Lyric Songs Traditional lyric poetry among the Sephardim also has strong ties to the

Iberian tradition.[17] Certain poetic forms, notably the Moroccan wedding songs,
embody a vocabulary of parallelistic, synonymous rhyme words identicalin part
to that found in early Castilian and Portuguese traditional lyric poetry. Thus, for
chemise, beloved, to sleep, and wine, we find the synonymic alternates:
camisa/delgada, amigo/amado, dormir/folgar, vino/claro, among many others (Alvar
1985). Though some ballads also have specific communal functionsas wedding
songs, lullabies, songs of mourningthe functions of lyric poetry, its uses in specific
utilitarian social contexts, are in general much more sharply defined. In many cases,
this is liminal poetry, marking the thresholds of human life, the crucial moments of
transition: birth songs, wedding songs, funeral dirges (Armistead 1993: 364-367).
Many of these songs, either in their poetic form or in their specific genetic
relationship to known early counterparts, have ancient Iberian origins. However,
some collectors of Eastern Sephardic lyric poetry were astounded to encounter
almost exact word-for-word correspondences between certain popular lyric songs,
well known in Istanbul and in Salonika, and identical songs, sung even to identical
tunes, by modern Spaniards. But these were not ancient, pre-Diasporic survivals. A
number of Spanish popular songs reached the Sephardic East on phonograph
records and were quickly learned by Jewish singers, who gradually came to consider
them as a venerable and authentic part of their own Sephardic repertoire, even
despite some very obvious religious and cultural conflicts: A la una nas yo, / a las
dos me baftizaron . . . (I was born at one oclock, at two I was baptized . . .). This
same, probably quite modern, song is known today all over the Spanish-speaking
world and must be a late addition to the Sephardic repertoire. On the other hand,
the Sephardims long residence in Eastern Mediterranean lands also enriched their
repertoire of lyric songs, several of which turn out to be close translations of Greek
distichs (En torno: 178-182; Armistead and Silverman 1983-1984: 43-44). As an
example of an authentically traditional lyric song, the following endechasung at
funerals and also during the nine days of the month of Ab (Thish b-b) to
commemorate the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, which is evoked in vv. 18. The rest of the poem involves a conversation between a mother and her
deceased son or daughter: aamim nombrados, Famous wise men, 2 de honra y
de fama, of honor and of fame, los yevan atados are carried off bound 4 y
arrastrados por la va. and dragged along the streets. Yoren, yoren, las seoras,
Weep, weep, you women, 6 las que tienen razn, for well may you weep, por la
Caza Santa for the Holy City 8 y el orbn de Sin! and the destruction of Zion! Si
haba algn consuelo If there were some comfort 10 y en ste mi corasn, in this
heart of mine, yo vos rogo, la mi madre, I beg you mother, 12 por las piadades, for
the sake of charity, que escribis mi dulse nombre to write my sweet name 14 y en
vuestros lumbrales. on the threshold of your home. Y escrito lo tengo, escrito,
And I have inscribed it 16 y en la veluntade. within my very soul. Los das que fuere
viva, As long as I live, 18 mi madre, con tus pesares. I will mourn for you. Yo vos
rogo, la mi madre, I beg of you, mother, 20 por las piadades, for the sake of
charity: que saquis mis nuevos vestidos Take out my new clothes 22 del arca y del

ajugares. from the dowry chest. Con la hoja del adefla, With leaves of the rosebay,
24 mi madre, los bufeares. Mother, fumigate them for me. Con la hoja de la retama,
With leaves of the furze, 26 mi madre, los safumare. Mother, perfume them for me.
Y si al ao no volviere, If I dont return in a year, 28 sacilos al delale. take them to
be sold Y al primero precio, And at the lowest price, 30 mi madre, los qaddeare.
Mother, sell them off. Y el que los comprare, And whoever buys them, 32 que no
pase por la mi caye. let him not go by my street, No los vea la mi madre, so my
mother may not see them, 34 los de dolor al corasn. those clothes of heartfelt
grief.[18]

Oral Literature of the Sephardic Jews

Samuel G. Armistead, University of California, Davis
Contents of Article:
Historical Background
The Varieties of Judeo-Spanish
Types of Oral Literature
History of Sephardic Ballad Collecting
Origins of the Sephardic Ballad Tradition
Sephardic Ballads and Other Ballad Traditions
La bella en misa (The Beauty in Church)
Lyric Songs
Enumerative Songs
Prayers and Charms
Riddles
Proverbs
Folktales
Bibliography

Historical background
The edict by which all Jews were exiled from Castile and Aragon was signed by the Catholic
Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, on March 31, 1492 (Baer 1961-1966: II, 433). But we should
not think of this banishment, radical and catastrophic as it surely was, as an altogether sudden,
definitive occurrence. It was, in a certain sense, a quite gradual, centuries-long process. Some
Jews, when threatened by the alternative of exile, were to accept Christianity and some were to
become sincere converts, but many other conversos who remained in Spain were to practice in
secret their ancestral religion for centuries after 1492. For example, Inquisitional records tell us
in detail of just how such Crypto-Jews continued to celebrate, in secret, Sukkoth (Tabernacles)
and Pesach (Passover), in Madrid, even in the early 18th century, well over two centuries after
the banishment of Jews from Spain (Alpert 1995; 1997). And a number of Crypto-Jewish

communities have survived, even down to the present day, in Portugal, along the northeastern
border with Spain.[1] There was also a secret Jewish community on the Island of Ibiza until the
early 1940s and vestigial memories of the presence of Jews also persist elsewhere in Spain and in
the Americas.[2] Over the centuries, many other Crypto-Jews in Spain and in Portugal, faced
with oppressive conditions at home, opted to joined their exiled coreligionists in North Africa,
the Balkans, the Near East, and later in Holland, where they could practice their ancestral
religion openly and without danger of Inquisitional retribution.[3] This aspect of the Exile, as a
gradual, ongoing process, was to have an important impact on the folk literature of the exiled
communities. The close link between the Moroccan Jewish settlements and the Iberian Peninsula
was never brokenfrom Tangier, after all, one can clearly see the coast of Southern Spain
while, in Eastern communities, more distant and relatively more isolated, there were still
numerous conversos who had opted for the welcome offered to Western Jews in the Ottoman
domains and who settled in what is now Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Greece, and
Turkey, bringing with them cultural perspectives and oral-literary texts of a more modern
character than was reflected in the essentially medieval repertoire brought out of Spain in 1492.

