The Horse-Devil and the Witch

In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, both scholars listed the variants with the horse husband under one type: TTV 98, "Der Pferdemann" ("The Horse Man"),[lower-alpha 1] which corresponded in the international classification to tale type AaTh 425.[15][lower-alpha 2] In a later book, Boratav stated that the Catalogue registered 25 variants, but six more had been collected since its publication.[16]

In most of the variants collected, the supernatural husband is a horse, followed by a man with a donkey's head and a camel. In other tales, he may be a snake, a frog or even Turkish hero Kaloghlan.[17]

In a variant collected by Ignác Kúnos and translated as Shah Bender, three princesses cast their lot with apples, in a contest to find their husbands. The youngest throws hers and it lands near a donkey. They marry and the donkey reveals he is a prince named Shah Bender, and warns his wife that she must not share their secret. The next day, he takes part in his father-in-law's tournament as a mysterious knight and defeats his opponents. Out of pride, the princess tells her family it is her husband. He vanishes. She seeks him out and finds an ogress, who gives her a walnut and sends her on her way. The event happens twice more, and she gains a lemon and a pomegranate. One day, the princess reaches a kingdom with three castles, a servant comes out of each of them and she bribes them with the fruits to spend a night at the castle. She also cleans a bloodied shirt. Her mother-in-law begins to mistreat her: she forces the girl to sweep the floor on penalty of death, and to fill a kettle with her tears. Finally, Shah Bender's mother betrothes him to another girl and forces the princess to bear ten candles tied to her fingers. Shah Bender notices her fingers are burning, but she answers it is her heart that is. Shah Bender tosses the candles on the false bride, rescues his princess and both escape in a transformation sequence. The third and final form they shapeshift into is a cypress (the princess) and a seven-headed monster (Shah Bender).[18]

In another variant, published by folklorist Pertev Boratav (fr) with the title Çember-Tiyar (Tschember-Tiyar), a sultan with three daughters marries the two elders to human princes. As the youngest is still single, she is the only one to give grapes to their favorite horse and the only one he responds to affectionately. The sultan marries his third daughter to the horse, who is an enchanted prince. She promises to keep his secret. On a tournament, the horse prince appears in red vestments on a red horse and defeats his brothers-in-law, and on the next day on white garments. She betrays the secret and burns the horse skin. The enchanted prince becomes a dove and flies away. The princess follows after him and reaches the house of an ogress (a dev), his mother, who orders her to perform difficult tasks for her, including sweeping and not sweeping the floor, getting a sieve from a distant neighbour, filling a teapot with her tears and filling mattresses with bird feathers. Finally, Çember-Tiyar's mother betrothes him to another girl; on the wedding day the ogress mother ties the princess to a pole and places ten wax candles on her fingers and one on her head. As she begins to be set on fire, Çember-Tiyar replaces her for his bride and the couple escape in a "Magic Flight"-type sequence, by throwing objects behind them, and lastly, by turning the princess into a tree and Çember-Tiyar into a snake coiled around it.[19][20][21]

In another variant, published by folklorist Naki Tezel (tr) with the title At Koca ("The Horse who was in Love"), a judge with three daughters has a horse that looks emaciated and sick. A doctor states that it is in love, so the remedy is to find him a bride. The horse chooses no human maiden, but the judge's youngest daughter. They marry and she discovers he is a human prince named Tahir Bey. Her sisters and friends mock her for marrying an animal, but one day she decides to tell them he is an enchanted prince, and to see with their own eyes. When she returns home, her husband has disappeared. She goes on a quest for him, first accompanied by a retinue, then on her own. She reaches a place with two houses, one of gold and the other of silver. She talks to a coming servant who is getting water for master (Tahir), and the judge's daughter drops her ring in the water jug. Tahir notices the ring and brings his wife to his house, and presents her to his mother, an ogress. Wanting to get rid of his daughter-in-law, the ogress sends the girl to the ogress's sister to retrieve a flute and a drum - a trap set to kill the maiden. She leaves unscathed due to a magical ring his husband gave her. Finally, noticing his mother will not rest until she kills her daughter-in-law, Tahir Bey escapes with his wife by transforming themselves in objects.[22][23]

