Stefan Yordanov

Compiling a catalogue of the fairy treasure of a given ethnic or local tradition is a noble task. It has high significance regarding the researchable priorities of folklore scholarship. Therefore, a catalogue of the plot types concerned should accompany each publication of new fairy tales. Hence, we have made an attempt below for cataloguing of Romani tales. We have referred (where it has been possible) to the conventional numbering of plot types in the universal catalogue of fairy plot types by Aarne and Thompson (using the abbreviation AaTh). The presentation of the fabulous treasure of the newly published tales has been based primarily on comparative study between Romani and Bulgarian folklore. There are two reasons for this: first, Romani tales are strongly influenced by Bulgarian fabulous tradition, and second, there is already a catalogue compiled (see BFPK) which detects the interaction between Turkish and Bulgarian tale. In addition, the catalogue includes references from the catalogue of Turkish plot types by Eberhard and Boratav. This comparison allows the exposition of the types in a broader Balkan context.

We can say in general that the fairy tales published are characterized by a specific, predominantly Balkan pattern. Therefore, they often differ significantly from the tales of Romani population in other European countries, e.g. those in the Czech Republic or Wales (compare Pavelcik, N. and J. 2001, p. 21 sqq.; Larson, J. R. 2000).
 
 

I. Typological and comparative analysis of plot types

I. 1. Tales about animals

1. The Sick One Carries the Healthy One

This is a universal fabulous plot of cumulative type based on fabulous plot types AaTh 1 + AaTh 2 + AaTh 3 + AaTh 4 + AaTh 2D. The plot type is also known from Turkish folklore but the variant published here follows the pattern characteristic for Bulgarian folklore. It is probably directly borrowed from the Bulgarian folklore.

2. The Wolf and the Little Bear-Cubs

I. The she-bear leaves the bear-cubs alone at home, the wolf decides to eat them. II. The wolf presents himself as the she-bear but he is recognized by his paws, the head, and the muzzle, respectively. III. The wolf enters and eats the bear-cubs after complete disguising. IV. The she-bear is looking for the wolf, the fox tells her where he is, the she-bear tears him apart.

A variant of plot type AaTh 123 or AaTh 123A. In Bulgarian variants of this plot type the eaten animals are goat-kids, lamb, a colt or fox-kids. Bear-cubs are not registered in the cataloged Bulgarian tales as heroes of this plot type. Compare BFPK), 63-64. Compare in Turkish tales – realization of this plot type in the story ‘The lambs Ajshe and Fatma,’ TS, 27-28.

I. 2. Magic and legendary stories

3. The wedding of the ninth brother

I. An old man and an old woman have nine children. Only the Ninth of them works. They do not manage to feed them. II. The children hit the road to earn their living. A blacksmith makes for the Ninth a sable which cuts everything. III. They spent the night on a meadow. Their mother has ordered them not to spend the night there. The Ninth fights a goblin with nine heads. He cuts eight of them. He does not cut the ninth because this would resurrect the goblin. IV. The Ninth goes in the dragon’s cave closed with iron gate. He finds a petrified town inside. V. He approaches a palace with nine petrified sisters. The youngest of them is only half-petrified. VI. he takes from the cupboard a book following the advice of the youngest sister and with the help of the former he calls a magic assistant, a black Arab. He sets the town free with his help. VII. The Ninth goes back together with the sisters but the eldest brother decides to kill him and cuts the rope with the help of which the Ninth should go out. The eldest brother marries the youngest sister and makes the eldest one his servant. VIII. The Ninth is ill for twelve months. After this he goes back to earth. His magic assistant, the black Arab, turns him to a wealthy man with golden clothes and a carriage. He stops the wedding and punishes the village and his brothers, the black Arab petrifies them. He marries the youngest sister.

The motif of acquiring a magic knife in plot course II has a Bulgarian parallel, compare AaTh 302 B, plot course I. The motif of infringing the instruction not to spend the night at a given place in plot course III has a compete analogue in fabulous plot AaTh *302 A** – plot course I. The story uses either a direct borrowing, or its ethnospecific variant and interweaves the latter in another plot complex. The motif of the iron gate to the other world from plot type IV has parallels in Bulgarian folklore but mainly in legends. The motif of the petrified town and the half-petrified maiden has a partial analogue in Bulgarian plot type AaTh 331. For the plot course VII compare the realization of plot type AaTh 301 A – B in Bulgarian fairy tales.

4. The Golden Apple and the Magic Walnuts

I. A king with three sons possesses a golden apple which fruit is stolen by some bird. II. The eldest and the second brothers unsuccessfully guard the apple. III. The youngest son watches it and manages to pick a feather from the bird. IV. The three brothers go to find the bird following three different directions. The eldest one becomes boza-maker, the second brother becomes mekitza-maker. V. The youngest son finds the bird in a golden cage in the palace of a king from a distant kingdom. VI. The youngest brother becomes an animal keeper in the palace instead of the incompetent servants who feed the swine with grass and the horses with meat. VII. He steals the golden cage but he is caught and imprisoned. VIII. The king’s daughter likes him, sets him free and he escapes with the cage. IX. On his way back he takes his brothers with him. X. They spend the night in a house where they meet a giant with three beautiful girls. The youngest brother kills the giant and they take the three beauties. XI. The jealous brothers throw the youngest one in a well but the beauty he is going to marry to gives him three walnuts. XII. The two brothers pretend they have found the bird and falsely accuse their younger brother. Their father passes an order on him to be caught and imprisoned. XIII. The youngest brother comes out of the well and hides in the house of a wealthy man in his father’s kingdom. XIV. His father arranges the marriage of the three beauties but the youngest wants a dress that can fit in a walnut shell. XV. The youngest brother gives such dresses to a tailor twice using the walnuts left by the beauty. XVI. The tailor confesses that he was not the man who sewed the dresses. The king is looking for the one who did it and using the third walnut the son proves his heroic deeds to his father. He marries the beauty and inherits the kingdom.

The story is almost identical to the Bulgarian folk tale ‘The Golden Bird’ (see BNT, volume 9, pass.; last publication: BNP, 39-47), from where it is borrowed: compare AaTh 550, BFPK, 203. The story has been a subject of retelling in the Bulgarian belles lettres since the 20^-ies of the 20^th century (see Ran Bosilek, 1923; Rajnov, N. 1924;). Therefore, the way to the domestication of the story as an oral plot should have been neither difficult, nor impossible. Instead of walnut shell in plot courses XI, XIV, XV, XVI we come across hazelnut shells in Bulgarian tales from this plot type. The image of horses fed with meat because of ignorance appears in plot course VI. In fact this is a universal pattern which counterpart in the paleobalkan mythological tradition is the image of the horses of king Diomed. They were fed with human meat (Apollod. Bibl., II, 5, 8). This analogue however is rather typological because in the folklore of modern times, including Bulgarian folklore, the motif of feeding with human meat also appears, see AaTh *311C, plot courses I and IIa (a cannibal makes a girl eat raw human meat; a cat is secretly fed with human meat).

5. A King and a Queen

I. Childless king and queen long for a child with the colour of snow and blood: white and red. II. The king looks for a cure for sterility. He meets a saint at the village fountain. The latter gives him an apple cut to four pieces. The pieces have to be eaten by the king, the queen, the mare, and the king’s horse. As a result the queen and the mare deliver a prince and a colt, respectively. They however have not to be named until the saint comes. III. The king makes a celebration of the naming ceremony. The saint comes and gives names to the prince and the colt. They are called Shaisma and Kamertyi. IV. When Shaisma grows up he goes hunting after a goat near the village fountain. V. Chasing the goat he goes underground where the goat turns to a beautiful girl. The mistress of the underground, an old woman, gives them protecting magic rings. VI. The father of the girl, Trukmin bey, however hates Shaisma’s father and flees together with his daughter to another country. VII. Shaisma goes to find the girl. He stops in a palace with many rooms. He eats from a plate with poisoned food but first puts the poison aside with the help of his ring. VIII. The mistress of the palace, Arabuziya, runs him into a competition for throwing a big mace. They have to plug it into the ground. He helps himself with the magic of the ring. IX. Arabuziya, the daughter of the old woman in the underground, tells fortune on Shaisma’s hand and foretells much blood, symbolizing great difficulties. X. He goes to the mice to ask them about Trukmin bey and his daughter. The chief mouse tells him where they are (Tiflikten). He tells him also that Trukmin bey wants to arrange the marriage of his daughter but she does not want and cries all the time. Her father has declared a reward for the one who makes her laugh. XI. Shaisma goes to Tiflikten, he sends an old woman with his ring hidden in a bowl of soup. The girl finds the ring in the soup and starts to laugh. She secretly sends a notice to Shaisma with the help of the old woman. They flee away from Trukmin bey. XII. Arabuziya puts on a magic mask and slashes their persecutors. They start to live happily.

