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C. F. F Center of Folktales and Folklore |
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The Folktale Corner The Disciple and the Child
A Turkish
folktale There was once a
disciple of Mohammed – blessed be his name – that went on his way, made a
journey to the wide world, to find answers to his questions, to discover the
great secrets of life. He went a long way and everywhere he
made researches, enquired people and tried to understand. And one day, in
a remote village, at the end of the country he saw a weird scene: near a
house wall he saw a little child, six or seven years old, standing there,
crying! Beating and strikes himself wildly! Pours dust on his head [I
begin this phrase slowly, very calmly, and then, when I say 'Crying! Beating
and strikes himself wildly!' I make a sudden movement and almost shout.
Sometimes it shocks the nearby listeners] But from time to time he stops and has a
great smile on his face as if he is very satisfied, and then once again –
don't be frightened – he beats himself and pours dust on his head. "What happened to you?" asked
the disciple, "Who abused you that you behave in such a way?" "No one has abused me." Said the child, "I do it from my own will!" "But why? Why do you beat yourself
so wildly? Why do you harm yourself?" "I punish myself for sins that I
will commit when I am adult!" "But you are only six years old!
What sins could you commit at your age? You scarcely distinguish between good
and evil!" "Well, uncle,
you must know that I made some observations; I looked how my mother put fire
in the oven: first she put very thin twigs. When the fire catches them she adds ticker branches. When the fire catches them too she adds a whole trunk! I thought to myself: it is the same with sins; one commits a very small
sin and then he does not know where it will lead him! So I decided to punish
myself ahead so that I will not arrive at such a state." "Ah, I see. What you say is very
clever, but, tell me, my child why do you pour dust
on your head?" "Well uncle, you know that man came
from dust and to dust he will return. It is written in the Book: "For
dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return", that is the reason
why I put dust on my head, so that we will not be strangers one to another
when the day comes!" "Oh,
I see. You are very right doing so, but I see that from time to time you stop and you have wide smile on your face as if
you are very pleased and satisfied. Tell me, what is the reason of your
smile?"
"Uncle, do you really want to know the answer?"
"Well, yes, if it's not a secret. Please tell me."
"Very well then, I'll tell you if you want. I smile when I
remember the promise. The promise that our great king,
Allah, gave us. Look what a great king is Allah that says to us, people: 'Come to me with all that you are – with your good
deeds and with your evil, and I'll accept you as you are and forgive your
sins'. When I think of this, I say to myself: the world is not without owner! There is a leader
to this world. This is the reason to my smile!" "Ah,
it is a great truth, but you know what? Let's leave
all this philosophy and play a game; let's play the game of hide-and-seek.
You will hide yourself as if you are lost, and I will look for you. What do
you think?"
"Yes, uncle, why not, it is a good idea, but you know – I am very
small and tiny. If I hide myself, perhaps you will not find me. First you
will hide yourself, and I will look for you." "All
right. Close your eyes!" The child
closed his eyes and the disciple – I told you he was a close disciple of
Mohammed – he mumbled a special pray and with the force of this prayer he
went up, up to the sky and from there he shouted: "I'm ready. Look for
me!" The child
opened his eyes. He was very clever. You know he was born here in XXX [put
here the name of the place where you perform right now]. He instantly
understood where the disciple is. Tak, tak,
tak – he followed him to the sky. He grasped his ankles and pulled it
forcefully. [I make the necessary movements]
"Leave me! Don't pull me! We will both
fall down from sky!" "Uncle,
we decided between us that we play in this world", said the
child, "not in the upper world!" The
disciple was impressed by his wisdom. He kissed him
on his eyes.
"Uncle, we did not finish yet. Now it is my turn to hide!" "All
right. I close my eyes and you, go and hide yourself." He closed
his eyes, and the child – where do you think, he hided himself? [a
pause] He went and he crept and he sneaked
into the heart of the disciple and found there a hiding-place: "I'm
ready. Look for me!" The
disciple opened his eyes. He looked all around. He did not see him. He looked
for him at land. He looked for him at sea. He searched for him in Damascus.
He searched for him in Yemen. He did not find him.