In a tale collected by Barbara K. Walker with the title The Princess and the Red Horse Husband, a padishah summons his three daughters to plan their marriage: they should stay at the palace's balcony and throw a golden apple at her prospective husbands. The elder sisters are betrothed to humans; the youngest throws a ball and hits a red horse. She repeats the action, with the same results. She marries the red horse. That night, he reveals he is human, after all, but begs her to stay as a horse during the day and not to reveal anything to her sisters, for he is "the fairy giant king's son". One day, her sister mock her again for her strange choice of husband, and she, fed up, decides to show them the truth, by having them spy on him through a keyhole. The sisters convince her to burn his horse skin; he becomes a dove and flies away. She asks her father to fashion a pair of iron shoes and decides to go after him. After a hole is made in her iron shoes, her husband appears and turns her into a apple, to bring it to his mother's house. He hides her for some time, but one time advises her to nurse from his giant mother's breasts when she is kneading dough. She does and his mother warms up to her. Her son (Shah Selim) comes up with a false story that the princess is their maid, now that he is to be married to his cousin. The giant mother orders her to fill mattresses with feathers, and to go to the aunt's house to get the bread griddle. Her husband, Shah Selim, advises her on both occasions: in his aunt's house, she must open a closed door, feed correctly a horse and a dog, take the griddle and escape from the house. At last, the Shah Selim's wedding comes, and, after the ceremony, his giant mother forces the princess to bear ten candles, one on each finger, for the whole night near the married couple. Shah Selim advises her to wait until the candles have melted enough and to smear it on the bride's face. She does and the couple escape on a pair of horses. His father notices his son's absence and chases after the couple; Shah Selim and the princess transform into things to trick the pursuer. Finally, they turn into a stick and a snake coiled aroung it. This time, Shah Selim's mother arrives and, seeing the objects, hesitates, for she might hurt her son. So she returns home and lets them be.[24]

In a Turkish tale collected by Russian philologist Nikolai K. Dimitriev (ru) with the title "Девушка и конь" ("The Girl and the Horse"), a padishah asks his daughters to look after his favourite horse. Only the youngest is able to give water and food to the animal. Seeing the relationship between both, he decides to marry one to the other. The girl comes to live in the stable with the horse, who is the son of a deva. At night, the stable becomes a palace for them. One day, the horse assumes human shape and joins his brothers-in-law in a game of throwing darts. The princess's sisters mock her for her animal husband and praise their human spouses. On the next day, the horse prince gives three tufts of hair to his wife. On the third day, fed up with the incessant mockery, she reveals the truth about him and he disappears. The princess decides to go after him. One day, she reaches the foot of a mountain, burns one of the hairs and summons her husband. He comes to her and tells her his deva family lives in that mountain. He turns her into an apple and takes her into their home. He makes his mother promise not to harm her and shows her his wife. The deva mother forces the girl to do chores: to sweep and not sweep, and to fill two vases with her tears. The last task for her is to bake a pie, even though she cannot find any ingredient in the house. They decide to escape and his family pursues them. The princess and her husband disguise themselves as different objects to elude them.[25] The tale was also classified as Turkish type TTV 98 (see above), with the episode of "The Magic Flight" (ATU 313).[26]

The Uysal–Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative also collected two other variants with the horse husband. In one, The Padisah's Youngest Daughter and Her Donkey-Skull Husband, collected in 1970 from teller Niyâzi Çam, from Bursa Province, the padishah assembles everyone in the palace courtyard for his three daughters to toss their apples to choose their husbands. The third daughter tosses hers and it lands near a donkey skull. She marries the donkey skull and, inside the nuptial chambers, her husband reveals he is a handsome youth, but asks her never to spill the secret, lest he disappears and she has to quest for him. Life goes on for both, and the princess visits the public bath for women. There, she is mocked for marrying a donkey skull. One day, fed up with the mockery, reveals to the other women the true nature of her husband, who knocked on the door to the bath house to reprimand his wife. He tells her she may never find him again, even if she walks with an iron cane and wearing a pair of iron shoes, and vanishes. She decides to seek him out, and wears a pair of iron shoes. She reaches the Pearl Mountain, the Gold Fountain and the Diamond Fountain, where her husband lives in a mansion. They reunite, but he warns her that his mother is a giant that may devour her, so he changes her into a broom to hide her from his mother. The next day, he asks his mother not to hurt a padishah's daughter if she comes by; his mother agrees and he changes the broom back into his human wife. The giantess forces the human princess to sweep or not sweep her house, to fill 40 cauldrons with her tears, and to climb the mountain, enter another mansion and get her a closed box. The husband advises the princess to drink from a fountain of bitter liquid and compliment it, to eat a sour pear from a tree and compliment it, close an open door and shut an open one, change the food of two animals for the correct ones (meat for a lion, grass for a horse), get the box and escape. She does all that and climbs down the mountain, but curiosity gets the better of her and she opens the box; "wild music" starts to leak from the box, until her husband appears to close it again. The princess delivers he box to the giantess mother. That night, the couple decide to escape from the mansion, while his family follows them. First, they transform into a minaret and a mosque, then a sheep and a flock of sheep, and lastly a poplar tree (the princess) and a snake atop the tree (the prince). His mother comes to the tree; the snake asks her for a kiss and spits venom into her mouth. The princess and her husband return to her kingdom.[27]

