Reinterpretation is one of the most characteristic qualities of Jewish folklore. In the process of reinterpretation, “alien” material is adapted and varied to find meaningful expression within the framework of Jewish life and tradition. An example of this process is the ballad “Nemo Delale” in the Zakho Jewish dialect of Neo-Aramaic. A variant of the important and well-known ballad narrative associated with the Balkan Peninsula, “The Bridge of Arta,” this ballad is known in Greek as “The Bridge of Arta” (Lawson 1910: 263), in Albanian as “Rozafati” (Skendi 1954: 50–55), in Serbian as “Zidanje Skadra” (Skendi 1954: 50–55), in Rumanian as “Master Manhole or the Building of Arges” (Entwistle 1939: 309), and in Judeo-Spanish as “The Princess and the Bozaǧí” (Attias 1956: 161–162). Versions have also been collected in Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian. Hitherto the distribution of the ballad was considered to be limited exclusively to the Balkan Peninsula (Armistead and Silverman 1963: 16). The appearance of the ballad as far east as Kurdistan, and among the Neo-Aramaic-speaking Jews of Zakho, raises theoretical questions in regard to the diffusion of the ballad to the east, and in regard to the possibility of contact among Jewish groups of this area.