The Tale of the Ful-Seller's Daughter

Once upon a time, oh listeners -- pray to the memory of the prophet, may praises and blessings be upon him -- there once was a king's son and a ful-seller's 1 daughter. This king's son would gaze at the ful-seller's daughter everyday as she climbed up to the rooftop carrying the watering-can and went about watering the plants, this rosebush, that jasmine shrub. He would say, "Oh ful-seller's daughter, has your father's business gotten better or not?" And she would reply, "It's neither gotten better nor gotten butter, and he hasn't made any close friends. What do you want from me, oh son of a clog's edge." And he'd say to her, "Fine, never mind."

The king's son went and put on wretched clothes, raggedy clothes, and on his head he put a tray of apples and set out, calling loudly, "Tray of apples, tray of apples for the young ladies. The ful-seller's daughter called to him, "Come over here, you apple-seller." She didn't realize it was the king's son. He looked up, and she asked him, "How much for that tray of apples?" He said, “I'm not selling for money; I'm selling for a kiss." She said, "No." "No?" he said," As you like," and he started off with the apple tray. She said, "Ohh, there's no one here; alright, come." He came up to her, took her and cornered her behind the door, and kissed her three times. Then he gave her the apple tray and went on his way, just picked himself up and left.

The next day, in the morning -- good-morning to everyone -- the king's son gazed up at the ful-seller's daughter. He said to her, " Oh ful-seller's daughter, has your father's business gotten better or not?" She replied, "It's neither gotten better nor butter, and he hasn't made any close friends. So what do you want from me, oh son of a clog's edge?" He said to her, "Fine. Behind the door I cornered you, and three kisses I kissed you. Did you win or did I?" She said, "Agghh, that was you?" "Me," he said. "Alright," she said. Then she went to her father and told him, "Look here, smear me with paint, black like a slave, from my head to my toes, and go sell me in the hawkers' market to the king's son.” Her father said to her, "Alright." So he painted her and took her down to the square and began to call out, "This slave-girl's for seven hundred. Seven hundred. Seven hundred." The king's son came. He announced, "I'm the buyer." "Okay, here you go," said the ful-seller. He took from him the seven hundred and went on his way.

The ful-seller's daughter set off walking with the king's son. Suddenly they came upon a herd of sheep grazing. She said, "Master, master, you buy sheep?" He said to her, "Okay," and bought seven head of sheep. She walked a little further and saw people sitting about, slaughtering sheep. She said to him, "Master, master, we slaughter sheep?" He said, "No, we don't want to slaughter the sheep.” She said to him, "Me slaughter sheep." She brought the seven sheep and made him slaughter them.

So sooner did they walk on, then they came upon drumming and piping in the valley. The noise was none other than a group of Kurds...or gypsies, God knows. The ful-seller's daughter said to the king's son, "Master, master, we watch." He replied, "Us! I'm the king's son; how could I watch!" She said, "Come on, it's no problem; let's watch; let's see."She turned him toward the crowd inspite of himself, and kept pushing at him until she got him dancing. No sooner did she get him all dancing, then she picked herself up and fled. She ditched him.

When the ful-seller's daughter got to her house, she went to the lavatory and washed and bathed herself and dressed in new clothes. Then she went up to the rooftop. The king's son arrived. He called to her, "Oh ful-seller's daughter, is your father's business better or not?" She said to him, "Not better nor butter, and he's made no good friends. So what do you want from me, you son of a clog's edge?" He replied, "Well! Behind the door I cornered you, and three kisses I kissed you, so did you win or did I?" She said, "Seven hundred I made you spend, and seven head of sheep I made you slaughter, and among the gypsies I made you dance, so did you win or did I?" He said, "Aaggh, that was you?" "Me," she replied. He said, "Fine."

What should he do? He went to his mother and said to her, "Listen, you have to go and request the hand of the ful-seller's daughter for me." She said, "My sweetheart, my dear, you are the king's son, the son of a good family..." He said, "Forget it. The ful-seller's daughter, I want her." She said, "Alright. Oh for heaven's sake...." As the muezzin was calling out, "God is great..." [Outside, the muezzin was calling the prayer for the evening, and the narrator incorporated this into her tale, as if to say that God himself were testifying to the story's veracity.] ... his mother picked herself up, the poor thing, and got dressed in her scarf and took a tray full of jewels and gold.

The king's wife said to the ful-seller's wife, "I've come to propose, to request your daughter's hand for my son." The girl's mother said to her, "Yeee! How can I give the ful-seller's daughter to the king's son?!" The boy's mother said  to her, "He wants her. What should I do? He wants her...." The ful-seller's wife was confused; what should she set before her guest? She was confused. What should she bring her... everything she had. She brought (may God keep you above such a fate) this cauldron that was all soot and set it down and told her, "Sit." (And see, the king's wife, how dirty her white scarf got, black like tar.) "Listen, my daughter, you'll have to bring her into your house during the dark. I don't want anyone to see her. I don't want anyone to notice her." The king's wife said to her, "Absolutely. On such-a-day we want her." The girl's mother replied, "Agreed."

The ful-seller's daughter went to the bridal shop. She said to the owner, "See my figure, see my length, see my clothes, see my outfit...I want you to make me a bridal trousseau just like this." He said to her, "Most gladly." (They used to be very clever...He made her a complete bridal trousseau and all.)

Just before they brought the groom, the ful-seller's daughter crawled into a closet and hid herself and tied the head of the `aroos 2 (the one she'd had made) with a string. He came, the king's son that is, and saw her standing, this bride! He said to her, "So, oh ful-seller's daughter, did your father's business get better or not?" All the bride could do was nod her head. He continued, "Behind the door I cornered you, and three kisses I kissed you. Did you win or did I?" She nods with her head like this. "Seven hundred you made me spend, and seven head of sheep you made me slaughter..." She nods her head so. "And among the gypsies you made me dance..." She nods her head so. He said, "Are you going to keep this up for long, huh?" He grabbed his sword and cut off her head. No sooner had he cut off her head, then a pearl bead fell on his. He said to her, "Aggh, you're all sweetness they lived, from the first to the last, you little scamp." Just then, the ful-seller's daughter jumped out of the closet.

And they lived happily ever after, in good health and prosperity... may God give long life to the listeners.

Narrator: Hassaneh Hassan `Ali Provenance: Majd al-Krum Current Residence: Beirut

Recorded by: Suheir al-Azm Date of  Recording: November, 1995 Translator: Kirsten Scheid Idriss

1 A full-seller is a tradesman who sells a dish of baked beans, a popular meal for the urban lower-class.

2 There is a pun in this story which is crucial to its resolution. Unfortunately, calling attention to it will necessarily diminish the reader's pleasure in the text, but this is the cost of translation. The pun is upon the bride's request for a bridal trousseau. The word `aroos means both bride and puppet in Palestinian dialect (as it does also in Egyptian dialect). Thus, the man at the bridal shop makes for the girl a complete replica of her, herself, and not just a set of clothes for her to wear. The reader's discovery of this second meaning in the text doesn't occur, in Arabic, until the story's end, thus the cleverness of the ful-seller's daughter in manipulating the principle of "appearances can be deceiving" extends to the narrator's use of colloquial language. The hearer of the tale in Arabic is briefly put -- literally, by this double-entendre, --in the position of the duped prince, for if the listener thinks that as the prince's bride , so greatly moved out of her own social class, the ful-seller's daughter will act the part of a personality-less puppet, he/she is certainly mistaken. It is this ambivalence about the bride's role that the narrator puts to rest with the story's jubuliant conclusion.

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