Plot course I materializes the folklore-epic formula which introduces and describes in folklore the aesthetic pattern of beauty, often the beauty of a girl. In the particular case the child is desired to be white and red, as is the drop of royal blood on the snow from the wounded finger of the queen. The motif of the miraculous conception from an apple of a prince and his assistant (an animal) at the same time from plot course II is analogous to the same motif from plot course I in Bulgarian folk tales, plot type AaTh 302 B, 303, and so on. But, as mentioned in folklore literature (BFPK, 105), this motif is rarely registered in Bulgarian tales. It is present in the first plot course in the Turkish tale ‘The Donkey’s Head’ (classified as a realization of plot type AaTh 425 + AaTh 425 D, see ТS, 48-54), but in the course of another plot type different from the type of the Romani tale. Plot course X is based on plot type AaTh 559 in a specific realization which is not fixed in Bulgarian folklore and is probably original. Plot type AaTh 559 based on material from Russian tales is investigated in details by Vladimir Propp (Propp, V. Y. 1939, reprinted in: Propp, V. Y. 1976). Plot courses XI and XII develop the topic of the escape of the two young people from the girl’s father. For additional information on the logic and its distribution see Yordanov, St. 1998, 225-243.

6. A Story about the King-Warrior and the Fisher Big Head

I. A king punishes his pregnant wife for not bringing water in time. He throws her in a chest in the Danube River. II. The poor fisherman Big Head finds her. He starts to live with her and grows the king’s children. III. The children are marked: the girl has a star on the forehead, and the boy has a moon horn. They have the magic ability to turn grain into coins. IV. The boy expresses warrior affinity and his mother reveals his origin. V. The boy goes in his father’s kingdom. The king recognizes his children and takes them home together with his wife

Plot course I is unknown from Bulgarian tales. We can find the motif of the girl closed in a chest in Bulgarian plot type AaTh *311 C, plot course II и III. The motif of the chest approaching the bank of a river with the mother of two wonderful children is not developed there while the motif of a chest with the wonderful children themselves is quite familiar. The story presents a narrative realization of plot course II from plot type AaTh 707 (”The Wonderful Children“). The image of the hero Big Head from plot course II has a Bulgarian analogue where it is most probably borrowed from: plot type AaTh *775A develops the idea of the reasons for the big head of the hero. The hero receives this attribute in a moment when heaven opens (in the night against St. Jordan’s Day, as is believed in Bulgarian folklore tradition). Hence, on the basis of this belief most probably the hero from the Romani tales is also qualified as unordinary man. Compare BFPK, 274. In the Romani tales published here plot type AaTh *775A is presented as the first plot course in the story ‘Big Head’ (7.). Through the symbolism used in plot course III the heroes are presented as fairy-tale heroes, a relic from a solar-lunar myth. This symbolism is identical with the one used in the realization of plot type AaTh 707 in Bulgarian tales.

7. The Big Head

I. An old woman lives alone with her grandson. She orders the child to get up early on Atanasov Day and ask St. Atanas to give them altani. The child however says it in the wrong way and instead of ‘a jug of altani’ he receives a big head. II. The child goes in the army as a swineherd near the Danube. A chest with a queen inside approaches the bank of the river. III. He takes her to his grandmother’s home and she delivers there a boy with a star on the forehead and a girl with a moon horn on the forehead. They start to live together in a palace. IV. The Big Head yearns the living of his family with charcoal-burning in the forest. The boy expresses warrior talent. He finds out that he is a king’s son and goes to the capital. V. In the capital the boy demonstrates his ability to transform tossed grain into golden coins. VI. The boy reveals to the king that he is his son from his exiled wife. The king asks him for forgiveness and takes him back together with the queen. Only the empty palace is left for the Big Head.

The story represents a cumulative plot type similar to the published here Romani tale ‘A Story about the King-Warrior and the Fisherman Big Head’ (7.). See the notes above.

8. The Dream of the Cruel King

I. A cruel king makes his subjects serve him for minimal payment. II. He gathers servants, falls asleep on a meadow near a village, wakes up late in the night and goes to find a shelter, he is welcomed in a house outside the village. III. The hostess of the house is giving a birth to her ninth child. The king dreams that the same child would kill him in twenty years. IV. He takes the child as if he would grow him in the palace and make him his son-in-law. On his way he throws it into the river home. V. Instead of falling into the water the child hangs on a branch of tree. Shepherds find it there. At the age of ten it already lifts cans. VI. The king finds it again, takes it from the shepherds and sends it to the palace with a note the boy to be murdered. On his way the boy meets God in a hut. He replaces the note with another ordering to marry the lad to the king’s daughter. VII. The queen arranges the wedding but the king comes back and wants the lad to fulfill a dangerous task: to bring water from the king’s fountain which is guarded by soldiers. They are ordered to kill everyone who approaches. VIII. The queen saves the boy twice, giving him water from another fountain and describing him the king’s fountain - big with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout. IX. Describing the fountain the boy pretends that the guardians have fallen asleep. The king goes to check and they kill him. The lad marries his daughter

The story presents a variant of the Bulgarian tale ‘Najden’ (found) (AaTh 930, BFPK, 342-343, last publication: BNP, 101-103), it is highly probable that it was borrowed. There are identical plot courses in the Romani and Bulgarian variant of this plot type but at the same time there are differences in the major personages. The main characters in ‘Najden’ are a priest and the child of an innkeeper where the priest spends the night. There are also differences in plot courses VII, VIII, IX. In ‘Najden’ the innkeeper’s child is sent to the egrek, but it is late and the shepherds from the egrek kill the priest who goes to check what has happened. Both, the description of the fountain and the episode are similar to a literary source by Angel Karalijchev that is probably influenced by folklore.

9. The Boy and the Giant Oh

I. A father takes his son to make him an apprentice, stops near a well and involuntarily calls the giant Oh living in the well. II. The son becomes an apprentice of the giant Oh who lives in the underworld. He starts to teach him magic. III. The daughter of the giant warns him that her father would kill him in the end and the boy escapes. IV. Using magic he helps his father to get rid of poverty – he transforms himself to an animal, his father sells him but without the halter, in the night he turns to a human being again and comes back. The father sells the boy once as a ram and a second time as a horse. V. On the third time the boy turns to a cow but his father sells him from greediness with the halter to the giant. VI. The giant prepares to slaughter the boy but his daughter sets him free again. VII. Turned to a cow the boy runs from the giant. To escape he transforms first to a hen, then to a bird. VIII. The giant catches him but his daughter kills him with fire from her mouth and then marries the boy.

The tale is a variant of plot type AaTh 325 (‘The Devil and his student’) fixed without any significant differences compared to variants popular in Bulgarian folklore tradition where the plot is probably borrowed, compare BFPK, 121-122, and the literature pointed there. This plot type is widespread also in Turkish folklore. A literary way for borrowing the tale or vise versa is also possible, compare with the story ‘The Devil and his Apprentice’ (Rajnov, N. 1992, I, 36-44).

10. The Horse with a Star on the Forehead

I. A king is marrying a second time. The stepmother wants to get rid of the stepson who has a true friend, a horse with a star on the forehead. II. The stepmother makes poisoned bread but the horse warns the prince not to eat from it. III. The stepmother puts a snake under the pillow but the horse warns the prince. IV. The stepmother puts needles in the bed but the horse warns the prince. V. The stepmother wants to kill the horse first, she pretends to be ill and wants his liver. VI. The king is just about to slaughter the horse but the prince flees with him to a foreign kingdom, marries the local princes and builds a big stable for the horse.

The story presents realization of plot type AaTh 532, widespread in Bulgarian folklore. Furthermore, the plot type is well-presented in Turkish folklore. The plot course shortly presents the content of plot courses II and III from the Bulgarian plot type which contains a detailed description of the further obstacles of the hero and his magic friend, the horse.

11. The Horses Talk

I. At the age of thirty the prince is still single and his parents urge him to find a bride. II. He finds three sister, the youngest is the most beautiful. Each of them promises him something if he marries her: the eldest – to weave clothing for the whole army; the second sister – bread for the whole army, the youngest one promises him a child with a moon and a sun on the forehead. III. The youngest sister becomes his wife and gives birth to a child with a moon and sun on the forehead. The jealous sisters however replace the child with kittens. They put the baby in a chest and throw it into the river. The king’s wife is buried alive to the neck into the ground. IV. An angler finds the chest with the child and buys him the colt of the mare that knows the story of the king’s son. V. The boy goes to free his mother following the advice of the colt talking like a man. The father recognizes him by the birth-mark on his forehead. VI. They liberate the mother and the mare who starts to talk and defines the punishment for the two jealous sisters: to be torn to pieces by horses.

The story presents realization of plot type AaTh 707, ‘The Wonderful Children’ closely following the plot type characteristic for the Bulgarian and Turkish tradition, respectively AaTh *707C. Talking horses have a key place in this plot but their appearance in plot courses IV and VI is not reasoned by the logic of the action. The angler has bought in fact the colt of the king’s mare, therefore it knows the story of the king’s son. In Bulgarian stories from this plot type plot course III is given in more details. The Romani tale is probably borrowed from Bulgarian folklore. Quite similar is the typology (AaTh 707) of a story of Vidin Turkish ‘The sultan and the three maidens’ (compare ТS, 293-299) but it differs from the published one in some significant details.

12. A Girl of Gold and Silver

I. The old woman does not give salt to the old man. Her house made of salt melts after his asking God but he shelters her in his own house. II. They have many children but the children eat much and the old people decide to expel them. III. They abandon the children in the forest. IV. God helps them to survive by turning clay into bread and building them a hut. V. The girl starts to clean him from lice and he turns her into a girl of gold and silver. Her brother becomes a hunter to earn their living. VI. She looks for fire and she comes across a witch, the mother of a dragon. The dragon finds the hut of the brother and sister after the traces of the ashes. He starts to torture the sister. VII. The brother kills the dragon. VIII. The witch is looking for her son. She finds out who has killed him and turns the lad into a donkey. IX. The lad, a donkey, and the sister, disguised as a man, become king’s servants. X. The king’s son recognizes the girl and tries her whether she is a boy or a girl at the market place. XI. In a fight he finds out she is a woman and marries her. XII. After his order the witch turns the lad into a human again. The king punishes her by 40 knives and 40 horses that tear her apart.

