THE EVIL EYE STRIKES KARIM
KARIM at this time happened to have only the shirt that he was wearing.
He had never had more than two at one time, and one had dropped to
pieces from age the week before. Nana had not found time as yet to
finish a new one. The shirt was a dirty brown, although if one could
have examined the seams he would have found that it had once been a
dark red with black stripes. Now, with the molasses streaks, it looked
fairly black.
Nana decided that it must be washed at once, for Dada might not like
to see his son looking so very dirty, so she took him with her to
the pool when she went for water that morning. She washed the shirt
thoroughly, while he stood beside her shivering in the cool breeze.
When at last it looked somewhat cleaner she wrung the water from it as
well as she could, and put it back upon him to dry. Karim fairly howled
with cold as he trotted along by her side, and when they reached home,
to comfort him, she gave him two cucumbers and some of the raisins that
he liked so well.
That afternoon he began to cough severely, and his head was very hot.
Nana pulled at her hair in her anxiety.
"The Evil Eye has struck him!" she exclaimed. "The charm fell off from
his neck when I washed his shirt, and I did not notice it for some
time. The Evil Eye must have struck him then. Why did I not keep him
dressed in Fatima's clothes, so that the Evil Eye would think him a
girl, and not notice him? or rub his face with ashes, so that he would
look ugly? Awý! What can I do?"
"Get up," said Grandmother, "run to the mullah, and have him write
another charm; perhaps it will frighten the Evil Eye away."
Nana did so.
Said the mullah, as he gave her the roll of paper, "If there are twenty
evil spirits in your son, they will all run away when you tie this
prayer around his neck. It is worth fifty cents."
Nana began to cry. "What can I do, O holy man?" she said, "I have only
twenty-seven cents, and my son will die."
"Take comfort, my daughter," replied the mullah, "I am God's servant,
and He is merciful. The twenty-seven cents are enough."
But that night Karim nearly choked in his coughing. Dada looked very
anxious. "Women are donkeys," he said, "and so are mullahs. I will go
for the barber."
The barber looked grave. "See the black blood. I will take it out, and
he will get well." He cut a vein with his razor, and caught the blood
in a bowl, but Karim became worse. The next morning Dada hurried to the
best doctor in the village. He looked at the boy a long time.
"Bring me this afternoon," he said, "fifty cents, and that hen with a
white tail"--he pointed to the largest of the old biddies--"and with
its blood and a mouse's eye I will make a medicine which will cure
him. If it does not, take back your money."
When he had gone Bajee and some other women came to see Nana.
"My uncle once was sick like this," said Bajee, "and an old woman told
grandmother to take a rooster and cut it in two, and tie the warm,
bleeding pieces upon his breast. That made him well."
"My brother," said an old woman, "was cured of a cough by lying in the
oven for the whole of one morning."
So Karim spent the afternoon lying upon the warm ashes in the hole
where the cooking was done, with the bleeding body of the old rooster
pressed tightly against his chest, while the charms were still about
his neck and the doctor's medicine at hand. That evening he was much
better.
Nana insisted that he was cured because of the mullah's charm;
Grandmother believed in the dead rooster, while Dada went to thank the
doctor and give him a lamb for a present.
It was some days before Karim was himself again, and as he was fretful
his grandmother amused him with stories.
Here is one of them. The others were very similar to this.
THE FOX AND THE WOLF
A fox started to travel to the city of Mashad, because he knew that
he was a wicked fox, and such a good man was buried in that city that
simply visiting his grave was enough to make one good. On the way he
met a wolf, who asked him where he was going.
He replied, "I am a wicked fox and am going to Mashad to be made good."
The wolf said, "I am very bad, too, and ought to go there. Let me go
with you."
They went on together, and after a while met a bear.
"Where are you going?" he asked, and when they had told him he wished
to go with them.
As they made their journey they came to a country where there was
nothing to eat. They all became very hungry; so hungry that the fox
and the bear dropped behind, as the three were walking, and, suddenly
jumping upon the wolf when he did not expect it, caught him with their
teeth in the neck and killed him. Then they each took a part of the
body and began to eat. The bear ate until nothing but bones was left,
but the fox took some of his meat while the bear was not looking and
hid it in a dark corner of a cave near by.
After a while they both began to feel hungry again, for the wolf had
been so lean that there was not much of a meal to be made off of him.
The fox went into the corner of the cave where he had hidden the meat,
and soon the bear heard him smacking his lips very loudly.
He was very much surprised, and asked, "What can you have found to eat?"
"O bear," said the fox, "I was so hungry that I have pulled out my left
eye, and am eating it, and you cannot think how good it tastes."
"That is quite an idea!" said the bear, and he pulled out his own left
eye, and ate it.
But he was soon very hungry again. Then he heard the fox in the corner
once more smacking his lips very loudly, and he exclaimed, "What on
earth can you be eating now?"
"O bear," said the fox, "I was so hungry that I pulled out my other eye
and am eating it."
"How smart the fox is to think of such things!" thought the bear, and
he pulled out his own right eye and ate it.
Then the fox got a long pole, and taking hold of one end he told the
bear that if he would take hold of the other end he would lead him
(since he was blind) to a place where he would find plenty to eat. But
he led him to the edge of a very high rock.
"O bear," he said, "there is a large, fat sheep right in front of you.
Now jump!"
The bear jumped, and fell so hard upon the stones below that it killed
him. Then the fox ate the body of the bear, and it made him strong
enough to go on and reach Mashad, where he visited the grave of the
holy man and so was made good.