The Varieties of Judeo-Spanish

Until recently, two different dialects of Judeo-Spanish were spoken in the Mediterranean region:
Eastern Judeo-Spanish (in various distinctive regional variations) and Western or North African
Judeo-Spanish (also known as akita), once spoken, with little regional distinction, in six towns
in Northern Morocco and, because of later emigration, also in Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish
enclaves in Morocco), Gibraltar (Great Britain), Casablanca (Morocco), and Oran (Algeria).[4]
The Eastern dialect is typified by its greater conservatism, its retention of numerous Old Spanish
features in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, and its numerous borrowings from Turkish and,
to a lesser extent, also from Greek and South Slavic. Both dialects have (or had) numerous
borrowings from Hebrew, especially in reference to religious matters, but the number of
Hebraisms in everyday speech or writing is in no way comparable to that found in Yiddish.[5]
The North African dialect was, until the early 20th century, also highly conservative; its abundant
Colloquial Arabic loan words retained most of the Arabic phonemes as functional components of
a new, enriched Hispano-Semitic phonological system. During the Spanish colonial occupation
of Northern Morocco (1912-1956), akita was subjected to pervasive, massive influence from
Modern Standard Spanish and most Moroccan Jews now speak a colloquial, Andalusian form of
Spanish, with only an occasional use of the old language as a sign of in-group solidarity,
somewhat as American Jews may now use an occasional Yiddishism in colloquial speech
(Hassn 1969). Except for certain younger individuals, who continue to practice akita as a
matter of cultural pride, this splendid dialectthe most Arabized of the Romance languages
has essentially ceased to exist. Eastern Judeo-Spanish has fared somewhat better, especially in
Israel, where newspapers, radio broadcasts, and elementary school and university programs
strive to keep the language alive. But the old regional variations (Bosnia, Macedonia, Bulgaria,
Rumania, Greece, Turkey, for instance) are already either extinct or doomed to extinction (Sala
1970; Harris 1994). The best we can perhaps hope for is that a Judeo-Spanish koin, now
evolving in Israelsimilar to that which developed among Sephardic immigrants to the United
States early in the 20th centurymay somehow prevail and survive into the next generation.[6]

Types of Sephardic Oral Literature

On their departure from late medieval Iberia, the Hispanic Jews took with them into exile a rich
body of oral literature. Ongoing, if in some cases only sporadic, contacts with the homeland
significantly modified and enriched this original medieval Spanish corpus. Even more important
was the impact of the many linguistically diverse folkliterary traditions of the peoples among
whom the Jews settled, particularly in the Balkans and in the Near East, but also in North Africa.
[7] Hispanists, who were among the early pioneers in collecting Sephardic oral literature, tended
to look on the tradition as an essentially static, richly evocative treasure trove of medieval
survivals (Menndez Pidal 1973: 335-336). While there are, indeed, highly significant and
invaluable instances of the survival of medieval text-types and other medieval features in both
Judeo-Spanish traditions, to assume that any and all texts, simply because they were sung or told
by Sephardic Jews, must, for that reason alone, be of medieval origin falsifies and diminishes
this tradition, one of whose most characteristic features is, precisely, its rich synthesis of diverse
cultural components, gathered from the many peoples encountered by the Spanish Jews during
their multisecular pilgrimage in Mediterranean lands.
Sephardic oral literature includes the following generic types: narrative ballads (romansas), lyric
songs (cantigas), cumulative songs, prayers and medicinal charms, riddles (endevinas), proverbs
(refranes), and folktales (consejas).[8] Other traditionaland partially oralgenres were also
cultivated in Judeo-Spanish. Two especially deserve mention here: complas (paraliturgical
poetry: popular, sometimes traditionalized, religious or didactic songs) and plays, originally
staged to commemorate important holidays (compare the Yiddish Purimspiel). But, though
complas especially and, to a lesser extent, also the drama, both involve an oral component, these
must be considered essentially written literature.[9]

Sephardic Ballad Collecting

Though there are, as we shall see, traces of ballads from as early as the mid-16th century, oral
literature in Judeo-Spanish began to be collected only in the late 19th century.[10] Such early
attempts were haphazard and sporadic. Systematic efforts began only in the early 1900s, with
balladsthe supposed repository of an exclusively medieval traditionbeing given almost all
the attention, to the grave neglect of other genres.[11] Some folktales were, however, very
accurately transcribed and published for their value as linguistic documents. There are also a
number of extensive early 20th-century proverb collections, usually edited without interpretive
commentary. Only after World War II, faced with the full, horrendous significance of the
Holocaust and the ongoing threat of Balkan and North African nationalism, did Sephardic and
Western scholars come to realize that the entire folkliterary tradition would have to be collected
during the next few decades if it were to be saved at all.[12] Only then did the
systematiccollecting and evaluation of various forms of lyric poetry begin to come into its own,
while the other forms, though collecting had already started, began to be studied seriously

according to the norms of modern scholarship. But riddles have continued to be the black sheep
of Judeo-Spanish folk literature and have been gravely neglected almost to the present day.

Origins of the Sephardic Ballad Tradition

Judeo-Spanish romansas (Spanish romances) are narrative ballads characteristically embodying
16-syllable, usually monorhymed verses, divided into two octosyllabic hemistichs, with assonant
rhyme in each second hemistich.[13] The eight-syllable assonant ballad verse ultimately derives
from the anisosyllabic assonant verse of the medieval Spanish epic, and a certain number of
Judeo-Spanish ballads, together with some ballads from other Hispanic regions, can be shown to
be genetically derived, through direct oral tradition, from medieval Spanish heroic poetry.[14]
The earliest evidence we have for the existence of ballads among the Hispano-Jewish exiles does
not consist of full texts, but involves an extensive corpus of incipits (or, in some cases, of crucial
internal verses), used as tune markers in 16th- and 17th-century Hebrew hymnals (piytm
collections): A typical heading might read: Pizmn leh an Arbolera tan gentil (A hymn to the
tune of Arbolera etc.), thus giving us the earliest Judeo-Spanish documentation for The
usbands Return (in - assonance). In Morocco we have no full texts until the late 19th century,
but 18th-century hymnals give us similar, though more limited data from an earlier time
(Armistead and Silverman 1973; 1981). The earliest extensive text from the East comes to us in
the form of a fragmentary Dutch translation of a ballad, sung as a mystical allegory, in Izmir
(Turkey), in 1665, by the false Messiah, Shabbatai Zevi (Scholem 1975: 396-401; FLSJ, V,
Chap. 14). By the early 18th century, we have a substantial corpus of handwritten ballads from
the Sarajevo community and, towards the end of the century, also from the Island of Rhodes
(Armistead, Silverman, and Hassn 1978b). Three early Hispano-Portuguese ballads were copied
nostalgicallyby Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam in 1683 (Armistead and Silverman 1980a;
1980b).

