“Dust Motes and Desert Winds..” By The Authenticator

“Dust Motes and Desert Winds..”
Middle Eastern Folklore, Myths & Legends
By The Authenticator 

        Once more into the mythos of the Middle East, as one might expect today's tale will be that of  the third traveler, which is itself the third in the merchant-saving triad nested like a Cloud Atlas-esque matryoshka doll within the Thousand and One Arabian Nights.As with the others, there is someone turned an animal, a noble put upon husband, a comeuppance for entitled behavior and an imperfect bittersweet layered impact and so on, but this one is unique as it begins long before the main thrust of the story and moreover our titular third traveler is not actually the main character, but to get into that I should stop getting ahead of myself, so without further addu, in we go…

   Today's Tale:” The Shrewish Woman, the Third Traveler and the Mule”  

    We begin with a young woman, gifted by circumstance with tremendous youthful beauty. As one might imagine, this beauty frequently greased her wheel of fortune as she was denied very little from anyone who met her, her parents spoiled her far more than they could reasonably afford and much too often as well. 

She would also flirt her way into favors from the people of her village and even the strangers who would pass through. She lived a charmed life, unaware of what she had and this combination of excused ignorance and luck soon led to a collapse of character. She shortly became overly pompous, vain, indulgent, brash, and finally even cruelly indifferent, yet still her beauty remained and even ripened, flourishing with time and the people around her became even less able to deny her anything.

      So it remained until one day when an unexpected visitor came through the village and as was customary at the time,chose a place to stay, which was of course the home of the young girl and her parents. She was an old woman, wizened, haggard, gnarled and hideous; the young woman was  immediately repulsed by the old's visage and the old  was repulsed by the young's lack of character( which she could see clear as day ), and both eyed each other menacingly without the parents noticing.
    A  slightly longer than was customarily polite period of time later, the two found themselves standing across from one another at a crossroads when the young girl began to accost the old woman about “overstaying her welcome”, at which the old woman smirked, confusing the girl, who for her part was enraged by the reaction.

     She demanded to know why the old woman was laughing,” Because you are young and you have never known anyone to see through your lovely features, but I do,  and it is funny because someday you will be old as I am, and your looks faded, everyone will see the horrid vacant wrench you are on the inside”  “ I will not!!” the child insisted as she ran off up the path. “ Perhaps, you don't  deserve to.” the old woman said to herself, smiling knowingly as she moved slowly up the path never in a hurry but confident in her stride, as so often comes with age, wisdom, and a life well lived.


    Unbeknownst to the young  woman or her parents, the old woman had skill in Magick and later that night at dinner no one thought much of it when she insisted on thanking her hosts by sharing a drink from a small bottle with them. They all drank it, and she smiled. After dinner she whispered to the girl “ you have you're wish, now instead of growing old, on the day you would have entered your elder years, you will become instead whatever represents most closely what you are inside. Your parents are good people and shall remain as they are, but you shall wear whatever is your truest face”

  The next day, the old woman packed up and left, thanking the parents sweetly and shooting the young lady a crooked smile as she turned to go. The vain young woman disregarded the odd happening as the rantings of a feeble old hag and she ungratefully resumed her charmed life without a second thought, eventually getting her pick of the men and choosing one with historic gentleness, kindness and humility( our Third Traveler); all things she had none of and which she took abusive advantage of day in and day out until as last even he, ran battered and ragged to provide the life she demanded, considered leaving her.

On the day he would have left however, after nearly 50 years of this torturous marriage, Fate intervened,  as the rays of the morning sun flooded into their bedchamber, he watched and listened helplessly as she explained the above incident to to him in shrieks and shouts  and turned forevermore into…. a mule. Though he would forever guilt himself for it, he felt the freedom of relief enter his heart from that day on.
…

    So ends the Traveler's Tales to save the Merchant from the wrathful Jinni from The Arabian Nights. Which means putting the spirs to a different Middle Eastern legend next week, so be sure to check in, and if you like this mix of Magick, Myth and Media, please check out my YouTube channel The Authenticator: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1Fkgi1ebZiO_0b-hNun7Q but for now, another one bites the dust mote( lol) so I'll see you all next time
  Cheers Everyone!! :)