Why do storytellers have good memory and enjoy good wines?

 

Birds cannot write, they have way too many feathers.

 

In West Africa, they tell that, in the beginning of times, there were no stories and, also, there was no wisdom. The world was utterly sad. That is why the first storyteller – and story seeker too - decided to roam the world accompanied by a bird-scribe: the marabou.

 

The marabou is the only bird that knows which feather from its behind may be plucked so that it can be used to write, which makes the marabou a very special bird. That is why it was chosen to travel around the world, on the shoulder of our first storyteller and seeker.

 

They roamed through the bushes, the savanna and along the rivers, listening to the winds, the stones, the waters, the trees and the animals. And they met a lot of people who were until then unknown who told them their stories.

 

With the feather plucked from its behind and using a water-based ink, coal dust and Arabic gum, the marabou-scribe took notes, rigorously, of each and every story it heard. The storyteller and seeker walked and wandered: “I am not going to be able to remember all these tales.”

 

But the marabou kept on listening and writing down the stories.

 

Once he was back home, the first storyteller and seeker found a solution to the problem that tormented him. Following the marabou´s advices, he filled a big calabash with water and in it he immersed all the written stories. All night long, in that calabash – which is called canari in Africa – the words written with ink were dissolved in the water. In the morning, when the storyteller sat down to have the first meal of the day, the marabou instructed him to drink the content of the canari as breakfast.

 

Thus, every story drunk was sunk in.

 

If you, by any chance, need to drink a story, I will give you a piece of advice: drink it up. Do not leave any drop on the bottom of the glass, because that might make your mind go blank.

 

That is why, in all times, storytellers also have been good wine drinkers.

 

***

East African traditional tale. 

From O ofício do contador de histórias, by Gislayne Avelar Matos and Inno Sorsy.