VOODOO MAGIC

            Everyone has heard of the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” My mom used to tell me this during dinner as I stuffed my face full of her outstanding food. “Slow and steady wins the race, Michael.” I did not care too much; I just wanted to eat the food as quickly as I could before getting full. This was my philosophy of life at the time, and it definitely was not something I listened to. My mother also told me the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf;” this story discussed a farm boy who constantly lies about seeing a wolf and when the wolf finally shows up the child gets eaten in a bloody mess. There are also stories and movies in which people believe in “voodoo” magic; a type of dark magic that can control a person using their possessions as the link. This is typically done with a person’s hair.

            Salman Rushdie’s short story, “The Prophet’s Hair” starts off like a tall tale. “…Spell of a winter so fierce it could crack men’s bones as if they were glass, a young man upon whose cold-pinked skin there lay…” (Rushdie, 35) Once the story begins it does not take long before the hair and its immense power is shown, almost like that of Babe the Blue Ox. “The hair must be restored to its shrine, and the state to equanimity and peace.” (Rushdie, 43) The man gets sidetracked and forgets about his main goal, just like in Aladin when he was told not to touch the ruby on top of the pedestal. The “moneylender” sees other jewels throughout the house and wanders off.

            Being sidetracked causes the man to begin losing track of where the wonderful relic of the hair is. Due to the burden of the hair and finally losing it, Atta is very relieved. “There was only a hole, which his mother, usually so attentive to household matters, must have overlooked under the stress of recent events. Atta’s initial surge of chagrin was quickly replaced by a feeling of profound relief.” (Rushdie, 49) He realizes that this hair is almost like the Ring in Lord of the Rings. Only bad can come out of it until it is in it’s proper home.

            After more intense traveling and many deaths, the hair reaches its place in the mosque. “From the dead thief’s pocket rolled a vial of tinted glass, cased in filigree silver.” (Rushdie, 57) This really does remind me of “Lord of the Rings.” It is a quest to set what went wrong right, and I feel the moral of the story is not to mess around with anything sacred.