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Armenian Folk Tale Spells Out The Terms Of Gratitude


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ARMENIAN FOLK TALE SPELLS OUT THE TERMS OF GRATITUDE

by Amy Friedman

 

Cape Cod Times

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll...2090335/-1/NEWS

Dec 9 2008

MA

 

Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of six folk tales,

myths and legends drawn from the farthest reaches of the globe.

 

Long ago there was a man who heaved a carpet bag over his shoulder

and set off on a journey. He had been feeling weak and ill, and he

thought travel would be good for him. As he trudged along, he came to

a spring and saw water bubbling to the surface. He longed for a drink.

 

A group of women was gathered around the spring, filling their buckets,

and the traveler asked, "Would one of you spare some of that sweet

water to quench a man's thirst?"

 

"Go away," one of the women cried, and another echoed her words until

all of the women were shooing him away. All but one.

 

"Why, shall we not share our water?" she asked her friends, and she

filled her bucket and handed it to the man.

 

He drank with pleasure, and then he looked at the women again and

asked, "Does anyone have a place for a weary traveler to sleep?"

 

Again it was the generous woman who offered a corner of her house. She

led the stranger home, and when she introduced him to her husband,

he too welcomed the man. "Our home is yours."

 

Now the couple was poor, but when they sat down to eat, the man asked

for a big bowl of rice. When he finished the bowl, he asked for more

food -- he was very hungry. The woman fed him bowl after bowl, until at

last she had nothing else to feed him. "I'm sorry," she told the man,

"I cannot offer you another bite. We have nothing left."

 

They all went to sleep, but when the couple awoke the next morning,

the man was gone. When they opened their cupboards, they saw that

they were filled with sacks of rice and flour and beans, along with

buckets of berries and baskets of fruit.

 

The couple realized they had fed a special traveler. "Our visitor

was a wizard," they said, and they were grateful.

 

Meanwhile, the wizard continued on his journey. Soon, he passed a

man carrying a bundle of wood. "What are you doing?" the wizard asked.

 

"Eking out a living," said the poor woodsman. "There's nothing

more I can do." So the wizard turned the wood into a big, thriving

vineyard. "Tend your vines and prosper!" he cried, and went on his way.

 

Before long, he came to a man sitting in a grove of dying trees. "What

a fine orchard you have!" he said, and a moment later those dying

trees were thick and leafy and filled with fine, juicy apples.

 

The wizard cried, "Work and prosper, and long life to you!" Then he

walked on.

 

Before long, he saw a man carrying a sack of rocks on his back, sweat

pouring down his face. The wizard called out, "Brother, what a fine

flock of sheep you have," and sure enough, that bag of rocks turned

into a flock of fat sheep. "May you prosper," the wizard called as

he journeyed on.

 

Now the man with the vineyard and the man with the orchard and the

man with the flock of sheep were amazed, but they never gave a second

thought to the stranger.

 

A year passed, and the wizard, after walking through the land and

offering his gifts to many, decided it was time to return to where

he began his journey. He was well again.

 

So he turned around and started to retrace his steps. After a few days

he came across the shepherd he had helped, who sat by a fire. He was

roasting a lamb over the coals.

 

"Could you spare a taste for me?" the wizard asked the shepherd,

but the shepherd squinted up at him and said, "Have you helped me to

tend my flocks? Only those who work deserve to be paid."

 

The wizard walked on, whispering as he did, and behind him that flock

of sheep turned into a big bag of rocks.

 

A day later, the wizard came to the orchard, where many men were

picking apples. "Would you spare a bag of apples for a poor man?" he

asked the owner.

 

"I pay my men and offer no charity to the lazy," the orchard owner

said, and so the wizard walked on, but behind his back that orchard

turned into a field of barren trees.

 

Now he came to the vineyard, and seeing the field filled with workers,

he stopped to ask if he might pick a bag full of grapes.

 

The workers shook their heads. "Our master gives nothing away,"

they said sorrowfully, and so the wizard walked on, empty-handed,

but behind him the orchard vanished and in its place the workers saw

only a pile of wood.

 

And then the wizard reached the house where he had passed a pleasant

night a year before, and when he knocked on the door, the couple

opened it and smiled with delight. "Welcome," they cried, "we are so

glad you have returned. Please, come in and let us treat you. Whatever

you wish!"

 

The wizard smiled. "You are good people," he said, "and from this

moment on, each night you will find a sack of gold coins in your

cupboard. You will use them well, and you will always be happy."

 

And with those words the wizard bowed and departed.

 

 

 

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