Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales

4 f^ 1'^'1 .1 ^"=1 .y ! : *3P *^ - -J '.; < •J l M ftl %^N:^»^yk:r>>>•.f.v>Jft^ft,v^v^JA:.si,«>>vv.->:.wv>^^ ^ X . / Bffi=.^«f„f--U3«„.3 ^ 3 3333 08iV9yi4^ • REFERENCE iovh^fQ4XC ^""""h^j) 1&^^ h' I ^ rguv âv^ljl) %lx^ lie? ch t-Ll^^SCve^cconc bo gao»jt>.g;;Jfjw;yj^^fc»^'fel'.:t^r>_Joji, HE MEV/ YOr,. -'"'* AST;'' '.-'I'-'' Page PREFACE ix THE CREATION 1 THE BROTHER AND SISTER 3 FEAR 12 THE THREE ORANGE PERIS 19 THE ROSEBEAUTy 31 39 THE SILENT PRINCESS ,^.^ ;., KARA MUSTAFA THE HERO 50 ' 58 . .V'.';'' •.>: THE WIZARDDERVISH 'r , **^*"' '"' THE FISH-PERI * 64 THE HORSEDEW AND THE WITCH 70 ; CONTENTS Page THE SIMPLETON 11 THE MAGIC TURBAN, THE MAGIC WHIP, AND THE MAGIC CARPET 87 MAHOMET, THE BALD-HEAD 95 THE STORM FIEND 102 THE LAU(}HING APPLE AND THE WEEPING APPLE 117 THE CROWPERI 126 THE FORTY PRINCES AND THE SEVEN-HEADED DRAGON 133 KAMERTAJ, THE MOONHORSE 141 THE BIRD OF SORROW 150 THE ENCHANTED POMEGRANATE BRANCH THE BEAUTY 159 AND . THE MAGIC HAIR-PINS 174 PATIENCE-STONE AND PATIENCE-KNIFE 182 THE DRAGON-PRINCE AND THE STEPMOTHER 188 THE MAGIC MIRROR 198 THE IMP OF THE WELL ' / 206 • -• THE SOOTHSAYER : 213 THE DAUGHTER OF" ThÊ' PADISHAH OF KAN- DAHAR 217 SHAH MERAM AND SULTAN SADE 228 vi CONTENTS Page THE WIZARD AND HIS PUPIL 238 THE PADISHAH OF THE THIRTY PERIS 243 THE DECEIVER AND THE THIEF 250 THE SNAKEPERI AND THE MAGIC MIRROR 257 LITTLE HYACINTH'S KIOSK 266 PRINCE AHMED 274 THE LIVER 286 THE FORTUNE TELLER 290 SISTER AND BROTHER 298 SHAH JUSSUF 307 THE BLACK DRAGON AND THE RED DRAGON 316 "MADJUN" 327 THE FORLORN PRINCESS 334 THE BEAUTIFUL HELWA MAIDEN 342 ASTROLOGY 351 KUNTERBUNT 358 MEANING OF TURKISH WORDS 361 Vll V^jôwCQ^: THE stories comprising this collection have been culled with my own hands in the many-hued garden of Turkish folk-lore. They have not been gathered from books, for Turkey is not a literary land, and no books of the kind exist,- but, an attentive listener to " the story-tellers " who form a peculiar feature of the social life of the Ottomans, I have jotted them down from time to time, and now present them, a choice bouquet, to the English reading public. The stories are such as may be heard daily in the purlieus of Stamboul, in the small rickety houses of that essentially Turkish quarter of Constantinople where around the tandir the native women relate them to their children and friends. These tales are by no means identical with, nor do they even resemble, those others that have been assimilated by the European consciousness from Indian sources and the "Arabian Nights." All real Turkish fairy tales are quite independent of those,- rather are they related to the Western type so far as their contents and structure are concerned. Indeed, they may only be placed in the category of Oriental tales in that they are permeated with the cult of Islam and that their characters are Moslems. The kaftan encircling their bodies, the turban on their heads, and the slippers on their feet, all proclaim their Eastern origin. Their heroic deeds, their struggles and triumphs, are mostly such as may be found in the folk-lore of any European people. It is but natural that pagan superstition, inseparable from the ignorant, should be always h ix PREFACE cropping up in these stories. Like all real folk-lore they are not for children, though it is the children who are most strongly attracted by them, and after the children the women. They are mostly woven from the webs of fancy in that delectable realm. Fairy-land,- since it is there that everything wonderful happens, the dramatis personae being as a rule supernatural beings. Nearly all Turkish stories belong to the category of fairy tales. These marvellous scenes are enacted in that imaginary country wherein Padishahs have multifarious relations with the rulers of the fairy world. The Shahzadas, their sons, or the Sultanas, their daughters, are either the only children of their parents, or else they appear as three or seven brothers or sisters, whose careers are associated with miraculous events from birth onward. Their kismet, or fate, is controlled by all-powerful dervishes or peri-magicians. Throughout their lives, peris, to the number of three, seven, or forty, are their beneScent helpers ,- while dews, or imps, are the obstructors of their happiness. Besides the dews, there are also ejderha, or dragons, with three, seven, or more heads, to be encountered, and peris in the form of doves to come to the rescue in the nick of time. Each of these supernatural