In “Pasha Bai­ley Ben,” a bal­lad with­in *The Bab Bal­lads*, we encounter the dig­ni­fied yet stout Pasha Bai­ley Ben, a fig­ure of pride with ten tails and three wives. His life, filled with pecu­liar presents from pil­grims, show­cas­es the diverse and odd forms of ado­ra­tion he receives, rang­ing from onions to cold boiled beef and even tele­scopes. These var­ied gifts, seem­ing­ly incon­gru­ent – like white kid gloves, can­dle­sticks, and pot­ted quails – empha­size the pasha’s broad albeit curi­ous influ­ence.

Cen­tral to the nar­ra­tive is Bai­ley Ben’s con­fi­dant, a Mon­go­lian dog named Sim­ple James, whose coun­te­nance reveals a noto­ri­ous past. Despite his known mis­deeds, James holds a posi­tion of trust, a choice that puz­zles the nar­ra­tor and adds an ele­ment of mys­tery and dark­ness to the pasha’s oth­er­wise com­ic sur­round­ing.

The bal­lad takes care to intro­duce anoth­er pecu­liar char­ac­ter, Matthew Wycombe Coo, the pasha’s clerk. Coo, notable for his excep­tion­al yodel­ing and danc­ing skills, brings joy to the lives of the pasha’s wives, light­en­ing the palace’s atmos­phere with his tal­ents and kind­ness.

Unex­pect­ed­ly, a Red Indi­an vis­its Pasha Bai­ley Ben, an occur­rence that aston­ish­es the pasha due to its rar­i­ty in Turkey. The vis­i­tor’s appear­ance, adorned with mocassins and Catawampous seeds, and his procla­ma­tions about the Red Man’s agili­ty and life, sig­nif­i­cant­ly sur­prise Bai­ley Ben, high­light­ing the theme of cul­tur­al encounter and the exchange of won­der between the East and the West.

“Pasha Bai­ley Ben” weaves a tale of con­trast and pecu­liar com­pan­ion­ship through the char­ac­ters of Bai­ley Ben, Sim­ple James, and Matthew Coo, embell­ished with the sur­pris­ing vis­it of a Red Indi­an. The nar­ra­tive, steeped in humor and the unex­pect­ed, under­lines the diver­si­ty of life and inter­ac­tion, cap­tur­ing the read­er’s imag­i­na­tion with its vivid and whim­si­cal por­tray­al of a world where sur­prise and diver­si­ty reign, all while ques­tion­ing the nature of friend­ship and loy­al­ty in the face of odd­i­ties and cul­tur­al dis­par­i­ties.