Plot course I responds to fabulous type AaTh 43 from Bulgarian folk tales but it is introduced by a different motivation and unstable logical reasoning. It is popular in Russian tales as well (see SUS – VS, 57). Plot course III (Children abandoned in the forest), but introduced by another motivation has a complete analogue in Bulgarian tales of plot type AaTh 315 (see. BFPK, 116). The abandoning of children because of poverty or the insisting of an evil stepmother in Bulgarian tales builds the first plot course in plot type AaTh 327 A. Plot course IV finds an analogue in Bulgarian tales of plot type AaTh 750 D; AT *750 F. In the original variant of the Romani tale the object of the magic is not clay but excrements. In Bulgarian folklore the same motif, turning excrements into bread, has been presented in legends as well. (see Legendi, 111). At the same time the contamination of this plot pattern with the former is typical for Bulgarian tales, compare BFPK, 116. Plot course V presenting abandoned children who earn their food by hunting has also parallels in Bulgarian tales, e.g. plot course I of plot type AaTh 303. In Romani tale however it is interwoven in a plot model. Plot courses VI and VII correspond to plot course II of plot type AaTh 315. the story characters and their plot courses included in the Romani tale before these plot courses follow the Bulgarian ones based on fabulous plot type AaTh 315. In Bulgarian tales however type AaTh 315 contaminates with character types different from the ones this fabulous type is contaminated with in the Romani tale. This creates the impression of an individual plot development of the story, even of domestication of the Bulgarian folklore type. In plot course VIII the transformation of the donkey is realized by a comb from the witch. They use it for combing their hair. The original function of the comb is slightly different in Bulgarian folk tales: in fabulous types AaTh 313 H* and AaTh 314 the comb is used as an obstacles on the way of the persecutors at the escape of the heroes chased by a cannibal, giant, or a dragon. The way the gender of the hero is tested reminds of the way Ahil is tested when dressed in woman’s clothes he hides among the daughters of Likomed to escape going to the army in Greek mythology (e.g. compare Hyg. Fab., 96). The motif is a typical motif of initiation.

13. A Story about the Golden Girl

I. A father marries a second time. The stepmother wants to get rid of the stepchildren, a boy and a girl. II. The father takes them to the forest to chop trees and abandons them there III. The boy takes care of the girl, God helps him to turn mud into bread and build a hut. IV. They go back to their father. V. The king’s son falls in love with the stepdaughter and finds her by the shoe. VI. On their way to the palace the stepmother replaces the girl with her own daughter. She blinds the stepdaughter and throws her in the cattle-shed. VII. The king’s son throws the stepmother and her daughter in jail. He finds the blinded girl and gives her eyes back. He punishes the evil people by dragging them tied to a horse’s tail around the whole kingdom.

Plot course III (Children abandoned in the forest) finds its analogue in Bulgarian tales of type AaTh 315, plot course I. The motif of recognizing the chosen one by her shoe (plot course V) is most probably a borrowing (via literature) from the story by Charles Pero and the Grimms ‘Cinderella.’ But unlike the following story the motif here is isolated from the logic of the whole story. The same motif can be found in the Bulgarian realization of plot type AaTh 510A (”Mara Cinderella“), plot course IV. Plot courses VI and VII present the realization of plot type AaTh 403 which is well-known both in Bulgarian and in Turkish folklore.

14. The Stepdaughters

I. A poor widower marries twice and gathers in his home his own daughter and his stepdaughter. II. The prince falls in love with the beauty (the orphan). The stepmother tries to cheat him. She does not allow her stepdaughter to wash her face and presents her daughter as the beauty dressing her in beautiful clothes. III. The king finds out this and invites both of them to a ball he is organizing. The stepmother however sends only her own daughter. IV. A magician woman gives the orphan a carriage and beautiful clothes to go to the ball. V. The prince dances only with her. On the next day he finds her near the spring and marries her promising her to save her from poverty.

A variant of plot type AaTh 510A. Compare notes to the story ‘A Story about the Golden Girl’ (13.), here, above.

15. The Wealthy Man’s Son and the Poor Girl

I. Poor parents do not allow their daughter to marry a wealthy man’s son and to protect her they climb her on a high poplar near the spring. II. The lad arrives on his horse. The horse notices the shadow of the girl in the water. The lad can not make her climb down. III. With the help of a trivet, a washing tub, and dirty clothes an old woman entices the maiden to come down from the poplar. IV. The lad assures himself that she is a hard-working girl and they make a 40-days wedding.

The story is a realization of plot type AaTh 450 well-known in Bulgarian folklore but only at plot course IV.

16. The Old Woman, the Old Man an the Many Children

I. Childless old man and old woman have many children from a broken gourd but can not feed them. II. They decide to drown them but a brother and a sister find out about their intention and hide themselves. III. The old people regret about their deed, accept the survived children as their own and live happily.

The plot is similar to the plot of the story ‘Children born of pumpkin’ (17.). The motif of appearance of children from a gourd or pumpkin is not registered in Bulgarian tales and can be regarded as an original Romani one.

17. Children Born of Pumpkin

I. A childless couple buys a pumpkin from the market. Many children jump out of the pumpkin. II. The woman prepares a loaf of bread but it is hardly enough for the children. There is none for the man and getting angry he starts to beat them. They run away. III. One girl hides in the oven. The regretting woman finds her there and she becomes their daughter. IV. When the girl grows up she marries a wealthy husband and they build a house for the old people. They live happily

See the notes to the story ‘The old woman, the old man, and the many children’ (16.), here, above.
 
 

I. 3. Religious tales

18. The Myth about Noah

Tells about the three sons of Noah, whose names, partially shifted, are interpreted ethnoetimologically. The story goes on with a retelling of the Biblical issue about Jacob (Genesis, chapter 27).
 
 

I. 4. Novel Stories

19. A Tale about the Barrel

I. A wise father retells a story when he is breathing his last. II. An oak tree from the forest is chopped, processed, and cut to boards. A barrel is made from them. People make wine in it and sell it to Roma. One hoop however breaks and the barrel falls apart. III. The children do not guess the moral of the story. IV. The father explains the moral: the forest is the state, the barrel is the family, the staves are the family members, the hoops are concord, and wine – joy and good life. His order is to preserve the staves.

20. Blood is Stronger Than Water

I. A childless king secretly adopts a Romani child following the advice of his vizier. He takes a child from vretenari-kopanari (spindle and wooden bowl makers). II. Twelve years later the child becomes a king. Once seeing willows he immediately likes them for spindles and wooden bowls. Therefore the moral is that blood is thicker than water.

The story is a variant of plot type AaTh *2112A*, ”The Gypsy King” presents this type in Bulgarian folklore.

21. A Kinsman of God

I. A wealthy man does not want to die and he becomes a kinsman of God to escape death. II. God comes to take him to the other world but he runs away and hides in a mill. III. People come to the mill to grind flour and knock on the door. The man thinks that God has found him here and dies of fear.

22. I Blocked My Luck Myself

I. A king decides to see how his subjects live. Disguised as a peasant he goes to a gypsy shoe-maker. II. The gypsy explains why he sings ‘I blocked my luck myself’: He dreamt he was in heaven and an angel showed him people’s fountains of luck. The fountains of the priest and the wealthy man were flowing strong but his own one was hardly dropping. He tried to clean it and blocked it completely. III. The king decides to help him and sends him a loaf of bread full of golden coins. He however changes it with the innkeeper for a double portion of black bread. IV. The king sends him a roasted chicken full of golden coins but the shoe-maker changes it again for bread. V. The king leaves on the bridge which the gypsy passes every day a purge of golden coins but this time the shoe-maker passes the bridge with closed eyes. VI. The shoe-maker dreams again that his fountain flows strongly. On the morning the innkeeper brings him the money he had found in the bread and the chicken.

The tale presents a realization of plot type AaTh *947B**, ”Luck is like the spouts of a fountain,” plot course I in contamination with plot types AaTh 946 D* and AaTh 947A. This combination of plot types and the specific realization of plot type AaTh 946 D* is not found in Bulgarian folklore. It can be possible that different elements of the plot have been borrowed from Bulgarian folklore because plot type AaTh *947B** is a typical Bulgarian one but later they have been combined and interpreted in original way.

23. The Lazy Man

I. A lazy man does not want to work, people shout at him. To get rid of this he wants to die. II. Carrying him to the cemetery people offer him grain to make him change his mind. He does not want the grain not ground. III. They take him to the cemetery but a working man disguises as the Devil and makes him work during the night until he drops down of fatigue. Instead of payment he beats him. IV. Scared from the hard life on the other world the lazy man comes back and starts to work.

The tale is a realization of plot type AaTh 1951 and finds a complete analogue in the Bulgarian variants of this plot type.

24. The Girls Who Were Washing Wool

The bad girl replies with bad words to God and he punishes her. The good girl replies with good words and she is rewarded.

