Chardaphon the Great

I am Prodan Tishkov, but everyone knows me as Chardafon the Great. I was born in Gabrovo on December 7, 1859. I was rebellious and disobedient since I was a child – my companions and I robbed people’s gardens and bostans, and they used to say that after us there remained “devastation like after a charade – after herds of cattle have passed.” So they began to call me “Charda,” and later I put on the suffix “von” myself and became Chardafon. I took an active part in the Unification of Bulgaria in 1885, leading a detachment from Golyamo Konare to Plovdiv. But here’s a curious thing: when I wanted to enlist in the Bulgarian Volunteer Army, I wasn’t accepted because I didn’t have a beard and mustache! After my death I was buried under the shamrock, under which I loved to sit and look at the nature of Gabrovo.