Sephardic Ballads and other Ballad Traditions

The Sephardic ballads are very much a part of the Pan-Hispanic ballad tradition and they cannot
be studied in isolation. The two Sephardic traditions (Eastern and North African) and the
repertoires of other Hispanic language areasCastilian-speaking regions of Spain, the Canary
Islands, and Spanish America; Galicia, Portugal, the Portuguese Atlantic islands and Brazil; and
the Catalan-speaking areas of Spain, France, and Sardiniaare mutually complementary, from a
philological perspective, offering crucial data for reconstructing the ballads early development
and for studying the oral tradition as an ongoing dynamic process, involving constant recreation
and a high degree of poetic creativity (Bnichou 1968b). The entire ballad tradition (the
Romancero) is, then, very much a Pan-Hispanic phenomenon, but, at the same time, many
Hispanic ballads also have recognizable, genetic relatives in other European linguistic
communities (RPI: II, 624-644; Armistead 2000a). Like the other branches of the Pan-Hispanic
Romancero, the Judeo-Spanish ballads include songs based on medieval Spanish and French
epics; others concern events in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian history; still others recreate
Biblical episodes, legends from Classical Antiquity, or details of medieval romans daventure;

many ballads embody a variety of topical, novelesque plots: prisoners and captives, the
husbands return, faithful or tragic love, the unfortunate wife, adultery, various amorous
adventures, tricks and deceptions (CMP). Many ballads can be traced back to medieval Iberian
origins, others were invented by the Sephardim in exile, still others can be shown to have
reached the Jewish communities well after 1492, doubtless brought there by converso emigrants;
a few Eastern romances are adaptations of Modern Greek ballads (tragodia), while others
translate French chansons populaires, or Italian and Catalan narrative songs.[15] Though the two
traditions (Eastern and North African) have remained very different, a few ballad-types have
migrated from one tradition to the other (CMP: I2, S6, X6, X13). The Moroccan traditionlike
the local Judeo-Spanish dialecthas been profoundly influenced by Modern Spanish traditional
ballads brought in by 20th-century Spanish immigrantsparticularly Andalusiansto the
Spanish zone of Northern Morocco.

La bella en misa (The Beauty in Church)

Here is a Sephardic ballad of medieval originsung in both branches of the Judeo-Spanish
tradition, as well as in Castilian-, Galician-, and Catalan-speaking areas of Spain, in northern
Portugal, and in Mexico and Argentina (RPI S4). Apart from its delightful content, it eloquently
illustrates the basic principle that each ballad has its own, sometimes highly distinctiveif not,
as in this case, uniqueindividual history. The ballad of La bella en misa (The Beauty in
Church) originated as the central episode of a Greek ballad, learned and transcribed by Catalans
during their occupation of Greece (1311-1388), then taken back to Catalonia, whence it spread to
Spain and Portugal, later to be taken back to its land of origin, when the Jewish exiles departed
from Iberia in 1492 (Setton 1948; En torno: 50-60). This ballad also illustrates the very
considerable presence of a Christian ambience and sometimes even specifically Christian details
and motifs in the Sephardic balladsoriginally learned from an essentially Christian tradition
conserved as an integral part of the ballad repertoire, despite almost 500 years of exile (En torno:
127-148; Armistead 2000b). Note, however, how here the originally Catholic priest has been
transformed into an Orthodox papazico.

Tres damas van a la misa

Three ladies are going to mass

por hazer la orasin.

to say their prayers.

Entren medio va mi spoza,

With them goes my bride,

la que ms quera yo.

the one I love most of all.

10

Sayo yeva sovre sayo;

She wears many pleated skirts

un xiboy de altornasin.

and a waistcoat of fine cloth.

Su cavesa, una torona

Her head is round like a grapefruit;

sus caveyos briles son.

her hair is golden thread

Cuando los tom a peinare,

and when she combs it,

en eyos despunt el sol.

it glistens in the sun.

Las sus caras coreladas

Her red cheeks

mansanas dEscopia son.

are apples from Skopje;

Los dientes tan chiquiticos

her small teeth

dientes de marfil ya son.

are all like ivory.

Su boquita tan chequetica

In her tiny mouth

y que no le caven pen.

a rosebud would not fit;

La su seja enarkada

her arched eyebrows

rcol de tirar ya son.

are like taut bows.

Melda, melda, papazico,

The priest, reading his prayers,

12

de meldar ya se qued.

stopped in his reading.

Melda, melda, papazico,

Read on, little priest;

y que por ti no vengo yo.

Ive not come here for you.

Vine por el hijo del reyes,

que de amor va muerir yo.

I have come for the kings son,

for I am dying of love.[16]

Lyric Songs
Traditional lyric poetry among the Sephardim also has strong ties to the Iberian tradition.[17]
Certain poetic forms, notably the Moroccan wedding songs, embody a vocabulary of
parallelistic, synonymous rhyme words identicalin partto that found in early Castilian and
Portuguese traditional lyric poetry. Thus, for chemise, beloved, to sleep, and wine, we find
the synonymic alternates: camisa/delgada, amigo/amado, dormir/folgar, vino/claro, among many
others (Alvar 1985). Though some ballads also have specific communal functionsas wedding
songs, lullabies, songs of mourningthe functions of lyric poetry, its uses in specific utilitarian
social contexts, are in general much more sharply defined. In many cases, this is liminal poetry,
marking the thresholds of human life, the crucial moments of transition: birth songs, wedding
songs, funeral dirges (Armistead 1993: 364-367). Many of these songs, either in their poetic
form or in their specific genetic relationship to known early counterparts, have ancient Iberian
origins. However, some collectors of Eastern Sephardic lyric poetry were astounded to encounter
almost exact word-for-word correspondences between certain popular lyric songs, well known in
Istanbul and in Salonika, and identical songs, sung even to identical tunes, by modern Spaniards.
But these were not ancient, pre-Diasporic survivals. A number of Spanish popular songs reached
the Sephardic East on phonograph records and were quickly learned by Jewish singers, who
gradually came to consider them as a venerable and authentic part of their own Sephardic
repertoire, even despite some very obvious religious and cultural conflicts: A la una nas yo, / a
las dos me baftizaron . . . (I was born at one oclock, at two I was baptized . . .). This same,
probably quite modern, song is known today all over the Spanish-speaking world and must be a
late addition to the Sephardic repertoire. On the other hand, the Sephardims long residence in
Eastern Mediterranean lands also enriched their repertoire of lyric songs, several of which turn
out to be close translations of Greek distichs (En torno: 178-182; Armistead and Silverman 19831984: 43-44). As an example of an authentically traditional lyric song, the following endecha
sung at funerals and also during the nine days of the month of Ab (Thish b-b) to

commemorate the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, which is evoked in vv. 1-8. The rest of
the poem involves a conversation between a mother and her deceased son or daughter:

10

Haamim nombrados,

Famous wise men,

de honra y de fama,

of honor and of fame,

los yevan atados

are carried off bound

y arrastrados por la va.

and dragged along the streets.

