The Last Storytellers: Tales From the Heart of Morocco by Richard Hamilton

Author:Richard Hamilton [Hamilton, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Africa, North, Literary Collections, African, Social Science, Folklore & Mythology
ISBN: 9781848854918
Google: dZU7VD2r4sQC
Amazon: 1838600000
Publisher: Tauris Parke
Published: 2011-05-25T23:00:00+00:00

El-Ghaliya Bent Mansour

Ahmed Temiicha

Four hundred years ago, there was an Emir who lived in Marrakech. He had heard that in Andalusia there lived a king who owned an apple orchard. The Emir’s curiosity had been aroused, because rumours circulated that these were magic apples that did not exist anywhere else on earth.

The Emir’s Viziers told him the only way to obtain such apples was to visit Andalusia. So the Emir sent his most trusted Vizier with a letter to the Andalusian king, asking if he could have some saplings to plant in Morocco.

The Vizier set off by boat and reached Andalusia several days later.

‘Your master’s wish is my desire,’ said the king when he had read the Emir’s letter, and he handed over six young apple plants. He also sent one of his most experienced gardeners to accompany the Vizier on his return. This man nurtured the plants on board the ship until it arrived safely home.

Back in Marrakech, the Vizier showed the Emir the precious little saplings and asked him to choose a special place to plant them.

So the Emir found one of the most tranquil spots in the grounds of his palace and ordered the gardener to embed the saplings in the soil. Then they waited for the young plants to bear fruit. They waited and waited.

In the meantime, the Emir’s son, Mohamed, had a nightmare that the plants were poisonous. But Mohamed, who was the son of a black slave girl, was worried that his father would not take him seriously if he told him about the dream.

However, when, after many weeks, the very first apple appeared on a branch of one of the young trees, it was immediately burnt by an evil djinn that lived in the palace grounds.

‘Someone’s burnt the first apple,’ the gardener informed the Emir, who ordered his son to stay in the orchard and guard against any trespasser who might want to sabotage the plants.

The young man ambled down to that quiet corner of the garden, but after a few hours of noticing absolutely nothing, he became bored and decided to while away the time drinking some wine. But in his alcoholic stupor he fell asleep, and as he lay there snoring, spread-eagled beneath an apple tree, the djinn came again and burnt another sapling.

Mohamed woke up to see that the plant had been destroyed. Embarrassed that this crime had happened under his watch, Mohamed decided to spend all his time there to catch the elusive saboteur. But every night, when Mohamed was asleep, the djinn would come and burn a tree, until there was only one left. Mohamed had not seen or heard anyone trespass there, but as he looked around, he saw that the last tree was now on fire.

He also saw that there was a stream going from the tree to a well. He made his way to the well, tied a rope to some rocks and lowered himself carefully inside. Mohamed descended deep into the bowels of the earth.

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