"Where are you, my child?" "I
am here. Very close. Just open your eyes!" The voice
was very close and clear, but he did not find him. "I
cannot find you. Please, if you love your creator, get out!" The child
got out of his heart. He said to him: "You
looked for me at land. You looked for me at sea. You searched for me in
Damascus. You searched for me in Yemen. But the
first place where you should look – at your heart – there you did not look at
all! Don't you know that all the things that man
look for them in this world – Allah placed them ahead at the man heart! You
had just to look there! You are
still a child compared to me! Go, eat your porridge and grow up!" _________________ I came
across this story first time in the book of Warren S. Walker and Ahmet E.
Uysal, "More Tales Alive in Turkey". The story is a part of
a very long story by the name of "The Ordeal of Latif Shah and his
Family" that was written down from the mouth of Ashik (storyteller)
BehÇet Mahir at 1974, in
Erzurum, Turkey. It took
him 5 hours and 20 minutes to complete the performance of the whole story! I
took only this small fragment and I tell it as an independent story. Barbara K. Walker
and her husband, Warren S. Walker, have been working since 1961 on the
Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative. Since 1980, she has been
curator of the collection, which was donated in 1970 to
Texas Tech University and moved to the university library in 1980. The
collection includes well over three thousand folktales in Turkish, two-thirds
of which have been translated into English. The
Walkers began collecting the folktales, children's games, rhymes, and riddles
in rural Turkey in 1961 when Warren Walker the late, was Fulbright lecturer
in American literature at the University of Ankara, and they plan to continue
collecting 'as long as we live.' Recently,
the Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative was
raised on the web and one can find there the original manuscripts of
the stories and download them for personal fair use. Here is the address: http://aton.ttu.edu/ BehÇet
Mahir was one of the great storyteller of I bring the story as I use to tell it in
my performances. (Forgive me for my poor English). In addition I
bring here the written version from the book and the recorded version from
the archive. Enjoy! _______________
Warren S. Walker and
Ahmet E. Uysal, More Tales Alive in Turkey, Texas Tech University
Press, Lubbock, Texas, 1992, p. 40-43. […] Although Nesil was but sixteen years
old when he ascended the throne, he was in all his decisions able to
distinguish the just from the unjust. The people said, "Yes, he may be
very young, but the course he is taking and the kind of justice he is
dispensing are very mature." Gentlemen, as
you all know, it is maturity that makes us able to deal with those things we
are required to confront in life. To most people maturity comes after twenty
years of life; to others it may come sooner. Once when a disciple of Mohammed was on
a journey, he came upon a boy who was crying beside a wall. That boy was crying as he struck himself and threw dirt upon his
own head, but occasionally he also laughed, as if he were well pleased
with what he was doing. Observing that the boy was only seven or eight years
old, the disciple asked him, "My boy, who has abused you so badly that
you alternately cry and laugh in this way?" "Uncle, no one
has abused me. I strike myself and laugh because I want to do so." "My boy, why do
you want to do this?" "Uncle, what will my situation
eventually be? I am crying for whatever errors I may
commit. I am thus punishing myself." "But, son, goodness and evil cannot yet
be fully meaningful to you. You are still not even in adolescence. What is
your sin that could make you treat yourself this way? Nothing can be that
serious to you yet!" Gentlemen, let
us listen carefully to the answer that the boy gave. The words are not mine but his. Hear what he said! "Uncle, you have
spoken very well, but let me explain my reason. When my mother lighted the
fireplace, I observed what she did. I saw that she lighted the smaller pieces
of wood first. She had laid larger pieces on top of the smaller ones. When
those smaller pieces flared up, they ignited the larger chunks of wood. I
concluded that sin may be like that. It may progress
from smaller offenses to larger ones. I myself may be responsible for great
sins I may someday commit by having allowed them to grow from smaller sins of
my childhood." Just hear these words! Imagine it! A
little boy of seven or eight saying such things! The disciple was astonished. He said,
"Very well, my boy! This observation of yours
is very wise indeed! But tell me why you pour this
soil over your head. Why do you do such a thing?" The boy answered, "Uncle, sooner or
later-but eventually-they will place me in the soil. I want to become more
familiar with the soil and have the soil become more familiar with me. Then
tomorrow when I enter the earth, we shall not be strangers." Again the
disciple was amazed at what he heard. "Well spoken, son, well spoken. But tell me one other thing. When you were beating
yourself and crying aloud, you sometimes laughed. Why did you laugh?" "Do you ask me this
seriously?" "Yes." "There is the Right, the Owner of
Power, who created all of this universe from
nothing. He has made a promise to us. When I remember that promise and think
about it, I laugh, for it is happy news for us. What a great padishah He is
who said, 'Come with everything that you are, and I shall forgive you!' I
laugh out of delight in knowing that great promise."
