ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an oral fiction entertainment story of Afghanistan with a focus on the oral narrative process. The tale discusses in the chapter is the tale of Mangy-Head. Afsaneh-e Garg supplies a second instance of Madar Zaher learning a tale from Adi, recording it first shortly after she learned it, and again about six months later. The main story line of Adi's tale is unchanged in Madar Zaher's two later versions of it. Although Madar Zaher's performances of Afsaneh-e Garg preserve the overall story line, major differences arise in the order and number of the boy's tasks, both between Madar Zaher's two performances, and between Adi's recorded performance (Text H) and Madar Zaher's performances. Although she retains the double resuscitation of the pari, in Text J, Madar Zaher shows a tendency to omit the narrative bit which is all that remains of the deceptive story, the plastering of the wall.