In a second tale, The Trials of the Padişah's Youngest Daughter, collected in 1976 from teller Mehmet Karakaş, from the Urfa Province, the padishah's three daughters buy watermelons that represent their marriageability: the first melon is overripe, the second half-overripe and half-edible, and the third just right. Seeing this, their father arranges for them to throw apples at their prospective suitors from a balcony. The third does not toss hers, and tells her father her suitor stationed his horse near the palace. They take the horse to the stables. A parade of young men passes in front of the palace, but her suitor apparently isn't there. She goes to the stables and pets the horse, who tells her that she must hide him for three Fridays, otherwise he will disappear. Her sisters' weddings occur on the next two Fridays, and during the festivities a mysterious young man appears and wins the games, who the princess recognizes as the horse. On the second occasion, the princess tells her sisters the young man is the horse, then cries over her decision. The next day, the horse vanishes, and a little bird lands on her shoulder, telling her she will find him after she wears down a pair of slippers and an iron cane. She wanders through a copper well house, a silver fortress and a gold fortress. In the gold fortress, she sees a girl fetching water from the well and begs for a drink, in the name of Emirilâm. The servant gives her the jug and the princess drops her ring inside it. Her groom recognizes the ring and brings the princess in, but he warns his is a family of giants, and shrinks her size to hide her from them. The youth hides her for three days and on the fourth she appears, since the giants cannot harm her after three days. Now at a normal size, the giantess mother forces the girl to do some chores in preparation for her son's wedding to his cousin: to gather downy feathers for the marital bed; and to bring her "the song and the word". The youth advises her on both occasions: to get the song and the word, she must enter the forest and give the correct food for two animals (meat to the dog, and grass for the horse), switch the positions of two carpets (one hanging on the wall, the other lying on the ground); enter a palace, get the box and do not open it. She follows his instructions, but she opens the box: violin players and tambourine players leap out of it, but the horse youth, Emirilâm, locks them inside the box. Finally, Emirilâm's wedding is here: his giant mother ties the princess to a tree in the courtyard and sets a fire at the foot of the tree. Emirilâm finds and unties the princess, and both escape in a cloud of smoke. His giantess mother pursues the couple, who disguise themselves as a pool and a fish. The giantess mother fails in finding them, and explodes in anger. Emirilâm and the princess reach her father's kingdom and marry.[28]