"Yes, it is wonderful, my boy. I agree with you. But now why don't we play a game for a while? Shall we
play hide-and-seek for a few minutes?" "All right, uncle! Let us
play!" "You hide yourself, as if you were
lost, and then I shall find you." But the child
said, "Uncle, I am younger than you are, and my body is much smaller
than yours. If I should hide myself first, you might have to look for me for
a long time. Perhaps you would not be able to find me at all. Come and hide yourself first and let me find you. After
that I shall hide myself for you to find." "All right, my boy. I shall hide
myself first, and you must then find me. Shut your eyes now while I go and
hide." Covering his face with his hands and
closing his eyes, the child said, "I have shut them." The disciple recited a prayer, the Great
Prayer, went upward into a hiding place, and shouted, "I am
hidden!" As soon as the child opened his
eyes, he saw where the disciple had hidden. Reaching upward, he grabbed the
disciple's foot. "Stand clear!" the disciple called, "so that
I do not come down upon your hands." "Come, come, uncle! I thought that
we had bargained to play hide-and-seek in this world. I did not agree
that you could ascend into another." The
disciple was struck with the unusual maturity of the
child. He embraced the boy and kissed his eyes. "Stop, uncle, stop! Let me hide
myself so that you can now search for me. Now shut your eyes!" After the
disciple had done this, the child went to him and entered his heart. "Find me now, uncle!" he said. The disciple searched and searched
without finding the child. He searched the sea and he searched the mainland.
He searched both Yemen and Damascus, but he could not find him anywhere. He
called, "My boy, where are you? What has become of you?"
"Find me, uncle!" said the boy. The
disciple tried now to determine where the voice was coming from. The voice
was close, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.
Defeated, the disciple said, "If you love the One who created you, come
out from your hiding place. I cannot find you." Coming
forth from the disciple's heart, the boy said, "Uncle, you are still not
mature. I came and entered your heart. Human beings should first search
within themselves before searching the outer world. You were wandering in all
four directions. Shame on you! Go now and drink the
gruel which you have not drunk before and grow up!" Give heed to the words of this child! I
keep shouting his message, but of a hundred men, only three may understand –
perhaps only one! The secret of the universe is within you. Do not wander
about looking for it. For whatever you wish to find, search first within
yourself. Allah has already given it to you. The whole
secret lies somewhere within! ______________ Uysal-Walker
Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative Story 1651
(1971) Tape 1 Narrator: BehÇet
Mahir, mid60s Location: Erzurum,
capital city of Erzurum Province This was an exemplum interpolated in ATON Tale No. 330. Because
it is a tale complete unto itself, we have here given it individual status.
This seems necessary in order to prevent its becoming "lost" in the
very long Tale 330. The Wisdom of a
Child A man who was a follower of Mohammed
from the very beginning, like Christ's disciples, was once walking in the
desert, and there he saw a little boy crying. He was beating himself and
putting soil on his head and face. This man asked the boy:
"My little son, who has beaten you hard enough to make you cry so? And while you are crying, at the same time you are
laughing with joy. And why are you putting the soil
on your head and face? What is the reason?" The very little boy
answered this way: "Oh, sir, nobody has beaten me. I have beaten myself
and I am crying for myself." When the man heard this answer, he
paused: "How can you beat yourself, my son? What is the reason hidden
here?" "Sir, while my
mother was making a fire, I watched her. God has a bell as red as pomegranate
and has His wrath. I 'am crying for this wrath, anger, and rage of God,"
answered the boy. "But, my son, your sins will not be
accepted as sins by God. You are just a little boy. You have gained neither
sins nor good deeds. Nothing will be asked from you,
my son. Your intelligence is not sufficient to make you an adult. What is
this you cry for? Your thinking is quite incorrect." So spoke the man. "Sir, while my mother was making a
fire under the stove, she used the small wood first. Then, these tiny pieces
of wood made the bigger ones burn. Just so, I understood that sin also grows
from something small. It grows little by little. That is why I am crying. When the little boy said these words,
the man understood how mature this boy was. Then he said:
"Very good, my boy. Now tell me the reason that you are playing with
this soil and why you are putting the soil on your face and head." The boy answered: "Sir, finally,
one day, we will be put into the earth." – It is true, gentlemen. Everybody is created
from earth and finally one day will go back to earth. "As of now I am
trying to get used to the earth, so that one day when they put me into the
earth, neither the earth nor I will be a stranger to the other. That is why I
am trying to communicate with the earth. Finally, we will
be buried in the earth. We will see that happiness." The man liked very much the little boy's
answer. "You are right, my boy. You are very young, but your wisdom is
great. What should I say? It is fine. What about this
laughing of yours? Can you explain that?" asked the man. "Uncle, the reason why I am
laughing is that there is such a God ruling this world, a God who has wisdom.