A variant of the Bulgarian fabulous plot AaTh *480⁴, where it is probably borrowed from.
 
 

I. 5. Anecdote tales

25. A Story about the Mad and the Smart Brother

I. Two brothers, a mad one and a smart one rob Turkish men and take a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins. II. They light a fire and the mad man throws the incense inside although the smart brother warns him not to do it. III. They hide on a tree from the persecutors who come attracted by the smell of incense. But the bags are heavy and the mad man throws them on the ground although the smart brother warns him not to do it. The persecutors accept the bags as God’s gift. IV. They find the men hiding on the tree and the smart brother pushes the mad man down. While the Turkish beat the mad man the smart one runs away.
 
 

I. 6. Legends

26. The Ancient People, the Magic Powers and the Drought

I. There was a time when people, different from present-day people. They lived long and they were literate, they wrote on stones. II. A dragon has locked the waters in a cave. A maiden makes the dragon fall asleep by the mean of pepper. She uses three mice to turn aside the Night Mother and set the waters free.

We find in the legend the motif of the dragon who stops the waters to receive a gift – a young maiden. In Bulgarian folklore this pattern has a detailed plot realization in plot type AT 300.

27. The Moon

It is made after man is created. The first people, different from the people od today, were called zhi-ratzi. Granny Lechikovitza heals with moonlight washed in the basin where she kneads the moon every night

The short story presents a relic of the lunar myth with interwoven elements of an anthropogonical myth which are not however preserved in their plot completeness. We come across a literary influence in the name of the first people which is in fact an ethimological Romani interpretation of the term ‘priest’ (zhretz > zhi-ratzi). The belief that the first people were different from the contemporary is familiar to Bulgarian folklore tradition, as well, compare, for instance, Marinov, D. 1994, 230. The motif of the moonlight washed in a basin has a close parallel in Bulgarian feast tradition related to moon-conceptions. People used to welcomed the new moon with dances and songs. They had to hold money or bread in their hands. They took them home after the ceremony (money were replaced with basin of water if there were not any, i.e. the vessel in which the preserved moonlight is taken home). (See Marinov, D. 1994, с. 47).

28. Saint Basil’s Day (Bango Vassili)

The story reflects either a folklore belief that Bango Vassili comes to the table at his feast in the form of a dog, or a novelistic explanation of the poor feast table

29. A Parable about Bango Vassili

The shepherd Bango (Crooked=limping) Vassil saves a Romani man who is chased by non-Romani.

Ethiological parable. The hero has the characteristic of a limping character typical for initiation myths.

30. A Parable about Ihtimya

God will strike any young father who does not slaughter a rooster for his child and does not spread the blood over the door.

The parable has ethiological character explaining the customs origin of the feasts Ihtimya and Rooster’s Day. The sacrifice of a rooster is typical for Bulgarian customs, compare bibliography in: Traditzii, obichai, obredi, praznitzi. Bibliography. Stara Zagora, 1993, 99-100.

31. Bashnuv Day

The Turkish go to massacre Roma. A gypsy woman hides her three-years-old son and spreads rooster’s blood over the door. The soldiers think that the child there has been already killed. Therefore, Roma celebrate Bashnuv Day.

Ethiological parable about the origin of the feast. The replacing victim is reasoned by a retelling of the Biblical myth about the massacre of the infants.

32. A Myth about People

I. God makes people of clay and bakes them in the way pottery is baked. The first people are baked too much and they become black. II. The second portion is taken out too early – these are the white people. III. The third group are Roma, their colour is good, just as it has to be.

33. The Gypsies through the Red Sea

Darij leads his people to a save place. They have to cross the Red Sea. On Darij’s request God opens the sea in the middle. Haughty Darij however provokes God and the latter closes the sea. Most of the Gypsies are drowned. The survivors spread around the world. Therefore, gypsies do not have a state. The moralistic aplomb of the story which presents the God closing the Red Sea as a punishment for the Romani king’s lordiness, leads to breaking the plot line of the biblical prototype. In the archetype God punishes the Egyptians persecuting the Jews of Moses while in the legend the chosen and the punished people are identical.

34. Shibilis – the Romani King

A king from the past. He cuts the Big river with his sward to make a path for Roma. An unbeliever takes his head but it rolls breaking a trail for his soldiers.

35. A Legend about Shibil

Shibil is the Romani king. He wants to pass the water with his troops and cuts it with his sward. His head rolls talking long after his beheading. Other people say that the king is called Pharaoh.

36. A Parable about the Lost Alphabet

A variant of Bulgarian folklore plot AaTh *1303*. It is elaborated as an innovative plot including the motif of crossing the big river. Pheron is unclear name, adaptation of the historical title ‘pharaoh’ that probably entered Romani folklore via literature, compare the appearance of a king called Pharaoh in the “Parable about Shibil’ published here (35.).

37. Why Roma do not Have a Church

A variant of Bulgarian fabulous motif AaTh *1303*. Bulgarian church defined as made of gold is an original element in the adaptation of the motif. Compare the original motif in Bulgarian tales about outwitting for the mosque in Istanbul made of cheese and circled by a fence of sausages.: AaTh 1920A, plot course IIк, BFPK, 604.

38. The End of Romani State

All elderly people take turn in being kings. Then comes the turn of Pis (Mad) Memish. The end of the Romani state comes with his enthroning.

39. A Legend about Kotel

A memoir about the escape from the Turkish. The story concerns probably some raid against Kotel. The only house that survives the fire is one where a Romani woman is giving a birth to a child.
 
 

I. 7. Memoirs

40. Short Stories about the Kaldarashi

41. Stories of the Bakardjii from the village of Kardam, Popovo.

Memoirs containing ethnographic data.
 
 

Alphabet:
– why Roma do not have an alphabet: 36;

Altani (Turkish golden coins)
– a child wants to bag altani from St. Atanas, he gets a big head instead: 7, I; See also: golden coins.

Angel:
– an angel shows the gypsy shoe-maker his fountain of luck: 22, II;

Angler:
– finds a chest with a king’s son with a moon and sun on the forehead thrown in the river: 11, III; buys a mare and a horse for the king’s son found in a chest in the river: 11, IV;

Apple:
– its eating helps for conceiving of the king’s child and the horse: 5, II; golden apple guarded from a bird that steals its fruit: 4, I;

Apprentice:
– a father makes his son an apprentice of a giant called Oh, a teacher in magic: 9: I, II; the daughter of the giant warns the apprentice for the forthcoming death: 9, III; the giant’s daughter sets the apprentice of the giant free: 9, VI;

Arab:
– a black Arab – the magic assistant of the hero: 3, VI;

Arabuziya:
– the daughter of the mistress of the underworld from the story A King and a Queen (5);

Ashes:
– the dragon finds the hut of the expelled children following the traces of the ashes from the fireplace: 12, VI;

Atanas, Saint:
– gives a big head to the child that has mistaken the object of its prayer: 7, I;

Atanasovden (the Day of St. Atanas)
– on this day children should pray early in the morning: 7, I;

Ball:
– a prince invites to a ball the daughters of a poor man and his second wife.: 14, III; a prince organizes a ball, he dances only with a beauty – a stepdaughter: 14, V;

Barrel:
– barrel made of boards of oak-tree: 19, IV; a wealthy man hides from death in a barrel in a mill: 21, II;

Bird:
– comes from the other world to pick up the fruit of the golden apple: 4, I; an apprentices of the giant-magician turns to a bird: 9, VII;

Birth-mark:
– the children of an exiled queen are marked with a star and moon horn on the forehead: 6, III; 7, III; a prince (stepson of the queen) has a horse with a birth-mark – a star on the forehead: 10, I; the child of the king’s son has a birth-mark - a moon and a sun on the forehead, his father recognizes him after the birth-mark: 11: II, V;

Blinding:
– a stepmother blinds her stepdaughter and throws her in the cattle-shed: 13, VI;

Blood:
– the child is red like blood: 5, I; omen for difficulties: 5, IX; ; a gypsy woman saves her three-year-old child by spreading rooster’s blood over the door: 31; adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles, the moral is that blood is thicker than water: 20, II;

Book:
– the magic assistant is called with its help: 3, VI;

Boza-maker:
– the eldest of three brothers does not look for the ravisher of the golden apple, becomes a boza-maker: 4, IV;

Branch:
– abandoned child is hanged on a branch, shepherds find it: 8, IV;

Bread:
– a king sends bread and a roast chicken full of golden coins to help a gypsy shoe-maker without luck, the gypsy man changes them for more bread: 22: III, IV;

Bride groom:
– genuine bride – recognized by the knowledge to make clothes that can fit in a walnut shell: 4, XIV;

Bridge:
– a king puts a purse of golden coins on the bridge for the gypsy shoe-maker without luck , he passes by with closed eyes: 22, V;

Brother, the eldest:
– unsuccessfully guards the golden apple from a bird that steals it: 4, II; does not look for the ravisher of the golden apple, becomes a boza-maker: 4, IV;

Brother, the second one:
– unsuccessfully guards the golden apple from a bird that steals it: 4, II; does not look for the ravisher of the golden apple, becomes a baker: 4, IV;

Brother, the youngest:
– successfully guards the golden apple: 4, III; thrown in a well by his jealous brothers: 4, XI;

Brother:
– a brother and a sister hide from the drowning of the many children, childless old woman and old man accept them as their own: 16, III;

