THE TALKING TURKEYS

A STORY FROM SYRIA

            Once when the sultan was sick, he did not leave the palace for thirty days. Finally he recovered and felt well enough to step out. Now, it happened that a sly old woman saw him and hurried into the women’s reception hall to congratulate the queen on her husband’s regained health.

As she was sitting in the queen’s presence, the old woman noticed that there were about a hundred turkeys in the courtyard outside the window. So she said to the sultan’s wife, “O queen of our time, can these birds of yours talk?” Naturally, the queen said, “No.” “If you let me have them for sixty nights, I’ll teach them to speak in seven tongues,” said the old woman.

The queen agreed to have the birds trained. “But,” said the old woman, “I shall need provisions to feed them. One hundred sacks of flour, one measure of nuts, one measure of sugar, and so much of this and so much of that.” The queen agreed. She gave the order, and they brought what the old woman had asked for.

When the sixty days were almost past, the old woman went to the queen looking very distressed. She said, “These birds of yours are saying strange things, and much as I beat them they will not change their song.” “What are they saying?” asked the queen. “They say: ‘Tsk! Tsk! The sultan’s daughter has a lover!’ ” said the old woman. The queen now looked distressed. “Kill them at once,” she said. “And whatever you do, don’t bring them back to the palace!”

The old woman obeyed the queen. She kept the turkeys in her house, dining on them herself and cooking some of them for her son’s wedding feast.