The verses are improvised, and the authors are paid in small
money. Here is a specimen:
_The woman_: "When it thunders and the sky is overcast,
Drive home the sheep, O watchful shepherd."
_The man_: "When it thunders, and the sky is overcast,
We will bring home the sheep."
_The woman_: "I wish I had a bunch of switches to strike you with!
May your father be accursed, Sheepkeeper!"
_The man_: "Oh, God, I thank thee for having created
Old maids to grind meal for the toilers."[8]
[7] Hanoteau, p. 275 et seq.
[8] Stemme, p. 7, 8.
Another manifestation, and not less important of the popular Berber
literature, consists in the stories. Although no attempt has been made in
our days to gather them, many indications permit us to believe that they
have been at all times well treasured by these people. In the story of
Psyche that Apuleius inserted at the end of the second century A.D., in the
romance of Metamorphoses,[9] we read that Venus imposed on Psyche, among
other trials, that of sorting out and placing in separate jars the grains
of wheat, oats, millet and poppy pease, lentils and lima beans which she
had mixed together.
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