Bulgarians:
– the Bulgarian church is made of gold: 37;

Cage:
– of gold – the habitat of the bird stealing the golden apple: 4, V;

Can:
– a child – the future king, grown by shepherds, lifts a can when he is ten years old: 8, V;

Carriage:
– a magician woman gives beautiful clothes and a carriage to the beauty, the stepdaughter, to go to the ball: 14, IV;

Cattle-shed:
– a stepmother blinds her stepdaughter and throws her in the cattle-shed: 13, VI;

Cave:
– the habitat of the dragon: 3, IV; dragon and the Night mother have locked waters in a cave, a maiden sets them free: 26, II;

Charcoal-burning:
– the hero earns the living of an exiled queen and her children with charcoal-burning: 7, IV;

Chest:
– the king’s wife is thrown in a chest in the Danube: 6, I; a swineherd who has found an exiled queen in a flowing chest in the Danube river takes her to his grandmother’s house: 7, II; prince’s child with a moon and a sun on the forehead is thrown in a chest in the river: 11, III;

Children:
– many children, it is difficult to grow them: 3, I; many children chased away because of impossibility of their parents to grow them: 17, II; abandoned in the forest because of impossibility of their parents to grow them: 12, II, III; king’s children grown by a fisherman called the Big Head: 6, II; a king and a queen wish for long for a child and acquire it in a magic way: 5: I, II; the ninth child of nameless parent will become a king after twenty years: 8, III; shepherds grow an abandoned child which was foretold to become a king: 8, IV; prince’s child with a moon and a sun on the forehead is thrown in a chest in the river: 11, III; the wife of the prince – buried alive to the neck for not delivering a child: 11, III; children left by their father in the forest, the stepmother does not want them: 13, II; a gypsy woman saves her three-year-old child by spreading rooster’s blood over the door: 31; children do not get the moral from the story told by their wise father: 19, III; childless old woman and old man acquire many children from a gourd, cannot feed them: 16, I; old woman and old man have many children, cannot feed them, drown them: 16, II; brother and sister hide from the drowning of many children, childless old woman and old man accept them as their own: 16, III;

Church:
– Roma make a church of cheese, eat it, therefore they do not have a church: 37; Bulgarian church is made of gold: 37;

City:
– petrified city in the dragon’s cave: 3, IV;

Clay:
– God turns it into bread: 12, IV;

Clearing:
– one nobody has to sleep on: 3, III; See also: meadow

Clothe:
– the eldest sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him to weave clothes to dress the whole troop: 11, II;

Clothes:
– that fit in a walnut shell, a mean to recognize the genuine bride groom: 4, XIV; stepmother does not give nice clothes to her stepdaughter, presents her own daughter as the more beautiful one: 14, II; beauty – stepdaughter does not have beautiful clothes to go to the ball, the magician woman gives them to her: 14, IV entices the maiden to come down from the poplar with the help of a trivet, a tub, and some clothes for washing: 15, III;

Cow:
– the apprentice of a giant-magician turns into a cow: 9, VII;

Cure:
– the stepmother wants the liver of the horse with a star on the forehead, a friend of the king’s son, pretending it is for cure: 10, V; Granny Lechikovitza uses moonlight as a cure: 27;

Darij:
– Darij leads Roma to a save place, at his request God opens the Red Sea to let them go, God drowns Roma because of his lordliness, since then they do not have a state: 33;

Death:
– a wealthy man is afraid of death: 21, I; a wealthy man hides from death in a barrel in a mill: 21, II;

Devil:
– a working man pretends to be the devil to make a lazy man work, beats him instead of paying him: 23, III;

Dog:
– eats the Romani alphabet: 36; comes to eat from the feast food: 28;

Donkey:
– witch turns a lad into a donkey: 12, VII;

Dragon:
– arranges his marriage to the sister, he is killed by the brother: 12, VI, VII; inhabits a cave, holds petrified nine sisters: 3, IV; dragon and the Night mother have locked waters in a cave, a maiden sets them free by making the dragon asleep with the smell of a pepper, draws away the Night mother with the help of three mice: 26, II;

Dream:
– a king falls asleep in on a meadow near the village where his future heir is born: 8, III; dragon has locked waters in a cave, a maiden sets them free by making the dragon asleep with the smell of a pepper: 26, II; a gypsy shoe-makers sees in his dream the fountain of luck and blocks it: 22, II;

Elderly people:
– all elderly people take turn to be rulers: 38;

Excrements:
– God helps children abandoned by t heir parents in the forest, turns mud (excrements) to bread: 13, III;

Eyes:
– the prince gives back the eyes of his future wife: 13, VII;

Family:
– a barrel symbolizes the family in a wise story: 19, IV; the staves of a barrel in a wise story symbolize family members: 19, IV;

Father:
– wise father tells a story with a moral: 19, I;

Fear:
– a wealthy man who is hiding from the death in a mill dies of fear when the millers come and knock on the door: 21, III;

Feather:
– from a bird that steals the golden apple – a mean to find the habitat of the bird: 4, III;

Fifteen:
– the prince’s son goes to set free his mother at the age of fifteen, his father recognizes him by the birth-mark: 11, V;

Fire
– Turkish set Kotel on fire, the only house that survives is the one where a Romani woman is giving a birth: 39;

Fire:
– a daughter kills her father, a giant, with fire: 9, VIII; Jacob was fiery man, his name is formed of the Romani words: jac and ob: 18;

Fisherman:
– Big Head is the name of a fisherman who shelters the expelled king’s wife with her children: 6, II;

Forest:
– the forest in a wise story symbolizes the state: 19, IV;

Forty:
– a wealthy man’s son makes a forty-days marriage: 15, IV;

Fountain of luck:
– gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream his fountain of luck and blocks it: 22, II; gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream that his fountain of luck starts to flow, the pub-owner gives him a purse of golden coins sent by the king: 22, VI;

Fountain, village:
– they meet a saint near the village fountain, he advises them how to have a child: 5, II; a king’s son starts hunting after a girl turned to a goat near the village fountain: 5, II; a fountain with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout guarded by soldiers: 8, VII, VIII;

Fox:
– a hero of an universal plot about outwitting with the man and the wolf: 1; tells the bear where the wolf is hiding after he had eaten her bear-cubs: 2, IV;

Funeral:
– the wife of the prince – buried alive to the neck for not delivering a child: 11, III;

Gate:
– for the dragon’s cave, made of iron: 3, IV;

Giant:
– giant and three beautiful girls inhabit a lonely house: 4, X; a giant named Oh inhabits the underground world (a well), a teacher of magic: 9: I, II;

Giving a birth, magic:
– from gourd: 17, I; the Turkish set Kotel on fire, the only house that survives is the one where a Romani woman is giving a birth: 39;

Goat:
– the (wild) goat the king’s son is hunting after near the rural fountain is a transformed girl: 5: IV, V;

Goblin
– with nine heads: 3, III;

God, Lord:
– punishes a girl washing wool for her rude answer: 24; rewards a girl washing wool for her good words: 24; God inhabits a hut on the way of the future king to the capital of the kingdom: 8, VI; God changes a notice with order to kill the child of nameless parents with a notice to marry him to the king’s daughter: 8, VI; God helps children abandoned by their parents in the wood, turns mud (excrements) into bread, makes them a hut: 13, III; God makes people of clay in the way pottery is baked, the white and black people – not baked good, gypsies – just as it has to be: 32; a wealthy man becomes God’s kinsman to escape death: 21, I;

Gold:
– a girl is rewarded with gold by God for her good words in response to his question: 24; Girl of gold and silver: 12, V; clothes made of gold, gifted to hero by his magic assistant: 3, VIII; golden apple, stolen by a bird: 4, I; golden cage – the habitat of the bird stealing the golden apple: 4, V; a fountain with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout guarded by soldiers: 8: VII, VIII; the Bulgarian church is made of gold: 37;

Golden coins:
– grains turned to golden coins: 7, V; a king sends bread and a roast chicken full of golden coins to help a gypsy shoe-maker without luck, the gypsy man changes them for more bread: 22: III, IV; two brothers, a mad man and a crazy man rob the Turkish and take a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins: 24, I; a king puts a purse of golden coins on the bridge for the gypsy shoe-maker without luck, he passes by with closed eyes: 22, V; gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream that his fountain of luck starts to flow, the pub-owner gives him a purse of golden coins sent by the king: 22, VI; See also: altani.

