The Adventures of Tamar

The Youngsters' Corner

After Sheikh Tamar came back from his far journey to the land of China and told me of the sights he had seen — which I related to you, my little dears, last month — he left me and vanished quickly among the oak trees, making for his pretty hut in the middle of the green forest known as the Forest of the Golden Nightingale.

On the morning of one fine day I went with my little companions for an outing on the edges of the Forest of the Golden Nightingale, where we played and danced and swam in Squirrel Lake until it grew late in the afternoon. Then we gathered up our things and wanted to return to the village — when behold, we saw a herd of gazelles drawing near the lake, each one of them carrying a piece of clothing, and they began washing them in the water of the lake. When I looked closely at the clothes, I knew they were the clothes of Sheikh Tamar which we were used to seeing on him whenever he visited us in the outskirts of the village. We were astonished at this sight, and I began to feel that the presence of Tamar's clothes with the gazelles, washing them in Squirrel Lake, meant that our friend the Sheikh must be unable to leave his hut; perhaps he was ill and could not wash his clothes. And perhaps he had met with a dangerous accident that had laid him low on his bed. At once I asked my little companions to go back to the village, and I told them that I would watch the gazelles and discover the place they would go after they finished washing the clothes, so that I might reach Uncle Tamar's hut and learn the reason that had made me anxious about the health of our charming friend.

My little companions were delighted with this idea and said to me: "Go, Nono, in God's keeping; as for us, we shall return to the village before sunset and tell all the children of your absence." And my child companions did not leave me alone, but asked Dandan to accompany me on my journey through the forests to discover Uncle Tamar's hut. This Dandan is the eldest of us, strong of body and brave; he loves children and always accompanies them on their outings and helps them keep order.

Dandan and I stayed near the lake watching the gazelles until they had finished washing the clothes and wrung them out and spread them on their horns, and walked off among the trees and the green grasses, sorrow plain on their faces and tears falling from their sweet black eyes.

So Dandan and I walked behind the gazelles, climbing the hills and going down into the valleys and winding along the paths in the middle of the green forest, until we came to a beautiful place which seemed to us to lie in the very middle of the forest, fragrant with the scent of flowers, where all the birds were singing and twittering in their nests and on the branches of the trees before going to their sleep. We wondered at this, but we knew at once that it is the birds' habit to twitter and sing before going to their nests, to bid farewell to the setting of the sun and sleep until morning, and to return to flying and singing once again with the sunrise.

My friend Dandan looked right and left, east and west, and said: "I see the gazelles have stopped walking... they must have reached Sheikh Tamar's hut... but I see no hut in this place." So I said to him: "Do not grieve, my friend; wait a little till we see what the gazelles will do." So we waited behind the trunk of a great tree, our hearts pounding with fear lest the darkness spread before we discovered Sheikh Tamar's hut.

And while we were looking at each other, not knowing what we should do if we were left alone in the forest after sunset, we heard the voice of a little squirrel above our heads. We looked up at it, and behold, it was a very pretty squirrel with a broad tail raised over its back like a palm frond. When the squirrel saw us and knew we were strangers to the forest — and knew, too, that we love birds and animals and could never strike it or hurt it or pull its pretty tail — it came down to the ground and began to jump and play and perform acrobatic tricks that made us laugh and forget that we had not yet discovered Sheikh Tamar's hut; we even forgot our fear of the darkness that had begun to settle over our heads.

Quickly the squirrel ran off toward the gazelles and began jumping onto the back of each gazelle in turn, taking the piece of clothing spread on the gazelle's horns, rolling it up in its two little hands, putting it on its back, and running back toward us to climb the great tree beneath which we were standing.

So the squirrel kept going down and climbing up the tree, each time with a piece of clothing, to a high place amid the tree's thick branches, without our being able to see the spot it was making for, because the darkness had grown and it had become hard to make out things from afar.

When the squirrel had finished its work it came down from the tree and stood before us and began chattering with its teeth and pointing with its tail to a certain place on the tree. We took note of its movements and looked at the place it pointed to with its tail — and behold, we saw a little door in the trunk of the tree on the side behind us. The squirrel went in through it and we followed, laughing at its antics; and how we marveled when we saw the heart of the tree hollowed out in the shape of steps, exactly like the steps of a staircase! We walked up them inside the trunk of the tree, climbing and feeling our way with our hands for the deepness of the dark, until we reached the top, in the middle of the tree. We looked about us, and behold, we were in a big and very beautiful hut, and in it was a bed of birds' feathers, and on the bed Sheikh Tamar lay asleep, writhing with pain. We cried out together: "Our friend Tamar! Our friend Tamar!! What has happened to you, our charming Sheikh?"

We drew near to Tamar and looked into his face. He opened his eyes and revived at seeing us beside him. We helped him to sit up and asked him to tell us the cause of his illness. He said:

"How did you know my place? And who guided you to it?" So we told him everything that had happened to us, from our going into the forest with our child companions to our seeing the gazelles washing his clothes; nor did we forget to describe the squirrel's motions and its comical leaps. Tamar laughed with us and was glad, and sat up straight in his bed as if he had forgotten his pain, and said to us: "Do you know why I laugh with you?..."

"Why, Sheikh Tamar? Tell us why you laugh with us."

And Tamar answered, laughing still: "Because this time it is you two who have told me the tale of your adventure in the forest. And this is the first time I hear a tale told to me by children."