Free The Boy Who The Set Fire and Other Stories by Paul Bowles and Mohammed Mrabet Page A

the rocks outside, so it won’t poison the water. The frog won’t be able to get near the spring. If it tries to, it will die.
    That’s a good idea, she said.
    The next day the woman went down to the spring. The frog was sitting in the place where she always stooped down to fill her pail. She raised the pail and brought it down on the frog. And as the pail struck the frog the frog cried out, and it was like the cry of a person. She looked, but the frog was gone. She filled her pail quickly and went to the house.
    I found the frog down there, she told her husband. It was right where I always fill my pail, and so I hit it. I hit it with the pail. And when I lifted up the pail again, it was gone!
    Allah! cried her husband. That was not a frog you hit! It was something from the dark. I told you to leave it alone, and you wouldn’t listen to me. And now you’re going to have trouble. I even went and got the chemical. We could have put it there, and everything would have been all right. That way it wouldn’t have done us any harm afterwards.
    Well, now I’ve hit it, she said. And it’s gone away without doing anything.
    All we can do is pray to Allah that nothing happens, he told her.
    The woman stayed away from the spring for ten days. Then one morning she said to her husband: Ya, rajel! I’m going down now to the spring and get a little water. It’s a long time since I’ve been down there.
    All right, he said. Go down. Go on.
    She took the pail in her hand and walked down to the spring. First she washed the stones in front of it. She dipped the pail into the water and filled it, but when she tried to lift it out again, she found that she could not move her arm.
    She began to call to her husband. He heard, and came running down to the spring.
    What is it?
    I can’t move my arm!
    Her arm was dead. Then it began to twitch and shake. Look, rajel! she cried. See how it’s moving!
    That day the man put his wife on a donkey. He led it down to the road until he came to the highway. Then he stopped a Frenchman who was driving past. He asked him to carry him and his wife to the hospital.
    He told the doctor the story. The doctor looked at her arm and took blood from it. He stuck needles into her and gave her many kinds of pills. None of it did her any good.
    People told him: You should take her to Moulay Yacoub.
    He took her to Moulay Yacoub. Nothing.
    Then people said: You should take her up to Sidi Hassein.
    He took her up to Sidi Hassein. Nothing.
    Then they told him he must kill a black bull. He bought a black bull and led it down to the spring. There he cut its throat so that the blood would fall into the water, and then he cooked the meat without salt, and when night came he put a big dish of the unsalted meat in front of the spring.
    He gave the rest of the meat to the poor and to holy men and teachers. And nothing.
    One day a friend came to visit him. There’s a fqih in Beni Makada you ought to go to, he told him. He’ll be able to help you.
    The man took his wife to the fqih in Beni Makada. The fqih read his books and looked at the woman. Finally he said: You must call in some Gnaoua once a year. If this is not done, you will get worse. Now only your arm is moving by itself like that, but in a little while it will be your whole body. The only thing to do is to have the Gnaoua in once a year and kill a black bull for them and eat its flesh without salt. No salt.
    The man decided to do this. He bought a bull and cut its throat, and cooked it without salt. And he called in the Gnaoua.
    The Gnaoua began to dance, and soon the woman entered their world, and was dancing like them. And the moment she began to dance, her arm stopped shaking.
    The Gnaoua were singing and beating their drums, and she was dancing. And she ate the unsalted flesh. They brought a long platter heaped with slices of raw meat that was wet with blood. And while she ate she went on dancing, and she covered her face with the blood. She kept eating until