“There were some men, sitting around a campfire. The Captain said, ‘Zinzinbar, tell us one of your famous stories!’ So Zinzinbar stood up, and he said that there were some men, sitting around a campfire. The Captain said, ‘Zinzinbar, tell us one of your famous stories!’ So Zinzinbar stood up, and he said…”
And:
“Feeling in need of refreshment, I stepped into a nearby café. There were some men, sitting at the bar. ‘Gentlemen,’ I said, ‘I have just killed a man.’
‘Killed a man?’ ‘Yes, killed a man.’ ‘What was his name?’ ‘His name was Zinzinbar.’ ‘Zinzinbar?’ ‘Yes, Zinzinbar.’ ‘Z-i-n-z-i-n-b-a-r?’ ‘Yes, Z-i-n-z-i-n-b-a-r.’ ‘Sir, you have killed my brother, we must fight!’ We retired to a field near the outskirts of Paris. I, being the innocent party, fired the first shot. My opponent fell dead. Feeling in need of refreshment, I stepped into a nearby café…”
These stories were told to me when I was a child. Told repeatedly, as well as many times, by my parents’ friend Oscar. Oscar never said where the stories came from, and I never asked. I would practice them until I could get each repetition identical in inflection and emphasis—because I would end up going through four or five cycles with each telling.
Time passed, and I forgot them. Oscar died years ago, and the stories stayed forgotten, though I must have told them at least once, to Robert, because he just asked me about them.
It took a while to jog my memory for the full text of both, I couldn’t remember one line. Before I got it (which I did, eventually), he’d gone online to see what he could find. What he found amazed me. Apparently there are several versions of these stories floating around, although most use the name Zanzibar. And in every reference, the writer claims to having been told the story as a child, without ever knowing the provenance. Just like me. Spooky, no?
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3 comments:
a lovely elegy. yes, fascinating. and SO well told -- which is, of course, what matters. now, dear writer, please do NOT respond to every comment i post, you'll defeat the purpose. plus, i'm supposed to be writing my u-know-what. but this one was GREAT, i couldn't let it go unremarked upon and have been looking forward to it since i knew it was coming. GOOD ONE!
The story of Zanzibar has some variations. It dates back at least to the 1930s, or perhaps late 1920s when several of my maternal aunts and a maternal uncle must have learned it. They taught it to me in the 1940s when I was a small boy. However, their version was much briefer, allowing for more repetitions per hour:
Feeling in need of refreshment, I retired to a nearby bar. There I met a man. "Sir," said the man, "what is your name?" "Zinzinbar," I said, "Z-i-n-z-i-n-b-a-r-." "Sir," he said, "you have killed my brother. I challenge you to a duel." So, retiring to a nearby field, I killed him with the first shot. Then, feeling in need of a refreshment, I retired to a nearby bar....
Poor Zinzinbar's opponents must have come from a huge family.
The first version is actually a variation on a different recursive story that one of my grandfathers used to tell me:
A band of brigands were seated around a la-a-a-rge campfire when one of their number arose and spoke. "Captain," said he, "tell us a story." And this .. is the captain's story:
A band of brigands were seated...etc.
Zinzinbar was told to me almost verbatim to the second version written here.
More on the first can be found here: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/11/10/antonio/
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