#1
..A. CREATION
...B. CREATION AND THE FLOOD
...C. THE CREATION OF MAN
...D. AND E. THE FLOOD
...F. THE MANDAEAN NATION
...G. ANOTHER VERSION OF THE RED SEA STORY

#2--OF ABRAHAM AND YURBA

#3--HOW HIBIL ZIWA FETCHED RUHA FROM THE DARKNESS

#4--THE STORY OF QIQEL AND THE DEATH OF YAHYA

#5-- NEBUCHADNEZZAR`S DAUGHTER

#6--SUN STORIES

#7-- THE BRIDGE AT SHUSTER

#8-- THE FIRE-WORSHIPPER AND ADAM BUL FARAJ

#9-- HOW DANA NUK VISITED THE SEVENTH HEAVEN
#10-- THE MILLENNIUM

#11-- CONCERNING THE MOUNTAIN OF THE MADDAI AND HOW THE TURKS CAME TO TAKE IT

#12-- HOW THE MANDAI AND THEIR GANZIBRA LEFT THE MOUNTAIN FOR A BETTER COUNTRY

#13-- THE CHILD CONCEIVED ON THE 29th NIGHT OF THE MOON

#14-- THE KANSHI UZAHLA

#15-- THE HAUNTINGS

#16-- THE PLAGUE IN SHUSTER

#17-- THE STONE-THROWING

#18-- THE KAFTAR

#19-- BIBI`S SONS AND THEIR STRANGE ADVENTURE

#20-- SHAIKH ZIBID

#21-- OF BEHOLDING EVENTS IN TRANCE

#22-- HOW EVIL SPIRITS ABUSE THE DEAD, ETC.

#23-- MEN WHO HAVE RETURNED FROM DEATH, ETC.
#24-- OF THE POWER T0 SEE SPIRITS

#25-- THE SIMURGH: THE TRUE HISTORY OF RUSTAM AND HIS SON

#26-- HIRMIZ SHAH

#27--THE MAN WHO SOUGHT TO SEE SIN THE MOON

#28-- THE SIMURGH AND HIRMIZ SHAH
Oral Traditions and Folklore
#18---THE KAFTAR
We Subba say that there is an ogress that lives in the hills, called the kaftar. She is hairy like an animal but is made in the shape of a woman, and wears an 'aba' (cloak). When the moon is half full in the sky, the kaftar comes and seeks to play tricks on mankind. She is clever and learns languages very quickly. How does she acquire them! She listens at the doors of houses and learns the languages that she hears spoken by those who dwell in them, Persians, Arabs, Mandaeans, and others.

This is a favorite trick of the kaftar. She comer and knocks at the door of a woman before it is light, saying, "Come! it is dawn, let us go and milk!" (for the women go together to milk the herds at dawn of day). Then she takes those who follow her, not upon the road of milk (i.e. the way to the flocks), but to another place, misleading them, and, if they object, saying " But this is not the way!" she cries, "Come, come!" When they have reached a mountainous place, she throws them down from a height and breaks their bones.

The kaftar once came to Salim's grandmother and knocked at her door. It was when they lived in Shuster. The kaftar came, and knocking without, cried to her, "Bibi, Bibil" Her husband had warned Bibi against the kaftar, so she was not afraid, but answered, "Ha! who is it?" The kaftar said, "Rise! We will go and get milk!" Bibi remained where she was, for she saw it was moonlight and not dawn, and guessed it was a kaftar who summoned her.

So she cried, "Wait, and I will come!" She put a skandola on her finger and took a large needle in her hand, and began to open the door. The kaftar cried out, "What have you in your hand?"

Said Bibi, "Wait, don't be afraid!" but by the time she had unhasped the door the creature had fled.
The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran By E.S. Drower Clarendon Press, Oxford,1937  (Reprint Leiden:E.J. Brill 1962)  pages 349-350
Narrator: Hirmiz bar Anhar