Once Upon A Time, Zazaki Tales

“I came to turn on the tap,” answered Memet. “A great number of caravan drivers are waiting for water up there.” The old man explained to him that in order to turn the tap on, he first had to answer a question. If the answer was correct, he would turn it on, but if not, he would not.

A bit perplexed, Memet responded, “Very well, what is your question?”

“It is a very simple question. Tell me which of my two wives I prefer.”

Disconcerted, Memet thought about it, then answered, “That depends on your taste. They are both beautiful. You could easily prefer one or the other.”

The old man was satisfied with this response and asked his dark wife to go get a pomegranate in the garden for his visitor. She went to the garden and came back with two pomegranates, which she gave to Memet, saying, “If you ever come back, bring me a ball of yarn.”

Memet took the pomegranates et climbed back up the well. A few minutes later the old man turned on the tap and the merchants were able to quench their thirst. In order to reward Memet for his kindness, the merchants each gave him some money.

Memet immediately sent the two pomegranates full of the silver and gold coins the merchants had given him to his wife. Then, with one of the merchants whose name was Ali, he went to the nearest city. While Ali was taking a nap at the foot of the wall, Memet set off to visit the city. As he walked through the streets, he saw an ox that a man was leading by a rope tied to his horns. Memet approached the man and asked him shyly, “Excuse me, sir, where are you taking this ox?”

“I am taking it to be slaughtered.”

“May I come with you?” asked Memet.

“If you want to!” Memet followed the man to a mosque where he took out his knife, slaughtered the ox and skinned it. Then he said to Memet, “Lie down on the hide to see if it is big enough.”

Memet did not realize the man’s intentions and did as he said. Scarcely had he lain down on the hide when the man covered him with it and gave him a violent blow with his whip. Memet landed at the top off the minaret of the mosque. When he opened his eyes and saw himself at the top of a minaret with no stairs, he could see no way to get down.

But suddenly he heard a voice. Looking down, he saw the man who had sent him to the top of the minaret. “What is up there?” asked the man.

“All sorts of things!” answered Memet. “Gold, silver, jewels, silks…”

“Then hurry up and send them down to me,” said the man.

Suddenly, a stork landed on the minaret and said to Memet, “Don’t worry, I am going to help you get down.”

“How can you help me?”

The stork answered, “I shall go down slowly and you will follow me, putting your feet exactly where I put mine. We will make it all the way down.” Memet was not sure whether to believe the stork, but he followed its instructions and soon reached the ground. When he saw Memet on his way down, the man fled.

Once he was on the ground, Memet hastened to find his companion, Ali. When Ali saw him, he asked him where he had been. Without going into too much detail, Memet explained that he gone to see the city. They set off together to find a caravansary for the night.

The next morning, Memet disguised himself and returned to the place where he had seen the man leading an ox the day before. After a few minutes, along came the man leading another ox by the horns. Memet approached and spoke to him, “Sir!”

“Yes?”

“Where are you leading this ox?”

“I am taking it to be slaughtered.”

“May I come with you?”

“If you want to.” Memet went with him and they came to the same place as the day before. The man took out his knife, slaughtered the ox, skinned it, and told Memet to lie down on the hide to see if it was big enough.

Memet answered, “I do not know how to lie down. Show me how. You lie down first so I can see how, and then I will know what to do.”

As soon as the man lay down, Memet covered him with the hide and gave it a blow with his whip and the man landed on the minaret.

Memet called out to him, “What is up there?”

“Diamonds, gold, jewels, silver…” responded the man.

“Then hurry up and send them down!” The man threw down everything he could reach. Memet filled several bags then placed them on his horses’ backs and went to find his friend Ali.

As they were leaving the city, Memet remembered the old woman at the bottom of the well who wanted a ball of yarn. He did not wish to leave without buying it for her, so he said to his friend, “Excuse me, Ali, I forgot my staff at the caravansary, wait for me here, I am going to go get it. I’ll be right back.”

Ali answered, “It doesn’t matter, I will buy you another staff.”

“No,” said Memet. He ran to the city, bought a ball of yarn, and came back to Ali.

Together, they set off for the well to get water for themselves and their horses. When they reached it, Memet saw the caravan drivers discussing who would go down to turn on the tap. Once again, he offered to go, so they tied a rope around him and let him down. When he reached the bottom, Memet greeted the old man and his two wives.

The old man asked him, “What do you want, young man?”

“I have come to ask you to turn on the tap, for all the caravan drivers are thirsty and they are waiting up above.” Just as before, the old man told him he was going to ask a question and if the answer was satisfactory, he would turn the tap on and otherwise he would not.

“Tell me which of these two wives I prefer.”

Memet answered, “It depends on your good pleasure. You could prefer either one.” Satisfied with this answer, the old man told his white wife to go get two pomegranates in the garden for their guest. She brought back four. Memet gave the ball of yarn to the dark wife, took his pomegranates, and climbed back up the well. Once again, the merchants all gave him money.

Memet took the money, the pomegranates, and the twelve bags of gold, silver and diamonds and returned home.

When he reached his village, he did not recognize it. Many changes had been made. When he had left there were only a few houses. Now the village was so big it looked like a city.

Memet was unable to find his house and asked some villagers to lead him to it. They led him to his new house that looked like a castle. He discovered that his wife was now living in a huge palace and that she had about a hundred servants.

The treasures he brought with him made his wife even richer. She was able to rival even with her father who had driven her from his court simply because she had said she loved him as much as salt. Many years had gone by since and her father had forgotten her.

In order to prove to her father the love she had always borne him, she decided to invite him to her kingdom. When the king received the message from this unknown princess, he told the messenger sent to deliver the message, “I am a king and I only travel with my entire court. Is your princess capable of receiving my men?”

The princess’ messenger responded, “That will be no problem for the princess, Your Highness.”

Intrigued by the power of this unknown princess, the king accepted the invitation and made the journey with his court. When he arrived at the palace, he immediately realized how powerful she was. She welcomed him with the greatest honors and gave him one of her reception rooms to stay in. She then had the best possible dishes made, and to show her father that loving someone like salt is no idle talk, she decided to have them all prepared without salt, all except the soup.

At supper time, everyone sat down to eat. The king picked up his spoon and began to eat, but he was only able to swallow one small bite of each dish. Finally, he came to the soup, and ate the entire bowl. The princess said to him, “Your Highness, why did you choose to eat the soup, even though you had all the best dishes in the world before you?”

The king answered her, “These dishes cannot be called good, none of them have any salt. That is why I wasn’t able to eat them. But this bowl of soup was salted, and I found it ten times better than any of the other dishes.” At that very moment, he recalled the words of his daughter whom he had driven from his court, but he avoided mentioning it.

After the meal, the king and the princess began to talk about various things. The king stopped and said to the princess, “One day, I asked my three daughters how much they loved me. The youngest one said she loved me as much as salt, and I did not understand what that meant. I thought it was an offense to my rank, so I drove her from my court. After what has just happened, I understand now that she loved me very much.”

The moment he admitted his mistake, his daughter revealed her true identity and the father and daughter united their two kingdoms. They became the most powerful rulers and spent the rest of their lives living happily on their lands.

The Shepherd

There was once a shepherd who lived in a village with his wife and child. As time went on, the shepherd’s son grew to be a young man.