African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 607
married life to a desperate girl. In all these circumstances, the old man appears to be the
bearer of a whole system of values, which he has the privilege and duty to transmit,
exemplify, and perpetuate (Baklouti 1988, 13–15).
The old woman is portrayed as the complete opposite of her male counterpart. In
several proverbs from Morocco, she is said to beat the Devil himself, to do in an hour
what he does in a year, to possess a cunning (kîd or kayd, typical of women) superior to
the Devil’s (e.g., Westermarck 1930, nos. 12, 20, 21). She is apparently such an evildoer
that, as the phrase goes, “May God not forgive her on the day of her death” (e.g., Marçais
and Guiga 1925, 2553).
To designate her in the tales, the ’ajûza (aging, weakening) is used with no real
pejorative meaning. But more common is settût, literally the “sixty-year-old” one; a term
that is notably restricted to females and synonymous with “witch.” Apart from few rare
occasions when she assists the hero (El-Shamy 1995, N 825.3.2) or some other character
(e.g., Destaing 1911, 39; Baklouti 1988, 103), she is invariably a troublemaker (e.g., AT
1353, “The Old Woman as Trouble Maker” and AT 1406, “The Merry Wives Wager”).
Strikingly, while, in this society, a woman is traditionally considered asexual when past
childbearing age, in the folktales, she is either personally or indirectly involved in love
affairs. A widow in the former case, she marries an ogre and, very likely in order to
satisfy her sexual appetite without opposition, persuades him to murder her own son (e.g.,
El-Shamy 12.1; AT 590, 11, “The Treacherous Mother;” Lacoste and Mouliéras
1965:72–87; Lacoste-Dujardin 1970, 503). In the latter, the so-called settût plays the role
of a clever unscrupulous procuress (El-Shamy, 452) who treacherously introduces a man
into the privacy of young maidens while their father has gone on a pilgrimage (e.g.,
Basset 1897, 156–61; Légey 1926, 7–13; Galley 1971, 185–95). In order to be admitted
into a private house, she may pretend to be a midwife and, as such, achieve her criminal
deeds (El-Shamy, 1947; K 2292.5.1; e.g., Desparmet 1910, 231–64). Thus, the most
sacred values, which are the cement of family life, are defiled by such old women.
Mention should also be made of the way the old woman manipulates her listener(s) in
the dialogues of the tales: she uses all the potentialities of language, from the short
enigmatic, sometimes nonsensical, phrases (as in AT 408, “The Three Oranges;” e.g.,
Destaing 1911, 145–48; Baklouti 1988, 41) to the ceaseless outpouring of words (Galley
and Iraqui Sinaceur 1994, 138–93). She then arouses an immediate irrational desire for
something or somebody, at the risk of the victim’s life (e.g., Biarnay 1917, 154–70;
Légey 1926, 40). The protagonist of a Maghribian narrative cycle, a variant of Dalilah in
The Arabian Nights, resorts to such verbal stratagems; she is known in several versions
(Galley and Iraqui Sinaceur 1994, 232–3) under the name of —an intensive form
which means, literally, “great player” (at the other’s expense); in other words, “expert in
deceit.” She is described “girdling herself” to go out in town, ready for cheating.
Although she claims to be justified in provoking disorder throughout the city, she seems
to destroy, systematically, the belongings of her preys—all males—as well as their
dignity. In this respect, she is not only the antithesis of the old man, but his ruin.
References
Baklouti, N. 1988. Contes populaires de Tunisie. Tunis: I.N.A.A.
Basset, R. 1897. Nouveaux contes berbères. Paris: Leroux.