Yoren, yoren, las seoras,

Weep, weep, you women,

las que tienen razn,

for well may you weep,

por la Caza Santa

for the Holy City

y el h orbn de Sin!

and the destruction of Zion!

Si haba algn consuelo

If there were some comfort

y en ste mi corasn,
yo vos rogo, la mi madre,

12

por las piadades,

que escribis mi dulse nombre

14

y en vuestros lumbrales.

in this heart of mine,

I beg you mother,
for the sake of charity,
to write my sweet name
on the threshold of your home.

Y escrito lo tengo, escrito,

16

y en la veluntade.
Los das que fuere viva,

18

mi madre, con tus pesares.

Yo vos rogo, la mi madre,

20

por las piadades,

que saquis mis nuevos vestidos

22

del arca y del ajugares.

Con la hoja del adefla,

24

mi madre, los bufeares.

Con la hoja de la retama,

26

mi madre, los safumare.

Y si al ao no volviere,

28

sacilos al delale.

And I have inscribed it

within my very soul.
As long as I live,
I will mourn for you.
I beg of you, mother,
for the sake of charity:
Take out my new clothes
from the dowry chest.
With leaves of the rosebay,
Mother, fumigate them for me.
With leaves of the furze,
Mother, perfume them for me.
If I dont return in a year,
take them to be sold

Y al primero precio,
30

mi madre, los qaddeare.

Y el que los comprare,

32

que no pase por la mi caye.

No los vea la mi madre,

34

los de dolor al corasn.

And at the lowest price,

Mother, sell them off.
And whoever buys them,
let him not go by my street,
so my mother may not see them,
those clothes of heartfelt grief.[18]

Enumerative Songs
There are relatively few cumulative or enumerative songs in the Sephardic repertoire, but they
are, nonetheless, of great interest.[19] The song of the Moorish girl (or the mulberrythe word
mora is ambivalent), which, through fly, spider, mouse, cat, dog, stick, fire, water, and ox,
ascends to the shh t (ritual slaughterer) and the malkh ha-mweth (Angel of Death), is also
known in Spanish Christian areas and is a Pan-European song-type, but it also reminds us of the
traditional Passover song ad gady (One little Goat), itself seemingly translated into Aramaic
from a Central European variant of the same text-type. The Little Goat, though it is probably of
Askenazic origin, is also sung in Judeo-Spanish (Un cavretico). Also very popularand also in
association with Passoverare multiple Judeo-Spanish translations of the Hebrew song, Eh ad
mi-yodea (The Twelve Numbers), which was also sung in Arabic by Spanish-speaking singers
both in the East and in Morocco. Another song, El viejezico (The Little Old Man), has a
seemingly identical counterpart in Modern Greek, but strikingly similar Peninsular analogues
have recently come to light, throwing the songs exact origins into doubt (En torno: 183-188;
Pedrosa 1992-1995). In both Morocco and the East, Dize la nuestra novia (Our Bride Says), sung
at weddings, of course, embodies a cumulative allegorical description of the beautiful girl, as
also does another, more bawdy, but regrettably incomplete Eastern song.[20] Vivarduea, also
sung both in the East and in North Africaand again at weddingsacts out, with gestures, in a
mimetic dance, the various stages in the production of bread: sowing, irrigating, growing,
reaping, gathering, sifting, grinding, kneading, molding, and baking. The song is genetically
related to similar songs known throughout the Hispanic world, as well as in France and Italy. In
its nuptial context, with its emphasis on fertility, it suggests ancient correlations between
agriculture and sexuality. Historically, it confirms the existence of medieval Jewish farming
communities on the Iberian Peninsula (En torno: 110-117; Tres calas: 107-112). La cantiga de

las horas (Song of the ours), known only in the East, follows the hours of the day, while
evoking, in these verses from the Island of Rhodes, a typically multiethnic Eastern
Mediterranean ambience:

In il curtijo de Ah met,

In Ahmeds courtyard,

ay ugan a shesh-u-besh.

they are playing at six and five.

Qu volo dir, mi alma?

What can I tell you, my dear?

Agora son las sex.

Its now six oclock.

Though here Ahmet is obviously a Turkish gentleman, the curtijo evokes the typical courtyard
of an Eastern Sephardic home, a center of family life. Shesh-u-besh is a Turkish form of
backgammon, whose name combines a Persian six with a Turkish five.

Prayers and Charms

Prayers and curative charms have been only sparsely collected among the Sephardim and they
have been very little studied, but they reveal clear and very interesting connections with Iberian
and Pan-European traditional poetry and folkbelief, as in the following charm from Rhodes,
where the supernatural or divine figurehere an old man, significantly dressed and shod in iron,
a sure and magical protection against witches and the evil eyeis met while traveling along a
road on a curative mission, as in numerous Peninsular counterparts:

. . . Caminando por un camino,

26

encuentr a un viejezico:
Fierro vesta,

. . . As I was walking along a path,

I met a little old man:
He was dressed all in iron,

28

fierro calsava.
Onde vas?

30

Ande fulana,
hija de sistrana,

32

a quitarle todo el ainar.

Todo el que la mir,

34

con mala ojada,

con mala ariada,

36

y a la fondina de la mar
yo lo echava.

38

Y el Dio la melezinava.

and with iron shoes.

Where are you going?
To the house of so-and-so,
daughter of such-and-such,
to take from her all the evil eye.
Every person who looked at her
with an evil look
and a bad demeanor:
I would throw him
into the depths of the sea.
And God cured her.[21]

The charm has strikingly similar analogues still current in Spain and Portugal. A prayer for rain
collected in 1958, in Los Angeles (California), from an informant from the Island of Rhodes:
Agua, O Dio! / Que la tierra la demanda . . . (Water, O God! The earth demands it . . .), is
verbally identical to the rain prayer included in Gonzalo Correas proverb dictionary compiled in
Spain in 1627: Agua, Dios, agua, ke la tierra lo demanda![22] The following bilingual
bedtime prayer was written down in an 18th-century family song and prayer MS from the Island
of Rhodes:

Me echo en mi cama,

I lie down in my bed,

10

de Mirym ha-nbh

protected by Miriam the prophetess;

me covijo con colcha

I am covered with the quilt

de rey lmh

of Solomon the king;

entrego mi alma

I give up my soul

en poder del Criador:

to the power of the Lord:

El que me la guadre

May he keep it safe

de h u ego de flama,

from flames of fire

de muerte de xapetanya.

and from sudden death.