Italian author Luigi Bruzzano published a Greek variant from Calabria with the title Il bel Cavallo (Greek: To máñon álogo, English: "Handsome Horse"),[29] in journal La Calabria – Rivista di Letteratura Popolare. in this tale, a childless couple prays to God to give them a son, even it is a horse, so a horse is born. Just three days after being born, the horse asks his parents to find him a wife. They first bring him daughters of poor people, whom he kills. Finally, he is married to a suitable bride. He tells her his parents will throw a party; she will be there and he will come wearing blue garments; he will kiss her and, although his mother will beat her, she is not to reveal the man is their son. This happens two more times; him wearing green garments on the second time and white garments in the third time. The girl tells them the man is their son, the horse, but they only find the horse skin. Some time later, the girl looks for him with 7 iron canes and reaches the house of a Maga, who threatens to devour her, but her daughter takes her in as a servant. She then forces her to separate a mix of barley and lentils. Il bel Cavallo sees her and offers his help in exchange for a kiss; she declines, but he still helps her by summoning ants to separate the grains. Next, the Maga orders her to wash, rinse and dry a pile of clothes, then fil a mattress with bird feathers, and the musical instruments from the house of the Maga's sister. Il bel Cavallo warns her that as soon as she enters the Maga's sister's house, the daughter will be by the oven; the girl is to toss the girl into the oven, get the musical instruments from under the oven and escape. She follows the instructions and gets the instruments, but, when she reaches the Maga's house, she lets the instruments escape from her hands, Il bel Cavallo places it into her hands. Finally, the Maga marries Il bel Cavallo to a cross-eyed woman, and forces the girl to hold two candles at the foot of the bridal bed.[30] Richard McGillivray Dawkins reported the same tale, which he translated as Handsome Horse: the girl is married to an enchanted prince named Handsome Horse, who disappears "after the Cupid and Psyche manner". Afterwards, the girl finds him again, in his mother's house, an ogress. The ogress betrothes her son to a witch's daughter, and forces the girl to do impossible tasks.[31]

The horse-prince as the enchanted husband also appears in the Bulgarian tale corpus, under tale type 425B, "Момъкът с конската глава" ("Boy With the Horse's Head").[32]

In a Bulgarian Romani variant, E Batiméskeri Paramísi ("The History of Batim"), a king owns a horse, which is the son of an ogre. One day, the servant who grooms it notices that when the horse saw the eldest daughter of the king, it became enamoured, and it won't eat its rations. The king orders his daughters to line up in a queue, to be given leblebi with nuts and to feed the horse with it; the animal only eats from the eldest's apron. They marry. The princess is despondent at first, but the horse takes off his equine disguise and becomes a man. He tells her that he will appear the next day as a fine knight with green garments and horses, and that she must not tell her sisters anything; otherwise, she will have to search for him in the land of Čine-ma-čine-džéza-davúlja. She obeys at first. The day after, he appears on a white horse and she lets her family in on the secret. He disappears, and she goes after him with shoes of iron and a staff of iron. She arrives at the land of Čine-ma-čine-džéza-davúlja, and stops by a fountain. She sees a servant fetching water and asks her to whom it is the jug; she answers it is for Batim (the horse's name). She drops her ring inside the jug and the servant brings the jug to Batim, who recognizes the ring. The princess meets him again, but he warns that his mother will eat her, and turns her into a pin to protect her. Batim asks his ogress mother to swear on his name not to harm her, and he shows her his human wife. The ogress mother forces her to do difficult tasks: to fill a tank with tears, to fill 41 rooms with feathers and let half remain over, to invite the ogress's sister and her brothers for a wedding feast - all accomplished with her husband's guidance. Lastly, Batim and his wife escape from the ogress by turning into objects to fool her. The third time, Batim turns into a flower and the wife into a rose-bush. The ogress comes to the rosebush and hesitates, for she might pick one or the other and hurt her son. She concedes defeat and lets her son live with his human wife.[33]

In a tale from the Turkish population of Vidin, Bulgaria, "Дочь падишаха и Билеиз" ("The Padishah's Daughter and Bileiz"), a padishah is going on a trip, and asks his daughters to look after his horse and feed him dry oats. The horse only responds to the youngest. When the padishah returns, he learns of the horse's affectionate treatment of his third daughter and marries them. After the wedding, the girl begins to cry, but the horse takes off the horse skin and reveals he is a human named Bileiz. The next day, he appears as a knight in red garments on the padishah's tournament, and on the day after in black clothes. In case anything happens to him, he gives his wife a signet ring as a token. She tells to her family the knight is the horse, and he disappears. She then decides to go after him, by wearing an iron amulet and using an iron cane. She reaches a fountain, with a inscription nearby: "Bileiz". She sees a servant girl fetching water and begs for some to drink. She drops the signet ring on the servant's jar. Bileiz finds his wife, takes her home and explains his mother is a seven-headed deva and might devour her. His mother appears and smells human flesh, but Bileiz spins a story about hiring the girl as another maid. So, the deva mother forces her to sweep half of the floor and not sweep the other half, to cook half of the meat and not cook the other half, and go to a relative of the deva to get a plank and some bread dough. Finally, the deva mother orders her to carry ten candles on her fingers during Bileiz's marriage to another bride. The padishah's daughter vents to her husband about his mother, and he tells her he planned their escape: when she is holding the ten candles, she must drop them and jump on a winged horse, while he rides a normal one. It happens as he describes. While on the run, his deva relatives come after them in the shape of a fog. They transform into a minaret and a muezim, a watermelon and a gardener, a snake and a rosebush. Bileiz's sister hesitates in cutting either the snake or the rosebush, and returns home.[34]

