The Donkey's Head (French: La Tête d'Âne) is a Jewish-Tunisian folktale collected by author Alice Fermé and published in the French journal Revue des Traditions Populaires, in late-19th century.
The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a human princess marries a supernatural or enchanted husband in animal form, breaks his trust and he disappears, having to search for him. Specifically, the tale belongs to a subtype of the cycle, classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband".
Summary A poor old woman decides to try her luck by spending the night in an apparently haunted magasin (storeroom), since if she is still alive by dawn she will have the storeroom for herself. At a certain time of the night, a donkey's head appears to her; she invites it closer and the donkey's head thanks her, saying it is a sultan's son cursed by his enemies for loving a young lady. The old woman is still alive by morning light and gains the storehouse, and lives with the donkey's head.
The donkey's head asks the old woman to go to the town's sultan and ask for the hand of his youngest daughter in marriage. The old woman produces a box of expensive jewels as her dowry and the sultan's daughter becomes interested in marrying a rich donkey's head. The girl follows the old woman to her storehouse and becomes disappointed when she sees the humble store. She begins to cry, but a young man wearing a robe of emeralds appears, embraces her and leads the women to a table filled with the finest dishes. He explains that this secret can only stay between them, and that the sultan's daughter must lie to anyone of her family that her married life is a poor one, otherwise he will disappear. And so it happens for some time.
One day, the prince tells his wife an enemy army will invade the kingdom, but he will fight for her father's army in ruby garments. He joins the war and defeats the enemy army. When the army and the mysterious rider march in during the victory parade, the sultan's daughter reveals the mysterious rider is her husband. He disappears; the sultan's daughter becomes ill and the old woman at the storehouse delivers her to her parents.
Meanwhile, in another country, another poor woman is blown away by a fierce gust of wind and reaches another place near the sea. A man appears to her and they bathe in the sea. When night comes, they seek shelter in a manor, where a richly dressed man cuts an apple in four pieces, offering each of them to a person: his father, his mother and to someone who is far away. He then pleads the manor to weep with him, the doors, the ceiling and the tables. The second old woman learns about the sultan's daughter's illness and pays her a visit. After being paid, she tells her the story and the sultan's daughter asks to be taken to the manor. Both women see the man cutting the apple, but, when he begs the entryway to weep, it laughs and announces that his wife is there. The man sees her and embraces her.Fermé, A. "Contes Recueillis a Tunis - IV". In: Revue des Traditions Populaires 8. Année, Tome VIII, Numéro 2. Février, 1893. pp. 80-84.
Analysis Tale type The tale is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or the Search for the Lost Husband. Swedish scholar , in his work about the cycle, classified the tale as subtype D. In the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, the tale is classified as type ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband". This type refers to a human girl marrying a supernatural husband in animal form; she betrays his secret and he disappears. In order to find him, she builds an inn, hospital or bath house to listen to passers-by's stories. One day, she listens to a person's narration about a flock of birds transforming into men in a place somewhere. The heroine recognizes it is about her husband and asks to be taken there.Angelopoulou, Anna; Broskou, Aigle. "ΕΠΕΞΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΙΑΚΩΝ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΩΝ AT 300-499". Tome B: AT 400-499. Athens, Greece: ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ Ε.Ι.Ε. 1999. pp. 772-774.Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 89. .
However, scholar described a similar narrative, present in the Jewish Oriental tale corpus and which she indexed as type AaTh 425*Q, "Marvelous Being Woos Princess".Patai, Raphael (founder ed.); Bar-Itzhak, Haya (ed.). Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions. Volumes 1-2. London and New York: Routledge. 2015. p. 563. . According to her tale type, a son of supernatural origin (either adopted or born to human parents) instructs his parents to woo the princess; he marries the princess; due to some action by the princess, the husband disappears; some time later, a person follows a strange animal to an underground palace, where the supernatural husband is seen with other companions; the person relates the incident to the princess in her inn or bath house. In the same vein, folklorist Dov Noy abstracted a similar Jewish oikotype based on eight Jewish tales archived in the Israeli Folklore Archives (IFA) and on three Eastern European (Yiddish) tales. Noy's typing begins with a supernatural son that is born to a poor family and wants to marry the king's daughter; however, the king orders the would-be suitor to provide a dowry of gold and silver treasure for the princess and to perform tasks.
