Text:

We had a land and Romans and Greek people, you know, used to live there. And

my grandpa was saying, like, in our garden, we have,  gold in our garden. They hide the gold before, like, when they’re, escaping from something, you know, like Turkish, when they’re escaping from Turks, like, they hide the gold. there in our garden. Actually, that’s what he says. And also, like, there’s another story that in that land, he says there is a very, very big snake. We call that snake like a mustache snake, that he protects the treasure. He was telling me that he saw that snake. My grandpa was a farmer, and he was doing some farming stuff, and he was in a tractor. And he told me that he saw this snake. He was kind of overreacting, probably, but he told me when they were driving the tractor, one snake jump off the top of the tractor. That’s what he told me, and what he said was, he got a mustache, that snake. And he’s very big. He’s like five, six meters. That’s what he says. Like five meters. And we call, as I said, we call, like a mustache snake. That snake has a mustache, and he protect the treasure. 

Context:

This is a legend told to the informant by his grandfather when he was 12 or 13. It is rooted in the geographical history of Cesme and Alacati, where he is from; the ancient Greeks and Romans did live in the area. In Turkish mythology there is a protective snake deity named Yilan Tanrı, and past peoples having buried treasure is a trope in Turkish legends.  

Analysis:

This legend/memorate has a few functions. It is educational, teaching the informant about the history of the region, and perhaps embeds some Turkish Nationalism; the garden, and by extension the land is valuable because there is gold buried there. The informant’s disbelief in the memorate, saying “that’s what he said, actually” and that his grandpa was probably exaggerating, highlights the partial belief or belief with doubt that lay at the heart of legends. There isn’t a good reference for a snake with a moustache, but the moustache may be a tool the grandfather used to make the story more entertaining for the informant, or a way to make the story his own given the buried treasure and snake are common themes in Turkish legend.