In a Bulgarian tale translated into Hungarian with the title A vasruhás cárkisasszony ("The Tsar's Daughter with Iron Garments"), an old woman takes a czar's son as companion. One day, the youth wants her to ask for the tsar's daughter's hand in marriage. However, the tsar wants the youth to perform some tasks first: to erect a crystal palace that opens and closes on its own; a garden where it is raining, it is sunny, the birds sing and the trees bloom by themselves, and to build bridges across all lakes and rivers overnight. The tsar consents to their marriage. They marry and live with the old woman. One day, the tsar invites his daughter and son-in-law to his palace. The son-in-law takes with him a giant horse's head that he carelessly deposits somewhere in the palace. The servants, who were baking bread, see the horse's head and throw it in the oven. The prince warns his wife that the horse's head should not have been burnt, and that he will disappear; if she ever wants to find him again, she must wait 9 years, then ask for iron garments, iron shoes and an iron cane to be made; finally, she must always journey towards the sunrise, and look for him, "Öreg". Time passes and she goes on a journey: she visits three old women with giant spinning apparatuses and their cannibal sons, who direct the princess to Öreg. She reaches a well, where Öreg's nine servants and nine slaves come to fetch water. The princess begs for a drink and drops her ring in a jug. Öreg recognizes the ring and takes the princess into his castle as a servant. His mother suspects something amiss between her son and the girl. One day, Öreg is to be married to another woman; the man and the princess conspire to torch the bride's veil to cause a distraction during the wedding. The princess becomes a bridesmaid; when everyone is kissing the bride's veil, she asks to kiss it too, and torches the veil with a candle. Öreg and the princess escape from the wedding, but his family comes after them. The pair transforms into a lake (the princess) and a duck (him); a melon orchard (the princess) and a park-keeper (him), and finally a blackthorn bush with a thorny branch (the princess) and a giant grass snake wrapped around it (him). His mother ceases her pursuit and lets them be.[35]

In a variant collected from the Rutul people, in Dagestan, a widow prays to God for a son, and she gives birth to a donkey. One day, the donkey son wants to marry the princess, and his human mother convinces the king to accept the proposal. However, the king orders his prospective son-in-law to perform a few tasks first, which he does and marries the princess. On the wedding night, the donkey son reveals his true form to his human wife: he is a human named Rizvan beneath the animal skin. The widow convinces the princess to hid her husband's donkey skin out of his reach, so that the old woman can burn it. She follows through the instructions and her husband loses her donkey skin. He becomes a bird and tells his wife that, if she ever wants to see him again, she must look for him in a distant kingdom. The princess searches for him for years, until she reaches a fountain, where a slave woman is carrying water to Rizvan. The princess begs for some water to drink, and drops her wedding ring inside the jug. When the slave woman takes the water jug to Rizvan, he recognizes his wife's ring and brings her in. Together at last, they decide to escape from the castle in a Magic Flight sequence, with a creature named azhdaha hot in pursuit.[36]

