By: Hassan Ali
Translation: Yousef Awad
The tale or folk story, in all its forms, is a form of oral expression and one of the most important sources
of intangible heritage, containing valuable lessons, ethical, educational, and cultural aspects, with values
and meanings that must be preserved. For this reason, since ancient times, humans have used storytelling
to educate society and alleviate its social and psychological pressures. Religious sources have also relied
on stories of the righteous as examples to follow, or stories of the wicked as lessons and admonitions.
Each society has its own stories and tales that distinguish it from others, representing a part of its heritage,memory, and experiences
From this perspective, the author discusses tales and stories that occurred
with some local shepherds in Palmyra and its desert, who spent many years roaming the steppes and
deserts. For example, Mr. Amer Abdul Latif, a 43-year-old sheep herder from Palmyra, recounts some
tales that resulted from real events that occurred with local shepherds who lived in the Palmyrene desert.
Amer says, “The stories I tell are certainly from before the year 2000, before mobile phones spread among the desert’s inhabitants.”
One of these stories is about the loss of Fatiema (the young female of the Awassi sheep) by one of the
young shepherds in the desert adjacent to Palmyra, and several years have passed since her loss. Also, he mentioned that sheep are usually sheared annually, and a group of young men from the tribe, called the “Fareej” (team), gather and go to one of the breeders to complete the shearing of the entire flock in one day, instead of the sheep breeder being occupied for several days away from the pasture while shearing his sheep alone. In return, the owner of the flock must prepare a feast for the team of young men and sit during their work, praising them and singing songs and chants to encourage them in their work. For example, he might say:
Brothers who cannot be hidden by a cloak,
Even a flea they would catch Prepare
Oh ewe of the shearing, to be sheared,
While the eye watches and the stomach hungers
How many a child has grown up in smoke,
While the eye watches and the stomach hunger
During this event, women are preparing food for the young men who were shearing the sheep’s wool. This young shepherd, the owner of Fatiema, noticed while shearing his neighbors’ sheep that some of the wool resembled that of his own sheep. He told the flock owners that this wool resembled that of his ewes and that he had lost one of his ewes in a particular year. Indeed, the flock owners did not doubt his claim and said to him: “Indeed, we found a ewe with the same characteristics as yours and in the same period you mentioned.” They told him they would give him all that was descended from his ewe. He began to examine the wool of the sheep to identify those born from his ewe’s lineage, taking them out one by one to reclaim all of his ewe’s lineage and returned home with them.
The following story told by Mr. Amer is about a camel herder, his wife, and their seven daughters. One
day, a dispute arose between the herder and his relatives over camels. This led him to pack up his tent and leave with his family and herd to live far from their homeland. After 10 years, the mother passed away, and four years later, the father died, leaving the daughters without support. As it is customary among the Bedouins to take pride in one’s tribe and relatives, the sisters decided to search for their tribe and return to their homeland. The eldest sister cut a lock of hair from herself and each of her sisters, brought a large camel belonging to their father, and removed a patch of its fur to make it appear mangy. She then applied tar to the shaved area (tar was used by the Bedouins to treat mange) and starved the camel for several days. She placed the locks of hair inside a piece of cloth called “the Shamlah” and tied the Shamlah with a rope around the camel’s belly. The camel, in search of water and fodder, was driven away by the owners of each water source, thinking it was infected with mange and not wanting to spread the disease to their herds. During this time, the camel remembered the home where it was grown up, which was the same as the tribe the girls were searching for. The camel walked for days and nights until it reached its homeland.
This camel bore a mark similar to that of the tribe. When the tribe’s people saw this mark on the camel,
they allowed it to drink water until it was satiated, and the camel’s belly filled up, causing the rope to break and the Shamlah to fall to the ground. A young man saw it and brought it to the tribe’s elders, who saw the girls’ braids and suspected it was a message from a relative in distress. Indeed, one of the tribe’s elders, accompanied by a group of young men, followed the camel, which naturally returned to its owner, until they reached the girls. When they saw the girls, they asked about their story and learned that they were their cousins and that it was their duty to bring them back to the tribe to live among their people and relatives.
