Continuing the series of indexes, we have another book by Louise Baldensperger and Grace Crowfoot: Arab Folk Stories from Artas published by Birzeit University. Artas is a village four kilometers south-west of Bethlehem and has a richly recorded folklore. It is home to the Artas Folklore Center.
Among the stories themselves there are brief discussions of folklore, such as this ritual adoption illustrated below:
Artas an adoption. A widow engaged a young shepherd to work for her and she made an adoption of him with the same formula [used for ‘making brotherhood’] “You are my son in the book of God, if you betray me may God betray you” and he repeated the same to her. Then she had to open her thoab (dress) and let him pass through (like a birth).
- Cut, cut, the Hide of the Bull
- Ibraheem (Abraham) and Isma’een (Ismail)
- How Peace was Made Between Two Nephews in Artas
- Solomon, the Mole, and the Snake
- Solomon and the Locust, a Warning for Rulers
- The Old Woman, Her Daughter, and Her Dog
- How the Beetle Married the Mouse
- The Blind Wolf
- God Forgets None, or The Grateful Camel
- The Camel’s Revenge, or the Camel and the Donkey
- The Lion, the Snake, and Bani Adam
- The Hero Who Earned a Bride in One Night
- The Shepherd’s Bride Price
- Brotherhood and Sisterhood (1)
- Brotherhood and Sisterhood (2)
- Brotherhood and Sisterhood (3)
- Three Kinds of Women
- The Prayerful Woman
- A Story of the Virgin
- The Prayerbuilt Wall
- A Tale for Children, This is a Tale of Rumuzan
- The Hungry Badawy
- The Three Young Bedu
- The Wise Badawy
- The Emir of Bedouins and His Guarantee
- Better a Mill Than Nothing
- You Gain What You Give
- The Water’s Lament
- The Sultan Chooses a Bride for His Son
- Death, the Cup Going Round to All
- Old Habits Overcome Education (1)
- Old Habits Overcome Education (2)
- Grave Torture
- How the Spring ‘Ain Hamda Originated
- A Story From Transjordan
- A Cunning Deed is Worth a Second One
- Black and White or Noah Looked Out of the Ark
- The Justice of ‘Umir Ibn al-Khuttab