Pictures and story by H. A. RAD. Translated by Mona. AFIFI .January 2007
Long time ago a boy was born in Systan provance, named Rostam. Rostam's father, Zal, was Simorgh's friend. Rostam was so huge that he couldn't come out of his mother's body. That's why Zal burnt one of the feathers that Simorgh had given to him, and Simorgh came for help. Simorgh helped to take Rostam out of his mother's body with a kind of surgery.
Rostam was the first baby born in this way.
Rostam was strong and clever. His grandfather was also strong. He advised Rostam not to do evil things and to remember that divine commons ought to be obeyed.
One night, an elephant tore his rope and attacked people. Rostam went there to stop him hurting. The elephant raised his trunk to hurt Rostam, but Rostam was stronger and so punished him.
Once Rostam's father said:'' There is a huge castle. The king had ordered your ancestor, Nariman, to take it. Your ancestor was in front of the castle for one year. At last they threw a rock and killed him. People in the castle never come out of it because they have food, clothes, and also gold there. The only thing they need and like very much is salt. You should take a caravan of camel to take salt for them''. Rostam hid a few persons in the loads of salt and went towards the castle.
The castle was so large that even eagles couldn't reach there. When the soldiers found out that Rostam had loads of salt, they let him enter. Rostam sold the salt up to night. At night when everyone was sleeping, Rostam and the ones who were hidden in the loads of salt attacked the soldiers and took the castle.
When Rostam took the castle, he came back to his town. In his town people played the bugle for him. They brought a large group of horses for him and he had to find his own among them.
Rostam pushed his hands on the body of each horse, but he was so mighty that they bent when he pushed them and their stomachtouched the ground.
At last he found his own horse, its name was Rakhsh. It had short legs, black eyes and it was very speedy.
"It worthes as much as Iran." Said the shepherd who had brought Rakhsh. His words meant that Rostam and his horse had to take care of Iran.
Now Rostam was a clever and powerful hero, who the enemies of Iran were all afraid of.
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