Reading Notes: Persian Folktales and Fairy Tales Part A

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The Wolf and the Goat:

• There was a goat who had four children. Their names wee Balil, Alil, Ginger Stick, and Black Eyes.  
• The mother told her children she was going to get grass for them.
• She warned them the wolf would come and to not answer let anyone in until they showed them their hand.  If they saw a black hand they would know it was not their mother but if they saw a red hand it was her
• The wolf was listening to them the entire time and when the mother left he dyed his hand with henna. 
• They opened the door for him when they saw his red hand. 
• The wolf left with Alil, Balil, and Ginger Stick. Black Eyes ran and hid 
• The mother returned and Black Eyes told her what had happened to her other sons. 
• The goat and the wolf prepared to fight. The goat filled a skin with butter and curds as a present for the knife grander and asked them to sharpen her horns. 
• The Wolf was too stingy so he blew the skin up with air to make it appear full and asked a tooth puller to sharpen his teeth
• The teeth puller noticed that there was nothing in the skin so instead of sharpening the wolf’s teeth he pulled them all out and replaced them with cotton wool
• The goat and the wolf went to fight and as the goat told the wolf to go to the other side of the river he fell in
• The goat stabbed at the wolf with her sharp horns and killed him 
• She took her children back home again  

The City of Nothing-in-the-World: 

• Hich a Hich, the city of Noting-in-the-World
• There was a young girl who fell and when she was a little better her aunt sent her into the city with two eggs in order to get ointment for her scrapes.
• Along the way, she lost the eggs but instead found a jinnu that she gave to some people who made her a minaret out of a needle
• She climbed to the top and saw that her two eggs turned into a hen and a cock. 
• She demanded the cock back and all his wages as well. She got half a cow load of rice that she took with her to the market 
• She rubbed the cock’s back with a walnut to ease its pain and the next day there was a walnut tree growing from it. 
• She planted melons and the next morning saw that they had grown very large. 
• When she was cutting the melon she lost her knife inside so she went into the melon to hunt for it
• In the melon was a town and it was filled with people and noise 
• She bought a hair for her self and ate it and in the Botton of the bowl was a hair. 
• She tried to throw it away but at the end of the hair was a camel’s leading-rope
• There were several camels and she found her knife tied to the tail of the last camel. 

Susku and Mushu: 

• There was a mouse named Mushu and a bottle named Susku. 
• Master Mousie asked to marry Susku 
• They agreed on a marriage and Susku left to bathe 
• Susku told her brother to fetch Master Mousie and tell him to bring a ladder of gold to take her out of the water 
• They were married soon after 
• Master Mousie as Susku to make some Ash eat and as she was cooking gust of wind carried her into the pot of broth and drowned her 
• When Mushu found Susku, he was so upset that he began to throw ashes on his head
• A crow told Master Mousie about what was going on 
• As the story was passed more and more people were affected and the story grew

The Boy Who Became a Bulbul: 

• A man had a small son and daughter and had taken a new wife 
• The father and son were starting to collect thorn bushes for firewood 
• The bet each other that each of them will have gathered more firewood by the end of the day
• The boy collected more than his father 
• As the boy was away, the father took from his bundle and added to his own 
• The father’s bundle was heavier at the end of the day so he cut off the boy’s head 
• He told his wife to cook the head
• When the daughter saw the head cooking she ran away to tell her teacher 
• The teacher told her to never consume the cooked head and to gather her brother's bones once the others have eaten
• She was told to bury the bone and repeat a sura so she did several days later
• A bulbul bird began to sing for the girl then flew away and sang for a needle maker
• When the needle maker was not looking he took some needles and flew away to sing for his stepmother 
• He told her he would sing if she closed her eyes and opened her mouth so she did and he shoved the needles down her throat
• He flew away and sang for a candy maker and stole sweets when he wasn’t looking, he later gave them to his sister while he sang for her  

The Wolf-Aunt: 

