A traveler encounters mysterious scenes: a lean mare, a fat mare, a serpent stuck in a hole, a restless sheep, and a man playing ball whose children are old. An old man interprets them, revealing metaphors for human behaviors: greed, sacrifice, the permanence of words, household woes, and the influence of spousal choices on aging and familial outcomes. These lessons underscore life’s moral and social complexities.
Source
Moorish Literature
romantic ballads, tales of the Berbers,
stories of the Kabyles, folk-lore,
and national traditions
The Colonial Press,
London, New York, 1901
► Themes of the story
Family Dynamics: The story reflects on how individual choices, like selecting a spouse, can influence the aging process and the well-being of one’s children, emphasizing the importance of family decisions.
Ancestral Spirits: The old man’s interpretations connect the traveler’s experiences to ancestral wisdom, suggesting that understanding the past can provide guidance for present behavior.
Transformation through Love: The narrative implies that the choice of a spouse (a form of love) can lead to personal transformation, affecting one’s aging process and the future of one’s offspring.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Berber peoples
Translated by Réne Basset
and Chauncey C. Starkweather
Once upon a time a man was on a journey and he met a mare who grazed in the meadow. She was thin, lean, and had only skin and bone.
He went on until he came to a place where he found a mare which was fat, although she did not eat.
He went on further until he met a sheep which kicked against a rock till evening to pass the night there.
Advancing he met a serpent which hung in a hole from which it could not get out. Farther on, he saw a man who played with a ball, and his children were old men.
► Continue reading…
He came to an old man who said to him: “I will explain all that to you. The lean mare which you saw represents the rich man whose brothers are poor. The fat mare represents the poor man whose brothers are rich. The serpent which swings unable to enter nor to leave the hole is the picture of the word which once spoken and heard can never go back.The sheep which kicks against the rock to pass the night there, is the man who has an evil house. The one whose children you saw aged while he was playing ball, what does he represent? That is the man who has taken a pretty wife and does not grow old. His children have taken bad ones.”
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Dreamtime Whispers 