Sero mis puertas y mis ventanas

con so del rey lmh melekh

12

Mh l de mi derecha,
Gabrl de mi ensyedra,

14

khnh pozada sovre mi cavesa:

Escpame de veneno malo

I close my doors and windows

with King Solomons seal;
Michael is on my right hand
and Gabriel on my left
and the spirit of God above my head:
Keep me safe from evil poison

16

y de h lm rm

and from bad sickness;

escpame de gzrth malos,

18

save me from misfortune

kr de sakn

and keep me free from danger.[23]

Jos Manuel Pedrosas recent in-depth study of this text and its Pan-European congeners (1995:
187-220) has shed indispensable light on its ancient origins and its magical implications.

Riddles
As we have already observed, Judeo-Spanish riddles have been gravely neglected. An
interesting, but, in comparative terms, still seriously deficient corpus from the Eastern tradition
can now be studied, but to date we still know nothing at all about riddles among North African
Sephardim.[24] Preliminary studies of the Eastern repertoire suggest, tentatively, a richly diverse
tradition, more or less equally divided between riddles of early Iberian origin and others
obviously borrowed from Turkish, from Greek, or from an unspecifiable Pan-Balkan tradition.
Some riddles clearly date from pre-Expulsion times, as would seem to be the case with the
following riddle from Monastir (Macedonia):
Una coza y coza muy maraviyoza:
Cae en la mar y no se moja
(El sol)
(Something, something very marvelous:
It falls into the sea and does not get wet.)
(The sun)[25]
Just as in the Eastern Sephardic communities, this riddle is also enormously popular in Spain and
elsewhere in the Hispanic world. It is one of the few Judeo-Spanish riddles for which we have
early documentation. The Toledan poet, Fernn Gonzlez de Eslavaa priest who, incidentally,
was probably of converso parentagewriting in Mexico City during the second half of the 16th
century, included the following verses in one of his compositions, which habitually are amply
interlarded with quotations from traditional poetry:
Qu es cosa y cosa:

Entra en la mar y no se moja?

Esse es el sol, pienso yo.
(What sort of a thing is this?
It goes into the sea and doesnt get wet.
Thats the sun, I believe.)[26]
There are, however, many other Eastern riddles which have obviously been borrowed from the
repertoires of the Jews Turkish, Greek, or Slavic neighbors. The following multiple-answer
riddle, also from Monastir, is indubitably of Turkish origin:

Todu ay al mundu:

Everything exists in the world:

Solu tres cozes no ay.

Only three things dont exist.

(Capac al mar,

(A cover for the sea,

milizine a la muerti,

a cure for death,

iscalere para asuvir

a ladder to ascend

a lus sielus.)

to heaven.)
(Luria 1930: 89)

The riddles Turkish counterpart reads:

Bizim pacaya bir ku geldi, A bird came to our roof:

hak dedi, hk dedi,

It said: ak! It said: k!

bu dnyada eye

It said: There is no remedy

are yok dedi.

for three things in this world.

(Denize kapak,

(A lid for the sea,

ge merdiven,

a ladder for the sky,

lume are.)

a cure for death.)

(Bagz and Tietze 1973: no. 1041.1a)

The Eastern Sephardic riddles confirm, then, the eclectic, multicultural origins we have already
encountered in other genres of Judeo-Spanish traditional literature.

Proverbs
Proverbs are still an essential part of folk-speech everywhere in the Hispanic world and, in this,
the Sephardim are no exception. As is the case with other proverb traditions, Judeo-Spanish
refranes are often pithy, pungent, and sarcastic, using directand sometimes very crude
language to get across a crucial lesson: Quen no tiene a la fermoza, beza a la mocoza (He who
doesnt have a beautiful girl, must kiss a snot-nosed one); Quen mocos manda, bavas aresive
(If you send snot, youll get back slobber); Cagajones y bembrillos son amariyos (Turds and
quinces are both yellow); Mi nuera la garrida, disku ke laba desfoyina (My bright daughterin-law! After she washes, she decides to clean the chimney).[27] Many proverbs must have come
from Spain with the exiles of 1492. Here are four, accompanied immediately below by their early
Peninsular counterpartsthe latter brought together in 1627, in the proverb dictionary of
Gonzalo Correas (Combet 1967). The translation is essentially identical in each case:
A gran a grano, hinche la gayina el papo.
Grano a grano, hinche la gallina el papo.
(One seed at a time, a hen fills its craw.)

Antes que te cazes, mira lo que hazes.

Antes ke te kases, mira lo ke hazes . . .
(Watch what you do before you get married.)
Aqueyos polvos truxeron estos lodos.
Kon esos polvos se hizieron estos lodos.
(That dust brought, or made, this mud.)
Dime con qun andas; te dir qun sos.
Dime kon kin fueres i dirte kin eres.
(Tell me who you go around with and Ill tell you who you are.)[28]

Other Eastern Judeo-Spanish proverbs obviously have been borrowed from neighboring Balkan
or Near Eastern peoples: Mo muri; Adonai qued (Moses died; God remains) has its exact
counterpart in Arabic (or Judeo-Arabic): ms mt, baq rabb il-samwt (Moses is dead; God
remains in Heaven) (Khayyat 1985: 195, no. 30). That a person of superior status will corrupt his
inferiors is pungently expressed by Eastern Sephardim with the saying: El pexcado fiede de la
cavesa (A fish stinks from its head). The saying has Greek and Turkish counterparts; it is also
known in Italy, but, to my knowledge, it does not occur in Spain:
Balk batan kokar.
(The fish stinks from the head.)
Apo tn kefal murzei t psri.
(From the head, the fish smells.)

Petele de la cap se mpute.

(The fish, from the head, stinks.)[29]

Excessive caution is warned against in Qun se quema en la chorb, asopla y en el yogurt. (He
who gets burned drinking soup, will also blow on the yoghurt.) Like many other Eastern Judeo-

Spanish proverbs, this one is probably Pan-Balkan in distribution, though, for now, I can only
cite Greek and Rumanian congeners:
orbaden az yanan ayran fliyerek ier.
(He who is burned with the soup will blow on the yogurt drink.)
Stten az yanan yourdan fleyerek yer.
(He who is burned with the milk will blow on the yogurt.)
Apo kkes tn koloktha fus ka t giaorti.
(He who gets burned by the [hot] pumpkin will also blow on the [cold] yogurt.)
Cine se frige cu bor sufl i n iaurt.
(He who gets burned with borscht even blows on yogurt.)[30]

Needless to say, some Biblical proverbs have also come over into popular usage in JudeoSpanish, as, for example, is the case with: Echa un pedasico de pan a la mar; algn da lo
topars (Throw a little piece of bread into the sea; some day you will find it again), which
corresponds exactly to Ecclesiastes 11:1 (simplified transcription):
Shalah lah emeh al-pen ha-mam ki-berob ha-yamm thimeaen.
(Throw your bread upon the waters, some day you will find it again).

