Stories > The Man Without a Hat
This is the story of Balagor, whose name means “without a hat” or “hatless”. Balagor was born in Goronit (literally, in the Goronish language: “the hats”), a land where everyone has a hat grafted onto his head.
The Goronish are small, usually skinny (but not always), terribly disciplined and organised people, whose hat takes up almost half of their bodies. Or perhaps this is the impression they give, for these hats of theirs cover up much more than half of their faces. So much so, that they do not see the difference between night and day or light and darkness, and they always seem to look straight ahead or down, but never left or right, and certainly not up.
The most important place in the entire land of Goronit was the hat shop. It was owned by Mr. Raskabir, whose head and hat were the biggest in the land and who liked to decide everything for everyone. Mr Raskabir’s hat shop had all sorts of hats: small hats, big hats; red hats, blue hats, yellow hats; hats with bows, hats with jewels or flowers… It had hats made of straw, of cotton, of leather, wool, silk, lace and any other material you can think of. But Mr. Raskabir’s shop only sold hats.
Balagor did not like the hat shop and didn’t care much for Mr. Raskabir either. Especially since he knew that his parents had decided to hold his Grand Initiation and this is where they would get his hat from.
The Grand Initiation was one of the most important events in any Goronish person’s life. It happened when the parents of a child decided that he was “ready” and it consisted of a grand ceremony during which they cut off all the hair from a child’s head and grafted his “life hat” in their stead. The Goronish said that the Grand Initiation was absolutely vital to become a real “maagor” (literally, in the Goronish language, “with hat”, or simply, “a person”), and integrate their society properly.
Balagor did not quite agree but never said a word about it. The day that his parents decided that he was “ready” for his Grand Initiation however, he said that he did not wish to carry a hat on his head because he much preferred hair. But his parents didn’t listen to him and organised his Grand Initiation anyway. When the day came and Balagor saw the big ugly green velour hat that his parents had prepared for him, he became very upset and knocked the hat to the ground, started jumping up and down on it and screamed at the top of his lungs:
- I WILL NOT WEAR A HAT! I – will – not – wear – a – Haaaaaat! I like my hair better and I think your hats are silly!
And with that, he stamped his foot on the ground and ran out.
And so it was that he took the decision of leaving to go in search of unknown lands, where people would have similar heads to his, with naturally flowing hair and all that goes with it. He travelled far and wide, for a long time, having made himself a detachable hat that he could remove at will, so as not to attract too much attention unnecessarily. Nonetheless, everywhere he went, people had the same hatty heads and hair was not welcome. But he continued travelling, by day and by night until one day…
Balagor was near the point of despair when one day, quite by chance, he was queuing in a store to pay for some fruit, when a person ahead of him dropped an orange. As he bent down to pick it up, his hat toppled over. He grabbed it and adjusted it again with such swiftness, that Balagor was the only one to notice what had happened. The man left the store hurriedly and Balagor quickly paid for his fruit and ran out of the store in pursuit of this being who had something so uncommonly in common with him.
He was lucky to catch up with him, as the man had panicked and taken off running. But after briefly removing his own hat to reassure him, Balagor managed to gain his confidence. The man told Balagor that his name was Mafiras and that he too was a traveller in search of the same. He also told him that he knew a lot of people with not hats and that many of them were living in a little town not far from here.
Balagor was beside himself with happiness upon learning this great news. Mafiras took him to meet his hatless friends in their nearby town, which was appropriately called Welcome Town. It was a cosy colourful town and what a sight it was to see so many people with hair on their heads. Red, brown, blond, black long, short, straight, wavy, curly… beautiful free hair!
Balagor quickly made friends with everyone and that night, as they gathered around a warm fire, they took a very big decision. They decided that their hatty relatives and other hatty people throughout the world, had no idea what they were missing by allowing these hats to take the place of their hair. They wanted to help them. They wanted to help them feel the lightness of a hat free head and the beauty of seeing. Only they knew that, because of these silly hats, they would not listen and desperate measures were called for.
Balagor, Mafiras and the people of Welcome Town decided to sneak into towns and villages at night, and unstitch the hats from as many people’s heads as possible while they were sleeping, to see what their reaction would be in the morning. They decided to begin with Balagor’s hometown: Goronit.
A group of them silently walked towards Gononit in the dead of night, having crossed many mountains, and managed one way or another to sneak into people’s houses – a very naughty thing they would never have done in any circumstance other than this – and remove their hats from their heads. They were surprised to find out that this task was much easier than they had thought it would be. They placed all the hats in the middle of the street and waited for morning.
As the dawn began to break, Balagor and his friends had been waiting outside to see what would happen. One by one, they began to hear shouts and screams as people started walking out onto the streets holding their heads. As soon as they would reach the street however, they would lift their faces and become silent. The beautiful colours of the dawn dazzled them and their eyes kept moving everywhere. Realizing that they could see and that the hats had been obstructing their views, they began to reach for the hats that had been placed in the middle of the road and throw them up in the air, with cheers of joy and laughter, with their eyes wide open, until the sky became dotted with multicoloured hats flying through the air.
