One day, an old man went out for a walk in the marketplace. Suddenly, he heard a commotion. When he asked what it was, they told him:
“It’s a wedding.”
He saw a wedding fit for kings and said, “It would be worth seeing the bride. At such a beautiful and magnificent wedding, perhaps she looks like a monkey!”
He pushed his way forward and saw thousands of people crowding around him. He kept going until he reached the bride and crawled underneath the horse carrying her.
The bride was sitting on an Aghsaba — something like a boat-shaped carriage mounted on a horse, made of wood and decorated with fabrics fit for kings. There was also a similar structure between two horses.
The old man saw that the bride was very beautiful, and that the groom was even more handsome than she was. They were apparently very wealthy.
He tried to move forward, but the crowd pushed him back. The bride saw him and thought that he wanted a handout, so she wanted to give him some money.
“Madam,” he said, “I don’t want a handout. I want to ask you a question.”
“Ask,” the bride replied.
“Now, after all this splendor and all this wealth, is there still something you wish for? Is there anything you don’t have?”
“Yes, of course, uncle,” she said. “I have one great wish. I want to catch hold of my fate. I would tie its hands so that it would stay like this and not turn the wheel. Otherwise, what is the point?”
There are times when a person is happy, everything is going well for him, and he prays:
“Above all, let things remain this way and not go downhill.”
Acknowledgment: Thanks to the Tavor (Cherkian) family.
The story was told by Baruch Tavor and recorded by Liora Bahar.
The story is also registered in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), named after Dov Noy at the University of Haifa, serial number 10241.