The Wisdom of Kazakh Folktales: Ihlas the Truthful

Ihlas the Truthful

Once upon a time Ihlas, the great singer and kobyz player, was traveling from one place to another. He stopped by a single tree growing on the bank of a river. Having freed his horse to graze on the nearby grass, he sat in the shade of the tree to rest. Suddenly he noticed a bird circling the tree cheeping pathetically. Ihlas saw that among the branches of the tree was a nest full of chicks squeaking in desperation. Along the trunk of the tree he saw a snake was slithering towards the nest. Ihlas was touched by the plaintiveness of the mother of the chicks. He knocked the snake from the tree with his whip and, having killed it, threw it in the river. The bird returned to her chicks. And Ihlas thought: A predator is a predator. Whether he be a man or snake, he always wants to gobble up the weak! I will speak about this with the help of my kobyz strings so that people remember about the black deeds of any and all predators.

Translated from the Russian by Dr. Helen Faller
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