Women Watering Basil Plants: New Insights into a Spanish Moroccan Folktale

Abstract

This paper examines the Spanish song «Princesita que riega la albahaca» and compares it with other Moroccan versions of the folk tale. Although loosely based on the encounter between King Solomon and Queen Sheba, the story incorporates a series of elements from different folk traditions, while insisting on the motif of the husband-seeking maiden. Drawing on the motifs of the garden or the mother, the essay examines how the protagonist of the story uses the metaphor of the Basil plant to articulate relations of exogamy and to question social assumptions regarding the role of women and their social constraints.