Keloglan and the Dragon

Once upon a time, all the villages of a land drank from a single spring. The spring flowed out of a cave on the side of a mountain and became a stream that watered the plains. One day a seven-headed dragon settled in that cave. The dragon lay across the water with its huge body and cut it off. The fields began to dry up, and the animals bellowed with thirst.

The dragon made a demand: "Every week bring me forty sheep and forty jars of honey, and I'll let the water flow for one day." The villagers gave all their sheep, but each time the dragon let out only a handful of water and then cut it off again. The sultan proclaimed: "Whoever defeats the dragon shall marry my daughter." Wrestlers and knights with swords went up the mountain, but they could not stand the fire from the dragon's seven mouths and fled.

Keloglan's village ran out of water too. One night by the fire Keloglan asked his mother: "Mother, do dragons sleep?" "Every living thing sleeps, son. Why wouldn't one that listens to a tale?" said his mother. Keloglan's eyes lit up. The next morning he put a rug on his back, took a saz in his hand and climbed the mountain.

At the mouth of the cave the dragon was snoring loudly, but one of its seven heads always kept an eye open. When it saw Keloglan, all seven heads woke at once: "Who comes to my feet? I'll burn you with one breath!" Keloglan greeted it: "Master Dragon, I haven't come to burn you, but to entertain you. You're alone on this mountain. Aren't you bored? Let me tell you the longest tale in the world."

The dragon was surprised. Nobody had told it a tale for years. "All right," it said, "but if your tale is boring, I'll eat you." Keloglan spread out his rug, tuned his saz and began: "Once upon a time there was a barn full of millet. An ant came, took one grain and went away. Another ant came, took another grain and went away. Another ant came..."

The dragon's first head yawned. "And then?" "Another ant came, took one grain and went away." The second head yawned. Keloglan strummed his saz softly and went on in a gentle voice: "Another ant came... and there was still plenty of millet in the barn..." The third, fourth and fifth heads dozed off one by one. The sixth began to snore.

The seventh head, the one that always stayed awake, held out: "When will this tale end?" "When the millet in the barn runs out," said Keloglan. "There are thousands of grains left." And he began again: "Another ant came..." At last the seventh head's eye closed too. The dragon fell into such a deep sleep that the fire from its nostrils went out, leaving only a wisp of smoke.

Keloglan got up quietly. He carefully tied the dragon's tail to a rock and tied the rock with thick ropes to the trees at the top of the mountain. Then he lifted the stones from the mouth of the cave one by one. The water began to flow, first trickling and then rushing. The stream swelled and ran down towards the plain.

When the dragon woke to the sound of the water, its tail was tied and it was wet and cooled. All seven heads looked at Keloglan, but they were no longer angry. For the first time in years it had slept so well. "Bald boy," it said, "you beat me. But somehow I can't be angry." "I didn't beat you, Master Dragon," said Keloglan. "You had just forgotten to share the water with everyone, and I reminded you. If you like, I'll come every week and tell you a tale, and you won't cut off the water."

The dragon accepted. It moved away from the water and settled deep inside the cave. Every month Keloglan climbed the mountain and told it a new tale. The villages grew green again, the sultan kept his word, and the wedding lasted forty days and forty nights. At the very end of the wedding, seven joyful balls of fire rose from the mountain into the sky; the dragon was celebrating in its own way.

Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told this tale, one for the one who listened, and one for Keloglan, who sent a dragon to sleep with a story.