He likes wisdom very much. His wisdom is very great. I remembered this wisdom,
and I am so happy that I am laughing. Such a wonderful judge He is that you
tell it to the wind and you are forgiven [Moslem people, after they pray, look first to the right
and then to the left. The meaning of "telling it to the wind"
derives from this practice – Ulvi Dogan. There are other interpretations of
the significance of this gazing to right and left after completing prayers].
You cannot find this judgment in any of the judges. You are the most powerful
judge, the perfect one, You who appreciate wisdom. This is the reason why I
am smiling and feeling happy. This good news is really good
news for the whole world. When he heard this answer, the man
understood that the truth, the hidden existence, of this boy was an answer to
the world. "Very good, my boy. You have spoken
wonderful words. What should I say? May we play hide-and-seek with
you?" "All right, uncle. Let us play that
also." "Yes, my boy. First you hide and
let me find you." The boy answered, "If I hide first,
it will be very difficult for you to find me. I am very tiny, and I can fit
everywhere. My body is very tiny. Only first you
hide and let me find you. Then I will hide and you can find me." My God, look at him. Look what he is
saying: "I am very little. Wherever I want I
can hide. I can fit everywhere. But first you hide and let me find you." Then the man said, "Close your
eyes, my boy." The boy put his hands over his eyes and
closed his eyes. "I have closed my eyes. Go ahead and hide." The man read one of the most powerful
prayers in the Koran and asked to be lifted to the
sky. Yes, in the Koran there is very great power, powerful prayers. But they are bidden. One must know the exact prayers. Everybody cannot know it. When the boy opened his eyes, he saw the
man going up toward the sky. He held his feet and pulled him back to the
earth. "Come on, uncle, come back to the earth. Hide-and-seek should be played on earth. Why are you running away to the
sky? We have bargained on the earth." When the man heard these words, he
kissed the boy on the eyes. "Bravo, my boy. You are very mature." "With bravo you cannot feed my
stomach. Now let me hide, and you find me. Afterwards, we shall talk about
it. Then the boy said to the man, "Close your eyes." The man closed his eyes, and the boy
went into his heart. "I have hidden," shouted the
boy. The man opened his eyes and saw that the
boy was nowhere. He searched the land, but could not find the boy. He
searched the sea, but could not find the boy. He searched the ground, the
air, but could not find the boy. "Hey, my boy, where are you? I
cannot find you." "I have hidden. Look for me and
find me." The man noticed that the voice was
coming from a nearby place, but the body was not visible. The boy himself was
not there. "My boy, I know you like me very
much. I tried to find you, but I cannot find you. Wherever you are,
please come forth and let me see you." When he said this, the boy jumped from
his heart. "Hey, uncle, you have not become a grown-up man, a human
being. I have hidden in your heart." Here, sirs, we should take a piece of
advice. We should understand this advice. Before searching your inside, your
heart, why should you go around looking for other thing? First
look into yourself. That is why I have brought this sample, this stone,
(story?) here. Yes, first we should clean inside of ourselves and check our
hearts. The people are this way. Why should I care? Why should you care? You
save yourself. You think of yourself. You, yourself, see what is there inside
of yourself. Thus, this is what suits us best. See what a work that little
boy has done. Yes, that is true. Whatever human beings look for, first they
look for it in themselves. Whatever they find, they find it in themselves.
Goodness is in the hands of oneself. Goodness is in the heart of oneself.
Evil is also in people themselves. |
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