races has its separate realm abounding with spells and enchantments. To obtain these latter, and to engage the assistance of the peris, the princes of the fairy tales set out on long and perilous journeys, during which we find them helped by good spirits <ins> and attacked by evil ones <jins>. These spirits appear sometimes as animals, at others as flowers, trees, or the elements of nature, such as wind and fire, rewarding the good and punishing the evil. The fairy -land of the Turks is approached by a threefold road,- in most cases the realm can be reached only on the back of a Pegasus, or by the aid of the peris. One must either ascend to the seventh sphere above the earth by the help of the anka-bird, or descend to the seventh sphere below the earth by the help of a dew. A multitude of serais and kiosks are at the disposal of the heroes of the tales ,- thousands of birds of gayest X PREFACE plumage warble their tuneful lays, and in the flower-gardens the most wonderful odours intoxicate the senses. Turkish fairy tales are as crystal, reflecting the sun's rays in a thousand dazzling colours ,• clear as a cloudless sky ,• and transparent like the dew upon a budding rose. In short, Turkish fairy tales are not the stories of the Thousand and One Nights, but of the Thousand and One Days. I. K. <Q> XI f)h^ (ve»a.tccvw LLAH, the most gracious God, whose dwelling- place is the seventh heaven, completed the work of creation. Seven planes has the heaven and seven planes also the earth—the abode of evil spirits. In the heavenly ways reside the peris, or good spirits ,- in the earthly darkness the dews, or evil spirits. The light of heaven is in con- flict with the darkness of earth—the peris with the dews. The peris soar to ' heaven, high above the earth,- but the dews sink down into the darkness under the earth. Moun- tains bar the road to heaven, and only the good spirits can reach the Copper Range, whence the way is open to the Silver Moun- tains and the Hills of Gold. Evil spirits are blinded by the ineffable radiance of heaven. Their dwelling - place is the depths of the earth, the entrance to which is at the spring of waters. There tarry the white and the black sheep, into whose wool the evil spirits pene- trate, and are so con- veyed to their realm on the seventh plane, On the white sheep they return to the earth's surface. Peris and dews are powerful, and both were wit- nesses of the creation of earth's original inhabitant, the First Man. Allah created the First Man, and ap- pointed him the earth for his dwelling- place. And when the First Mortal ap- peared upon the earth and the peris re- joiced over Allah's wonderful work, the Father of Evil beheld it, and envy overcame his soul. Straightway he conceived a plan whereby to bring to nought that beneficent work 1 / TURKISH FAIRY TALES He would implant the deadly seed of sin in this favoured creature of the Almighty,- and soon the First Man, all unsuspecting, received on his pure body the damnable spittle of the Evil One, who struck him therewith in the region of the stomach. But Allah, the all-merciful, the overcomer of all things, hastened to tear out the contaminated flesh, and flung it to the ground. Thus originated the human navel. The piece of flesh, unclean by reason of the Evil One's spittle having defiled it, obtained new life from the dust, and thus, almost simultaneously with man, was the dog created—half from the human body and half from the Devil's spittle. Thus it is that no Mahometan will harm a dog, though he refuses to tolerate him in his house. The animal's faithfulness is its human inheritance, its wildness and savagery are from the Evil One. In the Orient the dog does not increase, for while the Moslem is its protector, he is at the same time its implacable enemy. jKeJuTcôlmev ggâ^c^Ve^ NCE UPON A TIME there was an old Padishah who had a son and a daughter, In due time he died and his son reigned in his stead, and it was not long before the young man dissipated the whole fortune be- queathed by his father, One day he Said to his sister, "My dear, we have spent all our fortune. If it should become known that we no money we should have to leave this neighbour- hood, as we could never look anyone in the face. We had better go away quietly now, before it is too late." So they gathered their belongings to- gether, and left the palace secretly in the night, They journeyed they knew not whither until they reached a great plain of apparently limitless dimensions.

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