About the Bold Cossack and the Greedy Turk
                                      

During the Turkish rule in Crimea, there lived in Mangup a pasha—the chief of the fortress guard. Above all else, the pasha loved money. He collected taxes from the local residents and often sent his soldiers to rob nearby villages. When the Turks brought prisoners to Mangup, the pasha personally searched them and took all valuables for himself.
Among the prisoners in Mangup, in a stone crypt on Dyryavy Cape, surrounded on three sides by an abyss, a Zaporozhian Cossack languished. The Turks hoped to get a large ransom for him.

Often the pasha summoned the prisoner and forced him to tell stories about the countries he had visited, about campaigns and battles. The pasha loved such stories. But even more, he loved to hear about gold, precious stones, and costly fabrics that the Cossack had seen. Then the pasha’s eyes would light up with greed. He forgot everything else in the world and dreamed of himself as the owner of countless treasures.
One evening, the pasha called the captive Cossack to hear another tale.
“Loosen my chains, let me stretch my arms and legs a bit,” the Cossack asked. “I want to tell you a true story about a treasure that the Cossacks once hid here. I kept silent about it all this time, but I see—you are a good man.”
And the Cossack began to speak like never before. His slow, deliberate speech flowed about how the captured Cossacks had brought a lot of gold into the fortress and managed to hide it in some cave. The cave could be found if searched well enough.
The Cossack looked straight into the pasha’s eyes, mesmerizing him. Soon the Turk’s eyes dulled, his eyelids closed. The fierce ruler fell asleep.
He dreamed he was standing in a vast underground chamber. Looking closer in the light coming from small vents, he recognized the casemate in the deep dungeons of Mangup, where the Turks threw their toughest opponents. Why had he descended here? Ah, the prisoner had spoken of this casemate! Somewhere here the treasure was hidden. Where was the wealth that would satisfy him for life? He had to search!
The pasha stepped slowly over the uneven floor, inspecting every bump, every crack. Suddenly, in one place, he noticed something sparkling. He began to dig—and pulled out a heap of gold from the pit. Rings, bracelets, gold coins... The pasha sat by the shimmering metal, trembling with feverish joy. The Cossack spoke the truth, a good man! The absolute truth!
Suddenly, he heard a voice. Startled, he looked up and saw before him a woman of indescribable beauty. Lowering her gaze, the beauty said:
“You want to possess my treasures, but I guard them for the one who wishes to become my husband.”
The pasha looked at her with burning eyes.
“Am I not your destined one, beautiful woman?” he asked.
“Then swear you will join with me—and the gold is yours!” the woman replied.
“I swear!” said the pasha and tried to grasp her hand but struck a stone. Footsteps echoed in the underground, then stopped in the distance.
The Turk awoke.
The prisoner was gone. His chains lay on the ground. The Cossack had fled. The pasha did not pursue him, for he believed the Cossack’s story.
Since then, the Turk lost his peace. He searched all the casemates in every dungeon of the fortress but found nothing anywhere. Then he began to search the surroundings. Gold and jewels haunted him day and night. He climbed rocks, ventured into gorges and caves. But he found no gold.
One day, the pasha climbed a rock, saw a crevice, tried to reach it, but slipped and fell down. There he met his death.
The locals say the greedy Turk did not fall by himself but was dragged into the abyss by an evil spirit living in the dungeons of Mangup.
They also say the Turk’s soul will wander near Mangup for a long time, searching for the entrance to the cherished underground chamber where the Cossack treasure is kept. The greedy soul will not find peace until the passage of time erases it from the face of the earth.
Often, loud laughter echoes through the rocks of Mangup: they say it is the bold Cossack, a merry soul, laughing at the deceived Turk.

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