A short folk tale from the Muş region: the youngest of three brothers stays awake to guard the family’s apple tree, follows a thief into a cave, and wins brides for himself and his two brothers.
ℹ️ This is an English translation of a Muş folk tale, told in a strong regional dialect in the original. The Turkish original is available here: Mirza Mıhemede (Muş Masalı).
Mirza Mıhemede is a folk tale from the Muş region; it tells what happens to the youngest of three brothers who take turns guarding, in shifts, a tree left to them by their father that bears three apples every year.
MIRZA MIHEMEDE
Once there was, once there wasn’t1. In the old days a man had three sons. The youngest was named Mirza Mıhemede. In front of their door stood an apple tree, which bore three apples every year. Their father had said: “Whoever guards that tree, it will give each of you an apple every year.” Their father died. And the tree bore three apples. When the apples ripened, the brothers set a watch order, taking turns.
First the eldest brother went to keep watch. He waited a while, and sleep came over him. When he woke, he saw that one of the apples was gone — only two were left. The middle brother went next; the same thing happened to him too… only one was left. Then it was Mirza Mıhemede’s turn; he went and kept watch over the tree at night. When sleep began to come over him, he cut his finger and put salt on it, so that sleep would not come. At midnight, he saw someone come to steal the apple. Mirza Mıhemede saw him and chased him. The thief ran and went into a cave. In the morning Mirza Mıhemede came home and told his brothers what had happened. They went to the mouth of the cave, and brought a rope with them too.
First the eldest brother went down inside. At once he cried out, saying: “For pity’s sake, pull me up!” He came out, and the middle brother went down into the cave. The same as the other, he cried out too, saying: “Pull me up.” He came out as well. Then it was Mirza Mıhemede’s turn. He said: “When I go down, whatever I say, however much I call — don’t you pull me up.” They lowered him, and he reached the bottom of the cave. He shouted and called, but they did not pull him up.
Inside the cave there were three rooms. He knocked on the door of the first room, and saw a beautiful girl sitting there, a spinning-wheel2 in her hand, and a diamond as well. She said: “For pity’s sake, Mirza Mıhemede, why have you come? The dev3 will wake now, and he will cut off your head.”
He asked: “Where is the dev sleeping?”
She showed him where the dev was, and Mirza Mıhemede cut off the dev’s head while he slept. There, too, were three sisters. He went to the middle one: “Don’t be afraid of the dev,” he said, “I have killed him.” That girl had a diamond too. But the youngest one had no diamond.
He brought the three girls together, along with their belongings. He said to his brothers: “Pull us up.” First he sent the girls up, and last of all he came up himself. To the eldest girl he said: “You go to my eldest brother,” and to the middle one, “you go to my middle brother.” The youngest girl he took for himself. The three brothers held their weddings together.
They attained their wish — may God grant us ours too4…
Translator’s Notes
- “Bir varmış bir yokmuş” (“once there was, once there wasn’t”) is the standard opening formula of Turkish folk tales, roughly equivalent to “once upon a time.” ↩
- The source word (“makinesi,” literally “her machine”) is ambiguous in context — it most likely refers to a hand spinning-wheel or similar domestic tool, but this could not be verified with certainty. [doğrulama gerekli] ↩
- A dev is a demon or ogre figure from the Persian-influenced storytelling tradition, distinct from the giants of European folklore. ↩
- “Onlar ermiş muradına, Allah bizim muradımızı da versin” is a standard closing formula in Turkish folk tales, roughly “they reached their heart’s desire — may God grant us ours too.” ↩
Source
Narrator: Makbule Yıldırım. From the collection Muş Masalları, compiled by Mehmet Şakir Yavuz.
Translated from the Turkish. The original is written in a strong regional dialect of the Muş area, with distinctive spellings and grammar (for example “varmış” as “varmis,” “oğlu” as “ogli,” “kardeş” as “kerdes,” “mağara” as “mıgara”); this translation renders the story in standard English prose rather than attempting an equivalent English dialect, since no such equivalence is meaningful across languages. The Turkish original is published in this archive as Mirza Mıhemede (Muş Masalı).