Folktales
During the early stages of field work on Judeo-Spanish oral literature, folktales suffered by
comparison with the ballads, so attractive to Hispanists. All the same, an important corpus of
folktales, rigorously transcribed in close phonetic notation, was brought together early on,
because scholars looked upon the folktales primarily as samples of the spoken language, while
later collectingfollowing World War II and the Holocaustrecognized them for their own
intrinsic value.[31] We now have at hand a vast and variegated corpus, much of it dispersed in
articles, some of difficult access. Reginetta Habouchas monumental Types and Motifs (1992) has
systematized this material and has made it readily accessible, giving us an indispensable starting
point for subsequent research on Judeo-Spanish folktales.
Because of their more flexible formprose rather than verseit is sometimes difficult to trace a
storys precise origin. Some Sephardic folktales were surely taken into exile from the Hispanic

homeland, but, surely again, the tradition was also greatly enriched by the diverse Eastern
Mediterranean traditions with which the Jews were inevitably in daily contact.[32] Similarly, in
Morocco, certain stories clearly emerge as borrowings from the local Arabic or autocthonous
Berber traditions, while others may have come from pre-diasporic Spain and still others may
well have been learned from recently arrived Spanish immigrants. The following example, with
its Turkish trickster hero, its thoroughly Eastern ambience (including a mosque tower), and its
abundant Turkish vocabulary, without doubt exemplifies once again the important contributions
of Near Eastern diasporic traditions to the Hispanic heritage of the Sephardim.

Quitaron un tel-lal en la mal que el que se puede estar en la mexquita deznudo la noche entera
le va a pagarle tanto.
Buenodize. (Sali Hoa a correr.) Yo!dizeyo lo hago esto!
Bien.
Lo deznudavan entero, como lo pari la madre. Lo metieron una sbana slo, tapado. Y subi a
la mexquita. Ma el que quit tel-lal en la mal le dixo al pikch:
Cada hora ya lo ves, al pasar, si est ah. Que no mos vaiga engaar.
Y viene el pikch, con la lampa, mirava: Ya est ah.
Est bien. Cada hora lo mizmo; cada hora lo mizmo. Cuando ya abax[] ..., cuando ya eskap la
nochada, le dizen (para cobrar), le dizen y cmo dizen?:
T estuvites caentiko toda la noche.
Dize: Cmo me pude caentar?!
Le dizen: El pikch, cuando iva cada hora, no te mirava con la lampa? La resplandor de la
lampa te caentava el fuego [= puerpo]. Pues no le pagaron! [...]
Nastrad Hoa yam a todos los vezindados de caza. Les dio ... el ... un .... anque ... un party. [...]
Y Nastrad Hoa se fue abaxo a cozer el kav, para todos. Qu hizo? En luguar de meter el ev a
la lumbre, ... el ibrik de kav, lo colg al tavn! Y la lumbre abaxo.
Ya esperan una hora, dos, tres, cuatro. El kav no est echo.
Nastrad, qu pas del kav?dizen.
Y est coziendo.

Como tantas horas [pasaron], abaxaron abaxo los vezi[ndados], el aquel, los musafrim. Le
dizen:
Nastrad Hoa, cmo el cav se puede hazer cuando est el tavn ah y [la lumbre] aqu?
Dize: Cmo pude yo caentarme cuando estava en la mexquita?![33]

They sent a town crier around the neighborhood saying they would pay a certain amount to
anyone who could spend the whole night standing naked on [top of] the mosque.
Hoa ran out, saying: Me! Ill do it!
Very well, they said.
They stripped him as completely as the moment he was born. They covered him only with a
sheet. And he went up in the minaret. But the person who sent the town crier around the
neighborhood told the night watchman:
Every hour, when you go by, take a look to see if hes there, so he wont deceive us.
And the night watchman comes by, with his lamp, and looks and sees him there.
Each hour the same thing; each hour the same. When he came down ..., when the night was over,
they tell him (he wanted to be paid), they say to him ... and what do they go and tell him?:
You were nice and warm all night long.
He says: How could I ever have warmed myself?!
They answer him: When the night watchman went by every hour, didnt he look at you with his
lamp? The light from the lamp warmed your body. And they didnt pay him!
Nastrad Hoa called all his neighbors and gave them the . . . a ... even though ... a party. And
Nastrad Hoa went downstairs to cook the coffee for everyone. What did he do? Instead of
putting the househould effects, ... the coffeepot on the fire, he hung it from the ceiling! And the
fire down below.
Well, they waited one hour, two, three, four. The coffee isnt done.
Nastrad, what ever happened to the coffee? they say.
Its cooking, he answers.
Since so many hours [went by], the neighbors, that is the guests, went downstairs, saying:

Nastrad Hoa, how can you ever make coffee when the ceiling is up there and [the fire down]
here?
He answers: And how could I warm myself when I was in the minaret?!
__________ . __________
In looking back at Judeo-Spanish oral literature as a whole, it becomes clear that this is not only
the repository of priceless medieval survivals so dear to Hispanists, nor yet is it solely a
fascinatingly exotic variant of Jewish culture, but it is, rather, a variegated tapestry woven of
many different cultural strandsat once Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, Hispanic, Mediterranean
and Near Easternbut, ultimately, uniquely and richly distinctive in its own right.

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Notes
* The present article was originally published in French, La littrature orale des juifs
spharades (as translated by Patrick Moser), in Cahiers de Littrature Orale, 44 (1998), 93-122.
The present text has been updated and the notes and bibliography have, in various cases, been
expanded.