Motifs The enchanted bridegroom According to researcher Samia Al Azharia Jahn, a character that appears in variants of tale type 425 and its cycle is a donkey's head (Arabic: Rās al homār) as the form of the enchanted husband. The donkey's head is found and adopted by an old woman, who courts the sultan's daughter on his behalf; on the wedding night, he reveals himself to be a handsome man.
The husband's location According to Georgios A. Megas, the main motif of the tale type is H11.1.1, "Recognition at inn [hospital, etc.], where all must tell their life histories".Megas, Geōrgios A. Folktales of Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1970. p. 226.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Third Printing. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 . p. 143. In the same vein, Swahn identified among the "motifs characteristic of subtype D" the bath-house, the inn, or places where the heroine goes to hear stories or news about her husband.
Variants Jewish-Tunisian tales The Story of the Donkey's Head (Sadeh) Israeli author Pinchas Sadeh translated a Tunisian tale as The Story of the Donkey's Head: an old woman is walking somewhere, when a talking donkey's head appears to her and asks to be taken to her house. The woman agrees and she finds a silver coin next to the donkey's head every day. Later, the donkey's head asks the woman to go to the king and ask for the princess's hand in marriage. Despite her concerns, the woman goes the first time, and gains one hundred leashes on her. The donkey's head pleads for her to go again, and again she receives a harsh leashing. The third time, the king relents and agrees to her proposition, but orders three simultaneous tasks: for donkey's head to provide 500 camels carrying 500 chalices of gold, 500 serving maidens carrying 500 baskets of fine clothing, and to build a palace larger than the king's. Donkey's head fulfills the king's orders and marries the princess. They live like husband and wife, him becoming a youth at night and a donkey's head in the morning. One day, the princess is invited to her sister's wedding, and asks her husband to go there. The donkey's head allows her to go, but advises her to keep quiet about his true nature. The princess attends her sister's wedding, and is asked about her husband. So pestered is she that she tells the old women everything about the donkey's head. They convince her to burn the donkey's head, since he takes it off at night. The princess follows their suggestion after she returns home and burns his donkey's head at night. The next morning, he discovers his disguise was destroyed and says he is "in great danger". The princess tries to make him stay, but he vanishes. She then returns to her parents' castle to live out her sorrow. Meanwhile, in a certain village, another old woman kneading dough sends her daughter to the baker for some dough. She returns with some, but a strong wind blows it out of her hands. She follows it and finds a camel washing dishes. Marvelling at the sight, she follows the camel to a house, where he magically prepares the room and sets a table for a meal; then, three men appear to dine, and one of them cuts an apple in four, offering pieces to his companions and a fourth to a lost love; lastly, he commands the house and his companions to weep with him. The woman's daughter sees the whole scene, and goes back to her mother, and both decide to go to the palace to tell the princess they may have found her husband. The girl and her mother tell the princess, and the girl asks the princess to come with her to the place. The girls follow the camel to the mysterious house and hide themselves, watch the whole scene repeat before their eyes, up until the moment the man commands the house to weep with him. Suddenly, he hears a laughter, and goes to check on it: it is the princess, his wife. They reunite and reconcile, and celebrate a new wedding in the palace. The tale was originally collected by Israeli folklorist Dov Noy with the title "ראש–חמור שביקש לשאת בת-מלך לאשה" ("The Ass-head who wanted to Marry the Princess"), and archived as IFA 2045 in the Israeli Folktale Archive (IFA).
The Donkey's Head (Koskas)