Evliya Çelebi's Mystical Encounter in Çalıkkavak: A Tale of Transformations

Evliya Çelebi's Mystical Encounter in Çalıkkavak: A Tale of Transformations

Another mystical story of Evliya Çelebi takes place in Bulgaria. Evliya Çelebi stays in a "kefere" house in Çalıkkavak village, which is in Rumelia (Bulgaria), and rests by the fire. One day, an old and ugly woman, an "acuze," enters without hesitation, sits by the fire, and starts uttering curses in her own language.
Evliya initially thinks that the men outside might have angered the woman and, when he questions them, they respond, "By no means, we have no knowledge of such a thing." Then, 7 children, both girls and boys, gather around the acuze and start speaking in Bulgarian with excitement. Watching this, Evliya says, "What a strange spectacle."
As midnight approaches, the noise and commotion wake Evliya from his sleep. He observes the acuze applying a handful of ashes from the fireplace to her forehead and casting a spell on the 7 children lying by the fire. Suddenly, they all transform into large chicks, clucking together. When the acuze spreads the remaining ashes on herself, she turns into a big hen, clucking as she exits through the door. The chicks follow.
At that moment, Evliya cries out, "Hey, lad!" The men rush in, seeing blood coming out of his nose. Evliya asks, "What is this, lads? Go outside and see, there's quite a commotion."
The men outside witness horses racing each other, and the transformed chickens wandering among them. The villagers, the "keferes," aware of the situation, come and tie up the horses. The witch and the chickens go elsewhere.
Evliya's man continues the story, "We saw a kefere relieving himself on the chickens whose minds he had disturbed. At that moment, eight chickens turned into humans, with one of them being the old acuze again. The kefere who had urinated and the other keferes were beaten, and they took the acuze woman and her children by the arms, beating them, and took them away. Later, we checked and found out they had reached a church. They handed the woman over to the priest, who recited and blew 'afaroz-u mandolos.'"
Evliya continues, "After this incident, my men swore an oath. 'Müezzin Mehmet Efendi from Antep and his men, Mataracıbaşı and his men, they all witnessed that the chickens turned into humans,' they said.


I didn't stop bleeding from my nose due to fear or the movement of my blood until morning. When daylight came, I got rid of the blood. Later, I called Müezzin and Mataracı's men and asked, 'I swear, in the evening, when that Bulgarian kefere urinated on the chickens, they turned into humans. If you want, we can bring the one who urinated.' They said, 'Come on, let's bring him.' The Bulgarian who came laughed and said, 'My Sultan, that woman is from another lineage; she used to become a karakoncolos once a year on winter nights, but this year, she turned into a chicken, harmless to anyone.' And he left.
This is how I, the humble Evliya, witnessed such a spectacle in Çalıkkavak, and I wrote down my experience. The condition of Çalıkkavak in the Balkans is like this, may God protect it," and he concludes the narrative.