Ep. 650 - Dyjhicon: the Coward-Hero - An Armenian Folktale

Dyjhicon was a poor unfortunate fellow who had only two goats and a cow. His wife was an ambitious woman, and annoyed him by her frequent demands.

“I want you to go out and work,” she often said. “I want you to build a new house, I want to buy myself some new dresses, oxen and sheep, a horse and wagon.”

Dyjhicon, tiring of her endless complaints and scoldings, one day took his great stick and drove the cow out of the house, saying to himself:

“Let me run from this wicked wife to the wilderness and there die.”

This was what the woman wanted. Thus he ran from her and wandered in the wilderness. When he was hungry he milked the cow and drank the milk, and when he was tired he mounted the cow. He was very timid,—a typical coward. The sight of a running rat was enough to make him tremble.

“Eh!” he thought, nevertheless, “it is better to be torn by wild beasts than to become the slave of a wicked woman.”

One day, as the cow was pasturing on a green meadow and Dyjhicon was lying down lazily, the flies stung him. He cursed his wife and clapped his hands to kill the flies. Then he counted to see how many flies he had killed at one stroke, and lo! they were seven in number. This encouraged him, and he took his knife and carved upon his stick these words:

“I am Dyjhicon; I have killed seven by one stroke of the hand.”