies, O. "Die goldhaarigen Zwillingskinder: Ein libanesisches Märchen aus dem Volksmund". In: Fabula, 10(1). 1969. pp. 86–99. Scholar Hasan El-Shamy lists 72 variants of the tale type across Middle Eastern and North African sources.El-Shamy, Hasan (2004). Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 385–389. He also stated that variants were collected "in the Eastern part of the Arab culture area", namely, in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.El-Shamy, Hasan M. Folktales of Egypt. University of Chicago Press. 1980. p. 255. .
Palestine In a Palestinian tale from Birzeit, collected by Orientalist Paul E. Kahle with the title Die ausgesetzten Zwillingskinder ("The abandoned twin children"), the third and youngest sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl with silver and golden hair, but the girl shall have three teeth: one to quench the thirsty, the second to satiate the hungry and the third to feed the tired. The twins are still set on a quest for a bird that flaps its wings and sings.Schimdt, Hans; Kahle, Paul. Volkserzählungen aus Palästine. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. 1918. pp. 168–179.
In a tale titled Dancing Jasmine, Singing Water, published by author Sonia Nimr, three poor sisters earn their living by making candles. One day, the king and his vizier just happen to pass by their house, when they overhear their conversation: the elder sister claims she can bake a cake to feed the whole army; the middle sister that she can make a candle large enough to illuminate the whole palace, and the youngest promises to bear him twins, a boy brave and strong enough to defeat a whole army and a girl with hair of gold and hair of silver. The kinh brings the girls to the palace and marries the elder, who dismisses her boast, and divorces her. He then marries the middle sister, who also dismisses hers. Lastly, he divorces the middle sister and marries the youngest, who gets pregnant and gives birth to her wondrous twins, both "more beautiful than the sun and the moon". The jealous sisters bribe the midwife to replace the twins for puppies and throw the twins in a basket in the water. A fisherman finds the twins and rescues them; his wife names them Shams (the boy) and Qamar (the girl). They grow up together, and the tale explains that whenever the girl is sad, it begins to rain, and whenever she is happy, the sun shines. After their adoptive parents die, the twins move out to the king's city and build a house for themselves. One day, the jealous aunts learn of their survival and pay them a visit. They tell Qamar her garden is beautiful, but lacks the Dancing Jasmine Tree that spreads scents. Next, they convince her to send her brother for the Singing Water that produces melodies with its flowing, and finally for the Wise Bird. Shams goes in search of the objects and is helped by a jinn and her family. After Shams brings the Wise Bird back, it begins to repeat a verse about the king having children. The king passes by the twins' house and notices the beautiful objects in their garden, when the bird repeats its verses. After listening to the bird's words, he notices the twins are his children, and goes to punish his sisters-in-law. Author and translator published a similar Palestinian tale, translated to French as Le jasmin qui dance, l'eau qui chante, et l'oiseaux avisé ("The Jasmine that Dances, The Water that Sings, and the Clever Bird"), collected in 2008 from a source in Bethlehem.