- the end
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This is the story of Balagor, whose name means “without a hat” or “hatless”. Balagor was born in Goronit (literally, in the Goronish language: “the hats”), a land where everyone has a hat grafted onto his head. The Goronish are small, usually skinny (but not always), terribly disciplined and organised people, whose hat takes up almost half of their bodies. Or perhaps this is the impression they give, for these hats of theirs cover up much more than half of their faces. So much so, that they do not see the difference between night and day or light and darkness, and they always seem to look straight ahead or down, but never left or right, and certainly not up.
The most important place in the entire land of Goronit was the hat shop. It was owned by Mr. Raskabir, whose head and hat were the biggest in the land and who liked to decide everything for everyone. Mr Raskabir’s hat shop had all sorts of hats: small hats, big hats; red hats, blue hats, yellow hats; hats with bows, hats with jewels or flowers… It had hats made of straw, of cotton, of leather, wool, silk, lace and any other material you can think of. But Mr. Raskabir’s shop only sold hats.
Balagor did not like the hat shop and didn’t care much for Mr. Raskabir either. Especially since he knew that his parents had decided to hold his Grand Initiation and this is where they would get his hat from.
The Grand Initiation was one of the most important events in any Goronish person’s life. It happened when the parents of a child decided that he was “ready” and it consisted of a grand ceremony during which they cut off all the hair from a child’s head and grafted his “life hat” in their stead. The Goronish said that the Grand Initiation was absolutely vital to become a real “maagor” (literally, in the Goronish language, “with hat”, or simply, “a person”), and integrate their society properly.
Balagor did not quite agree but never said a word about it. The day that his parents decided that he was “ready” for his Grand Initiation however, he said that he did not wish to carry a hat on his head because he much preferred hair. But his parents didn’t listen to him and organised his Grand Initiation anyway. When the day came and Balagor saw the big ugly green velour hat that his parents had prepared for him, he became very upset and knocked the hat to the ground, started jumping up and down on it and screamed at the top of his lungs:
- I WILL NOT WEAR A HAT! I – will – not – wear – a – Haaaaaat! I like my hair better and I think your hats are silly!
And with that, he stamped his foot on the ground and ran out.
And so it was that he took the decision of leaving to go in search of unknown lands, where people would have similar heads to his, with naturally flowing hair and all that goes with it. He travelled far and wide, for a long time, having made himself a detachable hat that he could remove at will, so as not to attract too much attention unnecessarily. Nonetheless, everywhere he went, people had the same hatty heads and hair was not welcome. But he continued travelling, by day and by night until one day…Balagor was near the point of despair when one day, quite by chance, he was queuing in a store to pay for some fruit, when a person ahead of him dropped an orange. As he bent down to pick it up, his hat toppled over. He grabbed it and adjusted it again with such swiftness, that Balagor was the only one to notice what had happened. The man left the store hurriedly and Balagor quickly paid for his fruit and ran out of the store in pursuit of this being who had something so uncommonly in common with him.
He was lucky to catch up with him, as the man had panicked and taken off running. But after briefly removing his own hat to reassure him, Balagor managed to gain his confidence. The man told Balagor that his name was Mafiras and that he too was a traveller in search of the same. He also told him that he knew a lot of people with not hats and that many of them were living in a little town not far from here.
Balagor was beside himself with happiness upon learning this great news. Mafiras took him to meet his hatless friends in their nearby town, which was appropriately called Welcome Town. It was a cosy colourful town and what a sight it was to see so many people with hair on their heads. Red, brown, blond, black long, short, straight, wavy, curly… beautiful free hair!
Balagor quickly made friends with everyone and that night, as they gathered around a warm fire, they took a very big decision. They decided that their hatty relatives and other hatty people throughout the world, had no idea what they were missing by allowing these hats to take the place of their hair. They wanted to help them. They wanted to help them feel the lightness of a hat free head and the beauty of seeing. Only they knew that, because of these silly hats, they would not listen and desperate measures were called for.
Balagor, Mafiras and the people of Welcome Town decided to sneak into towns and villages at night, and unstitch the hats from as many people’s heads as possible while they were sleeping, to see what their reaction would be in the morning. They decided to begin with Balagor’s hometown: Goronit.
A group of them silently walked towards Gononit in the dead of night, having crossed many mountains, and managed one way or another to sneak into people’s houses – a very naughty thing they would never have done in any circumstance other than this – and remove their hats from their heads. They were surprised to find out that this task was much easier than they had thought it would be. They placed all the hats in the middle of the street and waited for morning.As the dawn began to break, Balagor and his friends had been waiting outside to see what would happen. One by one, they began to hear shouts and screams as people started walking out onto the streets holding their heads. As soon as they would reach the street however, they would lift their faces and become silent. The beautiful colours of the dawn dazzled them and their eyes kept moving everywhere. Realizing that they could see and that the hats had been obstructing their views, they began to reach for the hats that had been placed in the middle of the road and throw them up in the air, with cheers of joy and laughter, with their eyes wide open, until the sky became dotted with multicoloured hats flying through the air.
- the end
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