[1] See, for example, the classic monograph of Schwarz (1925; abbreviated English account:
1926); up-to-date bibliography: Costa Fontes (1992; 1993).
[2] For Ibiza: Mound (1984); for the American Southwest: Hordes (1993; 1996). In the latter
case, there remains an open and much debated question as to how many of the individuals
involved actually are of Jewish origin.
[3] Unlike the Mediterranean settlements established after the Diaspora of 1492, the Sephardic
community of Amsterdam was founded by reconverted New Jews, whose ancestors had been
New Christians in Spain and Portugal for various generations and who brought with them an
essentially Renaissance Spanish culture to the Dutch Jerusalem. See now den Boers
monumental monograph (1996; Armistead 2000c). Concerning the mixed Spanish-Portuguese
language that would develop in the Amsterdam community, in London, and would even survive
briefly in New York, see Adams (1966-1967). These later emigrants would found, in their turn,
many of the early Jewish settlements in the New World (Armistead 1993; 1996).
[4] For Eastern Judeo-Spanish, see Crews (1935); Luria (1930a); Sala (1970; 1971); Wagner
(1914; 1930; 1990); Varol (1996); for Moroccan Judeo-Spanish: Bnichou (1945; 1960);
Benoliel (1926-1952); Wagner (1931); for further bibliography on language: Studemund (1975);
Sala (1976); Bunis (1981); for historical and cultural surveys: Sphiha (1977); Angel (1978);
Daz-Mas (1986; 1987; 1992); Malka (1986); Vidakovi (1986); Lvy (1989); Altab, Atay, and
Katz (1996); Benbassa and Rodrigue (2000); Katz and Serels (2000). Mark Cohens splendid
history of the Monastir community (2003) also illuminates that of other Eastern communities.
Dictionaries of both dialects: Nehama (1977); Bendayn (1995).
[5] For Hebraisms in Eastern Judeo-Spanish: Bunis (1993); Crews (1955); for the Moroccan
dialect: Benoliel (1926-1952); Cantera (1954); Hassn (1977).
[6] For the coexistence of a variety of Eastern Judeo-Spanish dialects in New York in the early
1900s, see Luria (1930b).
[7] See En torno: 151-253; Armistead and Silverman (1983-1989); Katz (1983-1984); Armistead
(1995-1996; 1999); Armistead and Monroe (1998).
[8] Various other types of folklore have also been collected and studied, but coverage is often
geographically limited and much more work is urgently needed. For example, see, for traditional
dress: Y. Stillman (1980); for folk-cookery: Camhy (1978) and especially the far-ranging work of
Roden (1997); for folk-medicine: Firestone (1962); Zumwalt (1993); for folk-speech: Benoliel
(1926-1952: 151-168, 196-234); for folk-belief: Danon (1896-1897; 1899). Molho (1950)
documents numerous aspects of Eastern Judeo-Spanish folklore.
[9] Concerning complas and paraliturgical poetry, see the pathfinding (and ongoing) studies of
Hassn (1976; 1992); Hassn and Romero (1978); Romero (1976; 1981a; 1988; 1992a; 1992b);
Romero and Carracedo (1977); for the theater: Romero (1968; 1973; 1975; 1979; 1983b);
Schmid and Brki (2000); note also Bunis (1994); Armistead (1995-1996); for an authoritative
survey of written literature: Hassn (1981; 1982; 1995); Romero (1992).

[10] The reactions of Spanish intellectuals to the discovery of the Hispano-Jewish community
in Morocco, following the Spanish occupation of Tetun in 1860, are curiously insensitive to the
historical, cultural, linguisitc, and folkloric significance of what at least some of them had even
witnessed firsthand. Dividing their reactions betweenin a majoritythe crudest canards of
traditional anti-semitism andin a small minoritya sympathetic humanitarian appreciation of
Jewish religiosity and other positive features, these Spaniards of the 1860s were totally oblivious
of the unique literary and ethnographic value of the Jewish communities (Vilar Ramrez 1969:
68-71; Armistead and Silverman 1975-1976: 274-275). Note also Julia Cohen (2001).
[11] For outlines and documentation of ballad field work, see Nahn: 15-22; Benardete: 4-12.
[12] Concerning social, cultural, and political factors involved in the disappearance of JudeoSpanish folk literature and language, see Benmayor (1979); Harris (1994); Armistead (1993).
[13] A few narrative songs accepted by scholars as part of the ballad corpus may exhibit other
metrical patterns: for example, parallelistic couplets or six-syllable verses (romancillo) (CMP, I,
56, n. 66). Some of the major ballad collections are Attias (1961); Benardete (1981); Bnichou
(1968a); Benmayor (1979a); Bosnia; CMP; FLSJ; Hemsi (1932-1973; 1995); Larrea (1952);
Librowicz (1980; 1988); Nahn; Weich-Shahak (1990; 1995b; 1997); for crucial criticism:
Bnichou (1968b); Cataln (1969; 1970); En torno.
[14] The ballads genetic relationship to epic narratives and versification can no longer be
considered a theory, but is now established as a recognized and demonstrated fact: Armistead
(1992); FLSJ, II-VII. Note also Dmaso Alonsos authoritative conclusion: el paso tradicional
de los cantares de gesta a los romances pico-lricos est seguramente comprobado (19701971: 45).
[15] See En torno: 151-239. A meticulous study of the ballad music confirmsin the case of the
Eastern communitiesthe profound influence of Greek, Balkan, and Near Eastern music on the
Sephardic tune repertoire (Katz 1971-1975; 1983-1984; En torno: 243-253).
[16] Sung by Mrs. Esther Varsano Hassid, 65 years, from Salonika (Greece), recorded by S. G.
Armistead and J. H. Silverman, in Van Nuys, California, August 22, 1957. See our studies: Tres
calas: 25-28, 135-136; FLSJ: I, 319-334. This version was edited in Tres calas: 135. Here I have
omitted the refrain (El mi seor!) and the verses repeated in singing. The following words
require comment: xiboy (v. 3b) (= Sp. jubn, but it is closer to Catalan gip, Aragonese gipn,
Portuguese gibo); altornasin (3b) (< Sp. tornasol) is now meaningless; meldar (10-11) to
read ultimately goes back to Greek maletn (Blondheim 1925: 75-79).
[17] For collections of traditional lyric poetrywhich usually also include some narrative poetry
(ballads)see Attias (1972); Hemsi (1932-1973; 1995); Larrea (1954); Levy (1959-1973); for
songs of passage: Alvar (1969; 1971); Weich-Shahak (1979-1980; 1982-1983; 1990, 1995b);
Librowicz and Cohen (1986); Judith Cohen (1987); Leibovici (1986); Armistead (1993: 364-367,
375-376, nn. 27-36; 2002).