Gourd:
– childless old woman and old man acquire many children from a gourd, can not provide them with food: 16, I;

Grain:
– wheat grain is turned to money in a magic way: 6, III; grain turned to golden coins: 7, V; they offer grain to a lazy man, he does not want it not ground: 23, II;

Grass:
– used for feeding the swine due to ignorance: 4, VI;

Halter:
– a father sells his transformed to animas son but without the halter: 9, V, VI; the apprentice of the giant is sold with the halter and he is locked by the giant: 9, V;

Hanan:
– Noah’s son (in fact: Ham) was born to be a slave to his brothers: the name comes from han and an, i.e. ‘dig, carry’ 18;

Head:
– Big Head is the name of a hero who shelters the expelled king’s wife: 6, II; a child wants to bag altani from St. Atanas, he gets a big head instead, this becomes his name: 7, I; unbeliever cuts the head of the Romani king Shibil(is), it rolls long after the beheading, his head was breaking a trail for his soldiers: 34; 35;

Hen:
– apprentice of a giant-magician turns into a hen: 9, VII; a king sends bread and a roast chicken full of golden coins to help a gypsy shoe-maker without luck, the gypsy man changes them for more bread: 22: III, IV;

Hoop (of a barrel):
– the hoops of a barrel break and the barrel falls apart: 19, II; the hoops in a wise story symbolizes concord, they have to be kept: 19, IV;

Horse:
– the witch is torn to pieces by forty horses: 12, XII; horses feed with inappropriate food, with meet: 4, VI; apprentice of a giant-magician turns into horse: 9, V; talking horse with a star on the forehead is close friend of the king’s son: 10, I; talking horse with a star on the forehead warns the prince not to eat from the poisoned bread: 10, II; talking horse with a star on the forehead warns the king’s son about the snake put under his pillow by the stepmother: 10, III; talking horse with a star on the forehead warns the king’s son about the needles put in his bed by the stepmother: 10, IV; the stepmother wants to kill the horse – a friend of the king’s son: 10, V; the inaugurated king’s son builds a big stable for his friend – talking horse with a star on the forehead: 10, VI; an angler buys a horse and a mare for the child of the king’s son found in a chest in the river: 11, IV; the child of the king’s son goes to free his mother when he is fifteen years old following the advice of the horse: 11, V; they drag with horses the stepmother and her daughter around the whole kingdom for blinding the future wife of the prince: 13, VII; the horse of the wealthy man’s son finds the daughter of poor parents hidden in the poplar in her shadow in the water of the spring: 15, II;

House:
– a lonely house inhabited by a giant and three beautiful girls: 4, X; house of salt, it is melted: 12, I;

Hunting:
– chased children earn their living by hunting: 12, V; a king’s son is hunting after a girl turned to a goat: 5, IV;

Hut:
– inhabited by God: 8, VI; God helps children abandoned by their parents in the forest, makes them a hut: 13, III;

Illness:
– abandoned brother in the dragon’s cave is ill for twelve months: 3, VIII;

Incense:
– two brothers, a mad man and a smart man rob Turkish men, they take from them a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins: 24, I; they burn the incense and thus attract the persecutors: 24, II;

Innkeeper:
– gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream that his fountain of luck starts to flow, the pub-owner gives him a purse of golden coins sent by the king: 22, VI;

Iron:
– iron gate – an entry to the dragon’s cave: 3, IV;

Israel:
– the name comes from Izail, i.e. hairy: 18;

Jacob:
– Jacob was fiery man, his name is formed of the Romani words: jac and ob: 18;

Jail:
– a king’s son is set free form the jail by the king’s daughter, his future wife: 4, VIII; the king’s son throws the stepmother and her daughter in jail for blinding his wife: 13, VII;

Joy:
– the wine from a wise story symbolizes joy and good life: 19, IV;

Kamertyj:
– the horse of the king’s son Shaisma from the story A King and a Queen (5);

King:
– a king and a queen wish for long for a child and acquire it in a magic way: 5: I, II; a cruel king makes people serve him for a low payment: 8, I; a cruel king gathers servants: 8, II; a king falls asleep in on a meadow near the village where his future heir is born: 8, III; the ninth child of nameless parent will become a king after twenty years: 8, III; a king pretends he would make the ninth son of nameless parents his son-in-law: 8, IV; a king sends a notice with an order to kill the messenger in order to prevent him from taking the power: 8, VI; guards watching the fountain kill the old king: 8, IX; marries twice, his new wife wants to kill the prince: 10, I; a mad man becomes a king, destroys the Romani state: 38; all elderly people take turn to be r: 38; childless king adopts a Romani child after the advice of his vizier: 20, I; adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles: 20, II; a king dress like a peasant to see how his subjects: 22, I; a king sends bread and a roast chicken full of golden coins to help a gypsy shoe-maker without luck, the gypsy man changes them for more bread: 22: III, IV; a king puts a purse of golden coins on the bridge for the gypsy shoe-maker without luck, he passes by with closed eyes: 22, V;

King’s children
– kings children, grown by a fisher called the Big Head: 6, II;

King’s daughter:
– God changes a notice with order to kill the child of nameless parents with a notice to marry him to the king’s daughter: 8, VI; a child of nameless parents marry to the king’s daughter: 8, IX; the king’s son flees in a foreign kingdom, marries to the local king’s daughter: 10, VI;

King’s son:
– tries a dressed up girl what her gender is: 12, X; marries a girl expelled by her parents: 12, X; an exiled king’s son expresses leadership talent: 7, IV; a king marries twice, his new wife wants to kill the prince: 10, I; has a close friend – a horse with a star on the forehead: 10, I; the king’s son flees in a foreign kingdom, marries to the local king’s daughter: 10, VI; At the age of thirty the prince is still single, his parents urge him on finding a wife, he goes to find a wife: 11, I; the youngest sister promises the kings son a child with a birth-mark on the forehead, it is replaced with kitten: 11, III; the second sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him a loaf to feed the whole troop: 11, II; the eldest sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him to weave clothes for the whole troop: 11, II; the wife of the prince – buried alive to the neck for not delivering a child: 11, III; the prince’s son goes to set free his mother at the age of fifteen, his father recognizes him by the birth-mark: 11, Vhe likes the stepdaughter, recognizes her by the shoe: 13, V; the king’s son throws the stepmother and her daughter in jail for blinding his wife, give her eyes back: 13, VII; the prince convicts the stepmother and her daughter who have blinded his future wife to be dragged by horses all over the kingdom: 13, VII; likes the daughter of a widower who had married twice: 14, I; invites to a ball the daughters of a poor man and his second wife: 14, III a prince organizes a ball, he dances only with a beauty – a stepdaughter: 14, V; the king’s son finds the beauty, a stepdaughter, who he had danced with at the ball, by the spring: 14, V;

Kingdom:
– the youngest brother hides in the house of a wealthy man in his father’s kingdom: 4, XIII; a king’s son inherits his father’s kingdom: 4, XVI; the king’s son flees in a foreign kingdom, marries to the local king’s daughter: 10, VI;

Kinsman:
– a wealthy man becomes God’s kinsman to escape death: 21, I;

Kitten:
– the youngest sister promises the king’s son a child with a birth-mark on the forehead, the child is replaced with kittens: 11, III;

Knife:
– a king punishes a witch with the means of forty knives: 12, XII;

Kopanari (wooden bowl-makers)
– a king adopts a Romani child from Roma wooden-bowls-and-spindle-makers (Kopanari-Vretenari): 20, I;

Laughter:
– a girl who has not laughed for a long time has to be made to laugh: 5, X;

Laziness:
– a lazy man goes to the other world not to work: 23, I; they offer grain to a lazy man, he does not want it not ground: 23, II; a working man pretends to be the devil to make a lazy man work, beats him instead of paying him: 23, III; frightened from the great amount of work on the other world, the lazy man starts to work: 23, IV;

Lichikovitza, Granny Lichikovitza:
– Every night Granny Lechikovitza kneads moon in a washbasin full of water. She uses the moonlight washed in the water to heal sick people: 27;

Life:
– the wine from a wise story symbolizes joy and good life: 19, IV;

Lion:
– a fountain with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout guarded by soldiers: 8: VII, VIII;

Liver:
– a stepmother wants the liver of a horse with a star on the forehead, a friend of the prince, pretending to use it a as cure: 10, V;

Loaf of Bread:
– it could hardly feed the many children of poor parents: 17, II; stepmother wants to kill the prince with poisoned bread: 10, II; the second sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him a loaf to feed the whole troop: 11, II; God helps children abandoned by their parents in the wood, turns mud (excrements) into bread, makes them a hut: 13, III;

Lordliness:
– because of Darij’s lordliness God drowns many gypsies and since then they do not have a state: 33;

Luck:
– gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream his fountain of luck and blocks it: 22, II; gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream that his fountain of luck starts to flow, the pub-owner gives him a purse of golden coins sent by the king: 22, VI;

Mace:
– a competition for throwing a mace, plunging it into the ground: 5, VIII;

Mad man:
– two brothers, a mad man and a smart man rob Turkish men, they take from them a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins: 24, I; becomes a king, destroys the Romani state: 38;

Magic assistant:
– black Arab: 3, VI; horse – magic assistant: 10, IV; 11: IV, V;

Magician woman:
– gives beautiful clothes and a carriage to the beauty (the stepdaughter) to go to the ball: 14, IV;

Mare:
– delivers a horse together with the delivering of the king’s son by the queen: 5, II; angler buys a horse and a mare for the child of the king’s son found in a chest in the river, the mare knows the story of the child: 11, IV; they tear the jealous elder and second sisters with horses following the advice of the mare mentioned above: 11, VI;

Marriage:
– to a rich husband, puts the end of the poverty: 17, IV; of the prince to the prince from a foreign kingdom: 10, VI; of a widower, remarriage: 13, I;

Mask, magic:
– the mistress of the palace helping the king’s son puts a mask on her face before killing his persecutors: 5, XII;

Meadow:
– a king falls asleep in on a meadow near the village where his future heir is born: 8, III;

Meat:
– inappropriate food for horses: 4, VI;

