ABSTRACT

Šīr o Palang, Text L, is a very early, perhaps the first performance of a story which Mādar Zāher identifies as her own composition. This story is not the only ‘original’ composition in her repertoire. After initial reluctance, she performed and identified six other stories as her own compositions. Her willingness to admit to having composed stories, if not the very fact of her composing them, is unique in my collecting experience. No other storyteller I met was willing to admit ‘inventing’ tales in traditional style, though several said they would ‘correct’ or ‘complete’ tales they heard from others.