[18] Sung by Rachel Nahn, 75 years; collected by S. G. Armistead and I. J. Katz, Tetun
(Morocco), August 9, 1962; for variant texts: Alvar (1969: 147-154). The following forms
require comment: aamm (v. 1) wise men (< Hebrew h khmm); h orbn (8) destruction (<
Hebrew h urbn); adefla (23) (< Sp. adelfa) and retama (25) (i.e. bitter-smelling plants); delale
(28) auctioneer; town crier (< Ar. dallal; Cl. Ar. dalll); qaddeare (30) to sell cheaply;
without bargaining (< Ar. qedd; cfr. ala qeddu qui ne vaut pas cher). In v. 18, the reading, mi
madre is out of place; read mi hijo or mi hija. Here, and in the following notes, the
abbreviation Ar. refers to Moroccan Colloquial Arabic.
[19] Concerning cumulative songs, see En torno: 183-188; Armistead (1993: 362-364, 374-375,
nn. 20-26); Pedrosa (1992-1995); Weich-Shahak (1995a).
[20] See Hemsi (1995: 327, 458-459); Armistead (1995).
[21] Recited by Rebecca A. Levy, 46 years, from the Island of Rhodes, collected by S. G.
Armistead and J. H. Silverman, Los Angeles (California), February 16, 1958; complete text:
Armistead (1993: 370-371). Ainar evil eye reflects Hebrew yn h-r (or ayin rh). See a
splendid variant of our curative charm (which contains, among others, some elements in
common with our prayer in n. 23), collected by Susana Weich-Shahak, in Israel, from a woman
also from the same community in Rhodes (Weich-Shahak 1992: 30-34). The motif of iron shoes
has various connotations in traditional literature. In our curative charm, the iron implies magic
protection against evildoing spirits, but one also finds iron shoes as a punitive element or one of
deprivation and fatigue: Q502.2. Punishment: wandering till iron shoes are worn out; H1125.
Task: traveling till iron shoes are worn out; M136. Vow not to marry till iron shoes wear out
(Thompson 1955-1958).
[22] Combet (1967: 65b); Armistead (1993: 369-370, 377, n. 49).
[23] Here I have simplified the transliteration of the Hebrew-letter text edited in Armistead and
Silverman (1990-1991: 25). The words for prophetess (v. 2), king (11), evil sickness (16),
misfortune (17), safe (18), and danger (18) are from Hebrew, though hlm rm (16) and
saknh (18) have both been misspelled in the MS.
[24] For Eastern Judeo-Spanish riddles, see Luria (1930: 88-90); Galante (1948: 22-24);
Armistead and Silverman (1982; 1983; 1983-1984a-b; 1998); for an extensive bibliography of
Pan-Hispanic riddles: Armistead (1985; 1989).
[25] Recited by Adela Barokas, circa 80 years, from Monastir (Macedonia), collected by S. G.
Armistead, in Brooklyn (New York), October 30, 1981.
[26] See Frenk (1989: 253; 83, 402-403); for another early version and modern Judeo-Spanish
variants: Armistead and Silverman (1998: no. 9).
[27] The first three proverbs are from the Eastern communities. I know them from oral tradition.
The last one is from Morocco (Armistead 1988: 80, n. 9). Concerning off-color proverbs in the
Judeo-Spanish tradition, see Levy and Zumwalt (1994). It would be impossible to give here an

extended account of Judeo-Spanish proverb collections. Three of the best documented for the
East are Lida (1958); Levy (1969); Carracedo and Romero (1981); for Morocco: Benoliel (19261952: 211-234). Goldbergs contextual study (1993) represents a significant advance.
[28] The Sephardic proverbs are from Rhodes and are cited from a handwritten list compiled by
Rebecca A. Levy, 46 years, and given to S. G. Armistead and J. H. Silverman, in Los Angeles,
January 20, 1958. The Spanish proverbs, from Gonzalo Correas Vocabulario (Combet 1967:
347b, 60a, 423b, 324a), reflect a special orthography and an alphabetical order designed by
Correas. The edition of Correas proverbs, edited and introduced by Miguel Mir (1924), also
continues to be very useful and has recently been reprinted (1992), with a new prologue by
Vctor Infantes. See Lvy (1969) for published Judeo-Spanish counterparts of these proverbs.
[29] See Jeannaraki (1967: 293, no. 24); Armistead and Silverman (1983-1984a: 47, n. 31);
Armistead, Silverman, and Haboucha (1982: 97, n. 12). For the widely known Turkish proverb,
see Dapinar (1974: no. 66); Haig (1969: no. 328); Hony and z (1957: s.v.); Muallimolu
(1990:92); zta, p. 11; Yurtba (1993: 70). My friend, Professor Joseph V. Ricapito, has kindly
pointed out an Italian counterpart: Il pesce puzza dalla testa. My colleague, Professor Yuri
Druzhnikov, informs me that the same proverb exists in Russian as well: Ryba gnit s golovy.
Note Aroras important study (1989). Note also an exactthough politicizedMoroccan
Colloquial Arabic parallel: El bled be-h al el h uta: ka-tkhennez min ar-ras (This country is like
a fish: It stinks from the head). My friend and colleague, Professor Maria Manoliu Manea,
offered the Rumanian reading.
[30] The first Turkish example is from Hony and z (1957: 380, s.v. flemek). They cite an
English proverb: A scalded cat fears cold water. Ayran is a drink made with yourt and water
mixed with snow or ice (Hony and z 1957: s.v.). The second instance is from Yurtba (1993:
137, 142), who cites distant parallels in various languages. See also Dapinar (1982: no. 439);
Haig (1969: no. 647); zta, p. 51. Jeannaraki provides a German translation: Wer sich am
heissen Krbis verbrannt, der blsst auch in die (kalte) sauere Milch, together with the French
counterpart: Chat chaude craint leau froide (1967: 293, no. 22), which corresponds to
Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan: Gato escaldado del agua fra huye; Gato escaldado de gua
fria tem medo; Gat escaldat del aiga freda fuig. Again, I owe the Rumanian proverb to the
kindness and erudition of my colleague, Professor Maria Manoliu Manea.
[31] See, for example, the linguistic studies of Crews (1935; 1979), Luria (1930); Wagner (1914;
1990). Later folktale collections include Kolonomos (1978); Koen-Sarano (1986; 1991; 1994).
Larreas very substantial Moroccan collection (1952-1953) was poorly collected and poorly
editedfrom texts taken down in shorthand (!)from which a great majority of the dialects
Arabic loan words have been eliminated. Despite the violence done to the tales linguistic fabric,
the collection at least gives us viable outlines of the narrative content and continues to be an
essential reference. Peor es nada! Martnez Ruizs editing is incomparably better (1951). For
everything concerning traditional stories, Reginetta Habouchas splendid Types and Motifs index
is indispensable (1992).

[32] For other examples of Judeo-Spanish tales of Near Eastern origin, see Armistead,
Silverman, and Hassn (1978); Armistead and Silverman (1983-1984a: 44, 49, n. 19); Armistead,
Haboucha, and Silverman (1982).
[33] Version from Silivri (Turkey), told by Marco Fiss, circa 50 years, collected by S.G.A. and
J.H.S., Los Angeles (California), April 9, 1960. I have revised the transcription published in our
Narraciones hispanoamericanas de tradicin oral (1972: 97-98), where we also edit a Moroccan
Sephardic variant (pp. 98-101). The following forms need to be glossed: tel-lal town crier (T.
telll; from Cl. Ar. dalll); mal neighborhood (T. mahalle); pikch night watchman (T. beki);
lampa lamp, lantern (Gk. lmpa; T. lmba, lmpa); kav coffee (T. kahve); ev possibly
household things, house-effects, domestic things (elliptical for T. ev-e yas?); ibrik teapot,
coffeepot (T. ibrik); tavn ceiling (T. tavan); musafrim guests (T. msafir, misafir guest,
visitor; traveler; stranger with H. pl. suffix -im). The story represents Aarne-Thompson type
1262. Roasting the meat. For Turkish and Syrian versions, see Walker and Uysal (1966: 239-241,
295 [no. 36]); Wilson (1903: 142-143).
http://www.sephardifolklit.org/flsj/OLSJ