In a tale from the Ossetians titled "Злотокудрый юноша" ("The Golden-Haired Youth"), an Aldar announces his intentions to marry his three daughters. The two elders find suitable husbands for them, while the youngest points to a lame and lousy horse grazing at the end of the village. She marries the horse, and, at night, the horse takes off his skin to become a golden-haired youth, but, in the morning,wears the horseskin again. This goes on for some time, to the girl's grief. She consults with a кулбадагус ("kulbadagus"), who advises her to burn the horseskin. The girl lights a fire and tosses the animal skin to burn it. Her husband awakens, admonishes his wife, turns into a bird and flies away. Time passes, and the girl is grieving for her lost husband, when she sees a raven fly over. She asks the raven if it saw a golden-feathered bird. The raven says it didn't. Later, she asks a swallow and a sparrow. The sparrow tells her it saw the golden-feathered husband, and that she can go to where he is by baking three honeycakes and praying to God to change her into a sparrow. The girl follows the instructions, turns into a bird, and, guided by the little bird, reaches a distant house. The sparrow says it must depart, but before it leaves, it advises the girl to enter the house where her husband is and to toss her ring into his jug. The girl turns back into human, enters the house and sees her husband; she tosses her golden ring inside the jug and hides. The husband wakes up, sees the ring in the jug, and beckons three times for his wife. She appears after the third call. The husband warns her that his mother, a creature with large tusks, will eat her, and bids her to hide. The mother enters the room and tells the golden-haired youth to show her where the girl is, since she can smell her. The youth makes his mother promise on her nameless sister not to harm his wife. The girl is introduced to her. Some time later, the mother forces her to clean their large house, by weeping over the floor then sweeping. Her husband tells her to sprinkle the floor with saltwater first. The mother then goes to sleep. The youth takes a dagger and kills the creature. Several skulls (from her victims) roll around the place. The youth takes a whip and cracks it against the skulls to resurrect the slain people. The youth explains that the creature was not his mother, but a witch who turned him into a lame horse.[37]

Author M. N. Venkataswami collected an Indian variant from Nagpur, Central India, with the title Jambhu Rájá, first published in the Indian Antiquary.[38] In this tale, a king has a dream about a horse - a good omen, he believes. Intent on making it a reality, he goes to the marketplace and buys a spirited horse. He brings it to his stable, but the animal refuses to eat his fodder, except in the presence of the king's daughter. The king consults the dice, and marries her to the horse. At night, the horse, named Jambhu Raja, takes off his horse-covering and becomes a man. His wife notices his transformation and one day burns his horse skin. He passes his days doing good deeds. One day, his wife is visited by her sisters (in disguise), who tell her to ask her husband his name. He warns her not to do so, but she insists. He goes to the margin of a river, tells his name and disappears back to his parents' kingdom, and suffers an intense burning sensation. The princess goes on a quest for him. One day, she rests by a tree, and overhears two chakwi chakwa birds conversing about a cure for Jambhu Raja: get their dung and grind it to powder. Next, she reaches a fountain where waterbearers are fetching water and taking it to Jambhu Raja to cool him down. The princess puts her ring into a jug that is taken to the prince, enters the palace and cures her husband. However, his mother forces the princess on dangerous tasks: to plaster with cow dung their dwelling place (made to bristle with sharp needles and conjuring by magic scorpions and centipedes); to wash a dirty sari; to winnow three khandis of grain (done with the help of ants); and give a letter to the house of the prince's new bride (with a command to kill the girl). Jambhu Raja foils his mother's every attempt on his wife. The day comes when his mother prepares his wedding to another wife, and the princess is made into a torch-bearer. She complains to Jambhu Raja that her cloth is on fire, and he rescues her back to their palace.[39] This story was also classified as a Horse-Husband type of tale.[40]

In an Iranian tale collected by Arthur Christensen with the title Grünkappe ("Green Cap"), the heroine, called Herzveloren, burns her husband's horseskin (since he appears to her at first as a Seepferde, or horse that comes from the sea). Her father, the king, notices that the animal form of Grünkappe is no ordinary animal, but, since he knows the language of men, he must belong to the Peri race. Herzveloren marries him, breaks his trust by breaking a prohibition set by him and must seek him out with seven pairs of iron shoes. She reaches her mother-in-law's house, in the land of the divs, and, drained by the long journey, rests by a spring. Grünkappe is informed about the woman at the spring and goes to check on her; his wife Herzveloren sees him and embraces him, her journey ending. However, her husband takes her in to his mother and his wife is forced to perform chores for her. Grünkappe's mother sends Herzveloren, her true daughter-in-law, to her sister under false pretences: to get a pair of scissors for the upcoming wedding, but she is sending the human to be devoured by the aunt. Herzveloren goes to the Dev's sister to get the scissors. Once there, the Div-aunt goes to another room to sharpen her teeth. The Div-aunt's child, from her cradle, advises Herzveloren to get the scissors and escape, for its mother is preparing to eat the human. Later, Grünkappe is forced to marry another woman, and complains that his heart is burning also. At the end of the tale, the pair escapes from his mother and, as a last trick on her, turn into grains of corn, while the witch becomes a chicken.[41][42][43] Eberhard and Boratav noted, in the introduction to their book, that the tale Grünkappe was parallel to the Turkish type 98 (see above).[44] Professor Ulrich Marzolph, in his Catalogue of Persian Folktales, classified Grünkappe as Iranian tale type AaTh 425B, Der Tierbräutigam: Die böse Zauberin ("The Animal Bridegroom: The Evil Sorceress").[45] He also established that Iranian tale type 425B corresponded to Turkish tale type 98 (see above), of the Typen Türkischer Volksmärchen.[46]

