Thadhellala, a cunning and resourceful woman, embarks on a series of elaborate deceptions involving theft, trickery, and manipulation. Her schemes lead to stolen treasures, outwitting multiple pursuers, and even evading execution. Ultimately, her cleverness brings her to a distant city where, by chance, she is chosen as the new queen due to a local custom. Her story illustrates wit triumphing over adversity and relentless pursuit.
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
Cunning and Deception: The story revolves around Thadhellala’s elaborate schemes and manipulations to achieve her goals.
Conflict with Authority: Thadhellala’s actions lead to confrontations with various authority figures, including the Sultan’s soldiers, as she evades capture and punishment.
Forbidden Knowledge: Thadhellala’s ability to deceive and manipulate situations suggests she possesses knowledge and skills that are not commonly known or accepted, allowing her to navigate and exploit societal norms.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about the Berber peoples
Translated by J. Rivière
and Chauncey C. Starkweather
A woman had seven daughters and no son. She went to the city, and there saw a rich shop. A little farther on she perceived at the door of a house a young girl of great beauty. She called her parents, and said: “I have my son to marry; let me have your daughter for him.”
They let her take the girl away. She came back to the shop and said to the man in charge of it: “I will gladly give you my daughter; but go first and consult your father.”
The young man left a servant in his place and departed. Thadhellala (that was her name) sent the servant to buy some bread in another part of the city.
► Continue reading…
Along came a caravan of mules. Thadhellala packed all the contents of the shop on their backs and said to the muleteer:
“I will go on ahead; my son will come in a moment. Wait for him–he will pay you.”
She went off with the mules and the treasures which she had packed upon them. The servant came back soon.
“Where is your mother?” cried the muleteer; “hurry and, pay me.”
“You tell me where she is and I will make her give me back what she has stolen.” And they went before the justice.
Thadhellala pursued her way, and met seven young students. She said to one of them, “A hundred francs and I will marry you.” The student gave them to her. She made the same offer to the others, and each one took her word.
Arriving at a fork in the road, the first one said, “I will take you,” the second one said, “I will take you,” and so on to the last.
Thadhellala answered: “You shall have a race as far as that ridge over there, and the one that gets there first shall marry me.”
The young men started. Just then a horseman came passing by. “Lend me your horse,” she said to him. The horseman jumped off. Thadhellala mounted the horse and said:
“You see that ridge? I will rejoin you there.”
The scholars perceived the man. “Have you not seen a woman?” they asked him. “She has stolen 700 francs from us.”
“Haven’t you others seen her? She has stolen my horse?”
They went to complain to the Sultan, who gave the command to arrest Thadhellala. A man promised to seize her. He secured a comrade, and they both pursued Thadhellala, who had taken flight. Nearly overtaken by the man, she met a negro who pulled teeth, and said to him:
“You see my son coming down there; pull out his teeth.” When the other passed the negro pulled out his teeth. The poor toothless one seized the negro and led him before the Sultan to have him punished. The negro said to the Sultan: “It was his mother that told me to pull them out for him.”
“Sidi,” said the accuser, “I was pursuing Thadhellala.”
The Sultan then sent soldiers in pursuit of the woman, who seized her and hung her up at the gates of the city. Seeing herself arrested, she sent a messenger to her relatives.
Then there came by a man who led a mule. Seeing her he said, “How has this woman deserved to be hanged in this way?”
“Take pity on me,” said Thadhellala; “give me your mule and I will show you a treasure.” She sent him to a certain place where the pretended treasure was supposed to be hidden. At this the brother-in-law of Thadhellala had arrived.
“Take away this mule,” she said to him. The searcher for treasures dug in the earth at many places and found nothing. He came back to Thadhellala and demanded his mule.
She began to weep and cry. The sentinel ran up, and Thadhellala brought complaint against this man. She was released, and he was hanged in her place.
She fled to a far city, of which the Sultan had just then died. Now, according to the custom of that country, they took as king the person who happened to be at the gates of the city when the King died. Fate took Thadhellala there at the right time. They conducted her to the palace, and she was proclaimed Queen.
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