The Dung Beetle is an Anatolian animal tale. A beetle sets out to find herself a husband, and every creature she meets on the road gets her name wrong — until one of them learns to say it properly.
ℹ️ This is an English translation of a Turkish oral folk tale. Several of its rhyming names and phrases have no English equivalent and are explained in the notes below. The Turkish original is available here: Bok Böceği (Anadolu Masalı).
THE DUNG BEETLE
Once there was, once there was not… there was a dung beetle. One day this dung beetle said to herself:
“I have grown weary of living all alone in this fleeting world. Let me go and look for a little husband for myself.”
On and on she went, and came upon a cat.
The cat said:
“Where are you going, Dung Beetle?”
“Is my name Dung Beetle?”
“Oh — and what is your name, then?”
“You were meant to ask: Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, where are you going, Lady Coral?”1
“Well then, we did not know… Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, where are you going, Lady Coral?”
“To look for a little husband.”
“Take me, then.”
“Your tail is long, you will beat me.”
“Go well, then.”
The cat took her leave and went. The dung beetle carried on along her road. On and on she went, and came upon a hedgehog. The hedgehog said:
“Where are you going, Dung Beetle?”
The dung beetle grew cross again:
“Is my name Dung Beetle?”
“Well, what is your name?”
“My name is Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, Lady Coral.”
“Well then, we did not know… Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, where are you going, Lady Coral?”
“To look for a little husband.”
“Take me, then.”
“You have spines; they will prick me every time you put your arms around me. I will not take you.”
“Go well, then. May God grant you a good portion.”
The dung beetle took to the road again, and going along she came upon a rat. The rat said:
“Where are you going, Dung Beetle?”
“Is my name Dung Beetle?”
“What, then?”
“Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, Lady Coral.”
“We did not know… Lady Bürce in her crinkled silk, Lady Tirce in her gauzy silk, where are you going, Lady Coral?”
“To look for a little husband for myself.”
“Take me, then.”
“Your tail is long, you will beat me.”
“Whoever heard of a lady being beaten? I will not beat you. And besides, the Bey’s son’s wedding2 is coming soon. I shall bring you rice pilaf and sweets.”
“Very well, I shall take you then,” says the dung beetle. The rat goes off at once. He finds the imam and the headman. They perform a marriage. And from then on the two of them lived together and got along…
One day the drums began to beat for the Bey’s son’s wedding too. The rat got up:
“Wife,” he said, “let me go and bring you rice pilaf and baklava.”
“While you are there, let me go to the washing.”3 said the dung beetle. She had a washtub made of a walnut shell and a dipper made of a hazelnut shell; she took these with her, and on the way she fell down from the Women’s Crossing.4 Her walnut-shell washtub closed over her.
Now over the great bridge there came a horseman on a grey, riding to the Bey’s son’s wedding. A sound came to his horse’s ear from the Women’s Crossing. The horseman on the grey drew up and listened to hear what it was saying:
“Hey, grey-horse rider, grey-horse rider, rump like a kettle-drum rider!5 Quick, quick, get you to the wedding house, and say: the one with the long hair has fallen in the water.”
The horseman came to the wedding house:
“Friends,” he said, “there was a voice coming from the Women’s Crossing:
“Hey, grey-horse rider, grey-horse rider, rump like a kettle-drum rider! Quick, quick, get you to the wedding house, and say: the one with the long hair has fallen in the water.”
The rat caught the horseman’s words.
“That is our wife,” he said, and took to the road at once…
The rat came, and there he saw the dung beetle floundering about under the walnut-shell washtub.
“Give me your hand and let me pull you out,” he says. The dung beetle says:
“It is three days now that I have been cross with you.”6
Again the rat says, “Give me your hand and let me pull you out. Give me your hand and let me pull you out,” trying to draw the dung beetle out; and every time, the dung beetle answers:
“Three days now I have been cross with you. Cross with you.” And the rat says:
“Please yourself. I shall go off to the wedding house and see to filling my own belly,” and he tramples the dung beetle underfoot and goes on his way. He returns to the Bey’s son’s wedding, and eats and drinks and enjoys himself.
Translator’s Notes
- The Turkish is Bürümcekli Bürce kadın, Tirincekli Tirce kadın, Mercan kadın. Bürümcek and tirincek are both old names for kinds of crinkled or gauzy raw-silk cloth; Bürce and Tirce are invented names rhymed off them, and Mercan means coral. The grandeur is entirely in the sound — a beetle demanding to be addressed in silks and coral. English can carry the images or the rhyme, not both; the images have been kept. ↩
- Beyoğlu here is not the Istanbul district of that name but its literal sense: bey (lord) + oğlu (his son) — the local lord’s son, whose wedding is the great event of the tale. ↩
- Kaynar (here kaynara gitmek) is the communal boiling and washing that women did together before a wedding — as much a gathering as a chore. There is no single English word for it. ↩
- Kadınlar Atlamacı, “the Women’s Crossing” — a place where a stream was crossed on stepping stones. It is given as a proper place name in the tale. ↩
- The Turkish rhyme is Hey kır atlı, kır atlı. Götü davlumbaz atlı — literally “rider with a rump like a davlumbaz.” A davlumbaz is a broad, bulging hood or cowl. The line is deliberately crude and exists for its rhyme; the English keeps the insult and loses the rhyme. ↩
- The exchange in Turkish rhymes and is in a regional dialect form: Ver elini çekelek — Ben sana üç gün oldu küselek. The -elek ending is not standard Turkish; it is there to make the rat’s plea and the beetle’s refusal chime with each other, which is the joke. In English they can only be plain statements. ↩
Source
Boratav, Pertev Naili. Az Gittik Uz Gittik. Istanbul: Bilgi Yayınevi, 1969.
Translated from the Turkish. The Turkish original is published in this archive as Bok Böceği (Anadolu Masalı).