• An old man gathered thorn for fuel 
• He had a wife and seven daughters and was very poor 
• One day on his way home he saw an old woman come out of a door in front of him.
• She invited him in and told him that she was his sister 
• She invited him to live with her because she was wealthy and would take care of him 
• He hurried home to tell his wife and then took his daughters and wife to the woman’s house 
• The wife was so overcome with happiness she told her husband that they should cook a meal for his sister out of thanks 
• She sent him to the market to buy food to cook for her 
• The wife made the food and told her daughter to take it to her aunt 
• The daughter peeked into her aunt's room and saw that her aunt had turned into a wolf so she ran back to her mother to tell her what she saw
• The wife warned her husband when he got home but he did not believe her 
• The wife gathered her daughter and fled to their old home 
• He told his sister why his wife and family fled and that night she ate him 

Nim Tanak, or Half Boy: 

• There was a King with no children and he was very sad
• One day he wandered out into the desert and met a derwish 
• The derwish gave the king four apples (one for each wife) and told him to make them eat the apples 
• Three of them ate the apple but the fourth only ate half and a crow tool the other half 
• All of the women soon gave birth to a child. One daughter, two sons, and the fourth had a half son 
• He drove away his fourth wife and her half son out of anger 
• The king's daughter was taken away by a Div that fell in love with her 
• He continued to send army after army to attack the Div but none of them succeeded until finally one did and Nim Tanak was about to smite him again but his sister warned that if he did then Div would again come back to life 
• He left the Div in two halves and set all his brothers free and took his sister home 

Muhammad Tirandaz, The Archer: 

• There was a man named Muhammad who was a shawl-weaver 
• He saw two mice playing one day and easily killed them both with the shuttle 
• His fellow apprentices told him that he should be Muhammad of the Bow and that he ought to be an archer 
• He took those words seriously and left work and one home to ask his mother for money to buy a bow and arrows 
• He bought them and left for the desert
• As he slept a horseman saw him and asked him who he was 
• He told the horseman he was Muhammad Tirandaz, Muhammed of the Bow. 
• The horseman and he ate together and the horseman brought him to the king's presence and the king gave Muhammad a job and salary 
• One day a war broke out and Muhammad was summoned by the king to fight 
• Muhammad did not know how to ride a horse so he had the other tie his feet together under the horse but he lost control and the galloping horse scared away the enemies and he was appointed the commander-in-chief of the king’s armies 

The Praying Baker: 

• There was a king who went out one evening and began begging in the market 
• He was in disguise 
• He came to a baker’s shop where he saw the man in charge of praying and meditation 
• The king told himself that if his prayer was false he would have him killed but if it was true then he would give him a robe of honor.
• He offered an expensive ring to the baker in exchange for bread, the baker took the deal 
• The king returned to his castle an told the Wazir to go and try to get the ring back and if he succeeded he would reward him 
• The Wazir distracted the baker and stole the ring back 
• The next night the king returned to the baker and told him he would pay for the bread he was given in exchange for the ring back. 
• The baker told him that the ring was no longer there and that it was stolen. 
• The king gave him ten days to find the ring and the baker told him that he could cut off his head if he could not find it in time 
• The baker knew he was going to be killed so he bought fresh fish to have a nice meal with his wife. Inside the fish, was the ring he was looking for and he promptly returned it to the king who gave him a robe of honor 

The Sad Tale of the Mouse’s Tail: 

• A mouse went out stealing and lost her tail in a trap 
• She ran to a cobbler her told her to fetch some thread so he could sew on her tail 
• She ran to the Jew and asked for a thread and he asked for an egg in return 
• So she ran to a hen as asked for an egg but she wanted a grain of corn 
• The mouse ran to the corn heap to get the corn and was told she needed a sieve 
• She ran to the tinker for a sieve and was told she would get one in exchange for a goatskin 
• She ran to the goat for some skin but was told she needs to give him some grass 
• She ran to the farmer for grass and he said she need a spade 
• So she ran to the blacksmith to ask for a spade to give to the farmer who will give her some grass to give to the goat who will give her some skin to give to the tinker who will give her a sieve to give to the corn heap who will give her a grain to give to the hen who will give her an egg to give to the Jew who will give her a tread to give to the cobbler to sew on her tail. 

Story Source:  Persian Tales,  translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).