Metamorphosis:
– a wolf tries to present himself as the she-bear to eat the bear-cubs: 2; a hunted (wild) goat turns to a maiden: 5, V; wheat grains turn to golden coins: 7, V; a boy who has studied magic turns consecutively into a ram, horse, and a cow: 9: IV, V; running from the giant the boy who has studied magic turns consecutively into a hen and a bird: 9, VII; a witch turns a lad into a donkey: 12, VIII;

Military commander:
– an exiled king’s son expresses leadership talent: 7, IV;

Mill:
– a wealthy man hides from death in a barrel in a mill: 21, II;

Money:
– produced from grain through magic transformation: 6, III;

Moon:
– king’s son – marked with a moon horn on the forehead: 6, III; the daughter of an exiled queen – with a moon horn on the forehead: 7, III; it is made after man was created: 27; Every night Granny Lechikovitza kneads moon in a washbasin full of water. She uses the moonlight washed in the water to heal sick people: 27; – the youngest sister promises the king’s son a child with a moon and a sun on the forehead, the child is replaced with kittens: 11, II, III;

Moral:
– wise father tells a story with a moral: 19, I; children do not get the moral of the story of the wise father: 19, III;

Mouse:
– the king of the mice, the head mouse helps the hero in the quest for his future wife: 5, X; The Night mother, who has locked the waters in a cave, is turned aside with the help of three mice: 26, II;

Mud, clay:
– God helps children abandoned by their parents in the forest, turns mud (excrements) into bread: 13, III; Makes people of clay in the way pottery is baked: 32;

Name:
– should not be given before the saint allows: 5, II;

Needles:
– talking horse with a star on the forehead warns the king’s son about needles left by the stepmother in his bed: 10, IV;

Night mother:
– a dragon and the Night mother have locked the waters in a cave, a maiden sets them free by making the dragon asleep with the help of pepper, she is turned aside with the help of three mice: 26, II;

Nine:
– ninth in the sequence, the youngest brother is a hero named Ninth: 3; nine sisters are kept in the petrified city in the dragon’s cave, the ninth brother frees them: 3, V; the cutting of the ninth head can resurrect the goblin: 3, III; the ninth child of nameless parents will become a king after twenty years: 8, III;

Note:
– a king sends a notice with an order to kill the messenger in order to prevent him from taking the power: 8, VI; God changes a notice with order to kill the child of nameless parents with a notice to marry him to the king’s daughter: 8, VI;

Oak:
– chopped to make barrel of it: 19, II;

Old man:
– an old woman and an old man have nine children and can hardly grow them: 3, I; old woman does not give salt to an old man, her salty house melts, the old man shelters her: 12, I; childless old woman and old man have many children from a gourd, they can not feed them: 16, I; old woman and old man have many children, they can not feed them, they drown them: 16, II; a brother and a sister hide from the drowning of the many children, childless old woman and old man accept them as their own: 16, III;

Old woman:
– an old woman and an old man have nine children and can hardly grow them: 3, I; the owner of an underground – the home of the future wife of the prince: 5, V; gifts the prince and his future wife with magic rings: 5, V; lives alone with her grandson, orders him to pray to St. Atanas: 7, I; a swineherd who has found an exiled queen in a flowing chest in the Danube river takes her to his grandmother’s house: 7, III; old woman does not give salt to an old man, her salty house melts, the old man shelters her: 12, I; entices the maiden to come down from the poplar with the help of a trivet, a tub, and some clothes for washing: 15, III; childless old woman and old man have many children from a gourd, they can not feed them: 16, I; old woman and old man have many children, they can not feed them, they drown them: 16, II; a brother and a sister hide from the drowning of the many children, childless old woman and old man accept them as their own: 16, III;

Oven:
– an expelled child of poor people hides in the oven: 17, II;

Palace:
– in the dragon’s cave where the petrified sisters are kept: 3, V; with many rooms, their owner puts the hero to test and makes him find his future wife: 5, VII; a swineherd and an exiled queen live in a palace: 7, III;

Payment:
– a cruel king makes people serve him for minimal payment: 8, I; a working man pretends to be the devil to make a lazy man work, beats him instead of paying him: 23, III;

Peasant:
– a king dress like a peasant to see how his subjects live: 22, I;

People:
– there was a time when people lived long: 26, I; God makes people of clay in the way pottery is baked, the white and black people – not baked good, gypsies – just as it has to be: 32; the first people were called zhi-ratzi (=zhretzi = priests?): 27;

Pepper:
– dragon has locked waters in a cave, a maiden sets them free by making the dragon asleep with the smell of a pepper: 26, II;

Pharaoh:
– a Romani king: 35;

Pheron:
– a Romani king: 36; See also: Pharaoh

Poison:
– the hero does not eat poison: 5, VII; the stepmother wants to kill the prince with poisoned bread: 10, II;

Poplar:
– poor parents do not give their daughter to the son of a wealthy man, they hide it in a poplar near the spring: 15, I;

Pottery:
– God makes people of clay in the way pottery is baked, the white and black people – not baked good, gypsies – just as it has to be: 32;

Poverty:
– an apprentice of a great magician helps his parents against poverty turning into an animal for sale: 9, VI; a prince marries to a beauty – a stepdaughter promising her to save her from poverty: 14, V; marriage to a rich husband puts the end of poverty: 17, IV; poor parents do not give their daughter to the son of a rich man: 15, I;

Priest:
– his fountain of luck in heaven flows very strong: 22, II;

Priests (zhretzi):
– the first people were called zhi-ratzi (=zhretzi = priests?): 27;

Pumpkin:
– many children are born of it: 17, I;

Punishment:
– old woman does not give salt to an old man, her salty house melts: 12, I; a king punishes a witch with the means of forty knives: 12, XII; a black Arab petrifies the jealous brothers: 3, VIII; a queen is thrown in a chest in the Danube: 6, I; God punishes the bad girl for her evil answer: 24; the wife of the king’s son – buried alive to the neck in the ground for not delivering a child: 11, III; the jealous sisters are torn to pieces after the advice of the talking mare: 11, VI; the prince throws the stepmother and her daughter in jail for blinding his wife: 13, VII; the prince convicts the stepmother and her daughter who have blinded his future wife to be dragged by horses all over the kingdom: 13, VII;

Queen:
– a king and a queen wish for long for a child and acquire it in a magic way: 5: I, II; a swineherd who has found an exiled queen in a flowing chest in the Danube river: 7, II;

Ram:
– the apprentice of a giant-magician turns into a ram: 9, V;

Red Colour:
– the child is red like blood: 5, I;

Resurrection:
– Cutting the ninth head leads to the resurrection of the goblin: 3, III;

Reward:
– the good girl is rewarded by God for the good answer: 24;

Rich man:
– his fountain of luck in heaven flows very strong: 22, II;

Ring:
– a gift from the mistress of the underground where the hero finds his future wife, there are two for both heroes: 5, V; prevents from poisoning: 5, VII; helps in the competition for throwing weights: 5, VIII; a magic mean that makes the girl who is sad about her bridegroom laught: 5, X;

River:
– prince’s child with a moon and a sun on the forehead is thrown in a chest in the river: 11, III; Roma pass the Great river (water): 34; 35; 36;

Roma (gypsy)
– Shibil(is) – a Romani king: 34; 35; Pharaoh – a Romani king: 35; Roma pass the Great river: 34; 35; 36; Why Roma do not have an alphabet: 36; Roma make a church of cheese, eat it, therefore they do not have a church: 37; Pheron – a Romani king: 36; a mad man becomes a king, destroys the Romani state: 38; Turkish set Kotel on fire, the only house that survives is the one where a Romani woman is giving a birth: 39; Darij leads Roma to a save place, at his request God opens the Red Sea to let them go, God drowns Roma because of his lordliness, since then they do not have a state: 33; God makes people of clay in the way pottery is baked, the white and black people – not baked good, gypsies – just as it has to be: 32; the Turkish start to massacre the R: 31; a gypsy woman saves her three-year-old child by spreading rooster’s blood over the door: 31; Sim is Noah’s son, Roma are his descendants because me sim is first person, singular of the personal pronoun ‘I’: 18; wine from a barrel is sold to Roma: 19, II; childless king adopts a Romani child after the advice of his vizier: 20, I; adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles: 20, II; a gypsy shoe-makers sees in his dream the fountain of luck and blocks it: 22, II; a king sends bread and a roast chicken full of golden coins to help a gypsy shoe-maker without luck: 22: III, IV; a king puts a purse of golden coins on the bridge for the gypsy shoe-maker without luck, he passes by with closed eyes: 22, V; gypsy shoe-maker sees in his dream that his fountain of luck starts to flow, the pub-owner gives him a purse of golden coins sent by the king: 22, VI; a shepherd called Bango (Crooked = Limping) Vassil saves a Romani man chased by non-Romani people: 29;

Rooster:
– a gypsy woman saves her three-year-old child by spreading rooster’s blood over the door: 31;

Sable:
– cuts everything: 3, II;

Saint:
– gives a magic cure for childlessness: 5, II;

Salt:
– a house made of salt: 12, I; old woman does not give salt to an old man, her salty house melts: 12, I;
See also: clearing

Selling:
– a father sells his transformed to animas son but without the halter: 9, V, VI;

Sense, smart:
– two brothers, a mad man and a smart man rob Turkish men, they take from them a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins: 24, I;