Author Gabriele Keller collected an Uzbek variant titled Chötiktscha or Xo’tikcha (German: Eselkind; English: "Donkey-Child"). In this tale, the titular Chötiktscha is no normal animal: he falls in love with the daughter of the padischah, but he must first perform some suitor's tasks. He does and marries the princess. One night, he takes off the donkey skin and shows his wife a normal human form. She burns his donkey skin some time later, as per the insistence of her family, and he disappears. She then journeys far and wide to get him back, and reaches the house of her in-laws, a family of dews that threaten the couple. At last, Chötiktscha and his wife escape from there and live happily ever after.[47] Keller classified the tale as type AaTh 425B, "Die Aufgaben der Hexe (Hexensohn)" ("The Witch's Tasks (Son of the Witch)"), and Turkish Type TTV (EB) 98, "Pferdemann" ("Horse as Husband"), with elements of type AaTh 480 (helping and complimenting inanimate things on the way to the second witch) and conclusion as type AaTh 313, "The Magic Flight".[48]

Gabriele Keller argues that type TTV 98, "Pferdemann" (see above), is also "verbreitet" ("widespread") in Central Asia.[49]

Author Shahriar Nafici published a Persian language tale obtained from his mother. In this tale, Sheep's Head, in the town of Make Believe, a childless couple wants a son, but no such luck. A man gives the woman a remedy and she gives birth to a baby with a sheep's head. The old man tries to get rid of the sheep by dropping it on the well, but it survives and lives with the couple. Years later, the baby with the sheep's head wants to marry, but his parents ask him who could marry a person with his characteristics. He eventually marries a human princess named Maleknâz, the seventh daughter of a king, who has been having dreams about a mysterious and handsome prince. On the wedding night, Sheep's Head takes off his animal disguise and reveals he is a handsome youth named Malek Mohammad, born to the "king of the angels" and cursed by his mother for refusing to marry her sister's daughter. In regards to their marriage and the breaking of the curse, he explains that princess Maleknâz must bear humiliation and mockery from her sisters until forty days have passed, then Malek Mohammad's curse will be broken and he can assume human form permanently, since his "apparent" human parents failed in keeping him inside their house for the same period of time. Maleknâz bears each day their endless mockery, with her husband's support and life lessons, but she ends up breaking his trust. Disappointed, Sheep's Head gives her instructions on how to find him: she shall wear pairs of shoes made of "pure metal" (or iron), walk with seven walking sticks, go through seven cities and learn several important lessons, then she may find him. On her way, she finds Malek Rouh, a blacksmith who claims to be Malek Mohammad's father. She finally reaches the palace of her mother-in-law in the town of demons. Malek Mohammad finds her and explains that his mother is a cannibal and a "demon". He turns her into a brooch to hide from his human-eater mother and makes her promise not to eat Maleknâz. Some time later, his mother sends her to empty a flooded area using only a sieve. Her husband helps her with a magic trick. She continues to force impossible tasks on the princess, like counting stones in the desert or emptying a basin with a thimble. One of the last tasks she forces upon the princess is to be naked, cover herself in candles and dance at the upcoming wedding of Malek Mohammad and his cousin. At the wedding, Maleknâz dances while the wax from the candles melts all over her body. A sudden gust of wind blows open the doors and snuffs out the candles to save Maleknâz. A ball of light comes in and takes the princess away from the demons and into the Town of Knowledge. Maleknâz recognizes her saviour: her father-in-law.[50]