The Horse-Headed Fiddle

This is one of my favourite and memorable horse stories I read from my childhood. It is about a boy and his beautiful white horse. This story has been retold countless times by many generations of Mongolians to their children and it still lives on today. If you go to Mongolia today or look at their musical instruments, you will find that the Mongolians play a very interesting musical instrument called the Morin Khuur or horse-headed fiddle. It has a carved head of a horse at the top of the fiddle and there is a story behind this musical instrument.

The story took place long ago, long before the time of Genghis Khan, in the steppes of Mongolia where the nomads grazed their sheep while on horseback and pitched their huge sheep-skinned tents across the endless grasslands. 

One evening, a Mongolian boy was helping his father herd the sheep home when he discovered a newborn foal among the grass. The foal's mother was no where in sight. Meanwhile, a storm was brewing and wolves could be heard in the distance. The boy could not bear to leave the foal behind so he carried it home to care for it.

Time passed and the foal grew up to become a magnificent white horse. The boy often raced his white horse with the other children and their steeds but the white horse always won. It was the fastest horse in the boy's tribe and the neighbouring tribes as well.

One day, a rich man held a long distance horse race in the city and the prize money was a bag of gold. The boy's family was poor and his father was getting old while his siblings were very young. The boy thought,

"If my white horse and I can win the bag of gold, I can feed my family for many winters." And so he rode his white horse to the city to participate in the race.

At the city, the boy lined up at the starting line with the other competitors. They all laughed at him for he was the youngest rider there and his white horse was the smallest in the line-up.

"Go home to your mother," they laughed, "That pathetic creature will be crushed under the hooves of our horses!", they sneered.

The boy ignored them and before long, the race started and the horsemen rode off. At first, nothing could be seen because of the clouds of dirt kicked by the thundering hooves. But halfway through the race, the white horse started to accelerate across the uneven grasslands and overtake its competitors one by one. Very soon, the boy and his white horse led the race and with every subsequent stride, the white horse widened the distance between them and the rest of the field. The crowd cheered as the boy and his white horse crossed the finish line first, leaving the other horsemen to breathe in the dirt kicked up by the white horse.

The rich man presented the bag of gold to the boy but ordered him to leave the white horse behind. The boy refused and rather not take the gold. Humiliated, the rich man ordered his henchmen to beat up the boy and throw him out of the city while the white horse was forcibly taken away. The boy was badly bruised and was taken home by his fellow tribesmen who came to watch the race.

A few days later, the rich man decided to try out his new horse. The white horse was beautifully decorated with the finest Mongolian saddlecloth and trinklets. It also wore a golden bridle and a top grade leather saddle. The rich man then mounted the white horse but the moment he sat onto the saddle, the white horse whirled around suddenly and kicked him off its back. It then galloped away in the direction of the boy's home. The rich man was furious. 

"If I cannot have that horse, then no one else shall have it!" 

He then ordered his archers to shoot the horse. His archers obeyed and took aim. Mongolian archers were famed for their deadly accuracy and dozens of arrows found their way into the flanks and hindquarters of the white horse. But the white horse galloped on despite the injuries.

That evening at the boy's tent, the boy was still nursing his wounds and crying over the loss of his beloved steed when he suddenly heard the white horse neigh out to him from outside the tent. He rushed out to see his white horse emerging from the dark and collapse before him. The boy was shocked beyond words. His beloved friend had come back to him. Tears rolled down his eyes as he knelt down and cradled his horse's head in his arms.

"Don't be afraid, you're home at last," he said in between sobs. That night, the white horse breathed its last and the boy buried the body behind his tent.

The boy could not forget his horse and cried over it for many months. Then one night, the white horse appeared to the boy in a dream. "Do not be sad, my friend," the boy heard the horse speak to him, "take my bones and make a horse-headed fiddle with them. Whenever you play the fiddle, I shall come back to you and be at your side,"

The next morning, the boy dug up the bones of the white horse and made a horse-headed fiddle out of them. Whenever he played the instrument, he could feel the white horse return to him and accompany him. From then on, Mongolian horsemen who have lost their beloved steeds and missed them, make and play the fiddle in lasting memories of their dearest equine friends who had roamed the steppes with them.

Facts

The original horse-headed fiddle was said to be made from a horse's skull for the base and the entire fiddle was covered with horse hide. The strings of the fiddle and bow were woven from the tail hair of a horse.

The modern day horse-headed fiddle is made completely from wood, as illustrated by the pictures on this page, while the strings are still made of horse tail hair.

Sound of the Morin Khuur in MP3 Format

Note: This particular tune here does not sound that nice but it is the only sample of the Morin Khuur sound I can find so far. The music of the Morin Khuur aims to imitate the hoof beats of the horse.

Credits

Story : Recalled and written by Magic Star

Photography : Merry Moments

Models : Megan, Sundance, Tommy and Baby Sundance

Costumes : Megan's clothes on loan from Anastasia doll, 

Sundance's accessories on loan from Magic Star.

Props etc : Bow and arrows on loan from action figure Shana,

pouch and gold taels on loan from Magic Star,

pictures and sound of Morin Khuur are linked to their source websites.

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