Servant:
– a brother and a sister, expelled children – king’s servants: 12, IX; a cruel king makes people serve him for a low payment: 8, I; a cruel king beats the servants: 8, II; incompetent servants does not know to feed the swines: 4, VI;

Shadow:
– the horse of the wealthy man’s son finds the daughter of poor parents hidden in the poplar in her shadow in the water of the spring: 15, II;

Shaisma:
– the king’s son from the story ‘A King and a Queen’ (5);

Shepherd:
– shepherds grow an abandoned child which is foretold to become a king: 8, IV; a shepherd called Bango (Crooked = Limping) Vassil saves a Romani man chased by non-Romani people: 29;

Shibil(is)
– a Romani king: 34; 35;

Shoe:
– he likes the stepdaughter, recognizes her by the shoe: 13, V;

Shoe-maker:
– a gypsy shoe-makers sees in his dream the fountain of luck and blocks it: 22, II;

Silver:
– a girl is rewarded with silver by God for the good answer she gives him: 24; a girl of gold and silver: 12, V;

Sim:
– Noah’s son, Roma are his descendants because me sim is first person, singular of the personal pronoun ‘I’: 18;

Sister, the eldest:
–arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him to weave clothes to dress the whole troop: 11, II; the jealous second and eldest sisters are torn to pieces by horses after the advice of the talking mare: 11, VI;

Sister, the second:
– the second sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him a loaf to feed the whole troop: 11, II; the jealous second and eldest sisters are torn to pieces by horses after the advice of the talking mare: 11, VI;

Sister, the youngest
– the youngest is the most beautiful, she promises the kings son a child with a birth-mark on the forehead, it is replaced with kittens: 11: II, III;

Sister:
– a brother and a sister hide from the drowning of the many children, childless old woman and old man accept them as their own: 16, III;

Slave, slavery:
– Noah’s son (in fact: Ham) was born to be a slave to his brothers: the name comes from han and an, i.e. ‘dig, carry’: 18;

Snake:
– talking horse with a star on the forehead warns the king’s son about a snake left by the stepmother under his pillow: 10, III;

Snow:
– the child is white like snow: 5, I;

Soldier, warrior;
– a soldier working as a swineherd takes a chest from the Danube with an exiled queen inside: 7, II; soldiers guard a fountain with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout, they kill whoever approaches: 8: VII, VIII; the soldiers guarding a fountain kill the old king: 8, IX; the Romani king Shibil(is) is beheaded, his head was breaking a trail for his soldiers: 34;

Son-in-law:
– a king pretends he would make the ninth son of nameless parents his son-in-law: 8, IV;

Spindle:
– adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles: 20, II;

Spindle-makers:
– a king adopts a Romani child from Roma wooden-bowls-and-spindle-makers (Kopanari-Vretenari): 20, I;

Spout:
– a fountain with marble lions at both sides and a golden spout guarded by soldiers: 8: VII, VIII;

Spring:
– the king’s son finds the beauty, a stepdaughter, who he had danced with at the ball, by the spring: 14, V; poor parents do not give their daughter to the son of a wealthy man, they hide it in a poplar near the spring: 15, I;

Stable:
– the inaugurated king’s son builds a big stable for his friend – talking horse with a star on the forehead: 10, VI;

Star:
– king’s daughter – marked with a star on the forehead: 6, III; the son of the chased queen – marked with a star on the forehead: 7, III; talking horse with a star on the forehead is a close friend of the king’s son: 10, I;

State:
– a mad man becomes a king, destroys the Romani state: 38; leads Roma to a save place, at his request God opens the Red Sea to let them go, God drowns Roma because of his lordliness, since then they do not have a state: 33; the forest from a wise tale is a symbol of the state: 19, IV;

Stave (of a barrel):
– the staves of a barrel from a wise story symbolize the family members: 19, IV;

Stepmother:
– a stepmother chases her stepchildren: 13, I; blinds her stepdaughter, throws her in the cattle-shed: 13, VI; a stepmother does not give beautiful clothes to her stepdaughter, presents her own daughter as the more beautiful one, does not let her stepdaughter to go to the ball of the prince: 14, II;

Sun:
– the youngest sister promises the kings son a child with a birth-mark on the forehead, it is replaced with kittens: 11: II, III;

Sword:
– a Romani king cuts the river (water) into two with his sward to make a path for his troops (soldiers): 34; 35;

Swine:
– swine from the other world fed with grass: 4, VI;

Swineherd:
– a swineherd who has found an exiled queen in a flowing chest in the Danube river: 7, II;

Tailor:
– can not sew clothes that feet in walnut shell: 4, XV, XVI;

Ten:
– a child – the future king, grown by shepherds, lifts a can when he is ten years old: 8, V;

The Danube:
– the king’s wife is thrown in a chest in the Danube: 6, I; a soldier-swineherd finds in a chest that has come along the Danube a queen and shelters her: 7, II;

The Red Sea:
– God divides it into two for Roma to pass: 33

Thirty:
– At the age of thirty the prince is still single, his parents urge him on finding a wife, he goes to find a wife: 11, I;

Three:
– three beautiful girls and a giant inhabit a lonely house: 4, X; three king’s sons guard the golden apple: 4, I; the king’s son receives from his future wife three magic walnuts: 4, XI; three sisters are arranging their marriage to the king’s son: 11, II; a gypsy woman saves her three-year-old child by spreading rooster’s blood over the door: 31; the Night mother who has is turned away with the help of three mice: 26, II;

Tiflikten:
– the name of the place (city, kingdom?) where the future prince’s wife and her father from the story ‘A King and a Queen’ are hiding (5);

Traveling:
– over the world for earning living: 3, II; Darij leads Roma to a save place, at his request God opens the Red Sea to let them go, God drowns Roma because of his lordliness, since then they do not have a state: 33;

Tree:
– two brothers, a mad man and a wise man, rob Turkish people, hide from the persecutors on a tree: 24, III;

Trivet:
– an old woman ntices the maiden to come down from the poplar with the help of a trivet, a tub, and some clothes for washing: 15, III;

Troops:
– the second sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him a loaf to feed the whole troop: 11, II; the eldest sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him to weave a clothe to dress the whole troop: 11, II;

Trukmin bey:
– the father of the future wife of the king’s son from the story ‘A King and a Queen’: (5);

Tub:
– entices the maiden to come down from the poplar with the help of a trivet, a tub, and some clothes for washing: 15, III;

Turkish:
– two brothers, a mad man and a smart man rob Turkish men, they take from them a bag of incense and a bag of golden coins: 24, I; the Turkish start to massacre the Roma: 31; the Turkish set Kotel on fire, the only house that survives is the one where a Romani woman is giving a birth: 39;

Twelve:
– the brother abandoned in the dragon’s cave is ill for twelve months: 3, VIII;

Twenty:
– the ninth child of nameless parents will become a king in twenty years: 8, III; adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years: 20, II;

Unbeliever:
– the Romani king Shibil(is) is beheaded, his head is rolling for a long time and breaking a trail for his soldiers: 34; 35;

Underground:
– the habitat of the girl transformed to goat: 5, V;

Vizier:
– vizier advises a childless king to adopt a gypsy child: 20, I;

Walnut:
– a prince receives from his future wife three magic walnuts: 4, XI; clothes that fit in walnut shells - the way to recognize the genuine bride groom: 4, XIV;

Water:
– the child of nameless parents has to bring water from a fountain guarded by soldiers killing whoever tries to approach it: 8: VII, VIII; adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles, the moral is that blood is thicker than water: 20, II;

Wealth, wealthy man:
– hides the king’s son until he proves he is right: 4, XIII; poor parents do not give their daughter to the wealthy man’s son: 15, I; a wealthy man becomes God’s kinsman to escape death: 21, I;

Weaving:
– the eldest sister arranges her marriage to the king’s son, promises him to weave clothes to dress the whole troop: 11, II;

Wedding:
– the son of a wealthy man makes a wedding which lasts for forty days: 15, IV;

Well:
– the youngest brother – thrown into the well by his jealous brothers: 4, XI;

White colour:
– the child is white like snow: 5, I;

Willow:
– adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles: 20, II;

Wine:
– wine from a barrel is sold to Roma people: 19, II; the wine from a wise story symbolizes joy and good life: 19, IV;

Wisdom:
– wise father tells a story with a moral: 19, I;

Witch:
– mother of the dragon arranges a marriage for the dragon to a girl chased by her parents: 12, VI; revenges for her killed son: 12, VII;

Wolf:
– a hero of an universal plot where he is cheated by the fox: 1; eats the little bear-cubs who have left alone at home by changing his appearance: 2, I – III; the she-bear tears the wolf to pieces for eating her children: 2, IV;

Wooden bowl:
– adopted Romani child becomes a king after twenty years, he sees willows, likes them for making wooden bowls and spindles: 20, II;

Wool:
– girls wash wool: 24;

Work, hard-working:
– the son of a wealthy man assures that the poor maiden is a hard-working one, makes her his wife: 15, III; a lazy man goes to the other world not to work: 23, I; frightened from the great amount of work on the other world, the lazy man starts to work: 23, IV;

World, lower (underworld)
– it is inhabited by the giant Oh (a well), a teacher in magic: 9: I, II; a lazy man goes to the other world not to work: 23, I;

World, upper:
– the world where people live:: 3, VIII;

Writing:
– there was a time when people were able to write on stone: 26, I;