Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
After this the king planned another contrivance in order to come to some
end of the matter. He soon should try their skill in shooting, and he
who proved to be the ablest shooter of them should have the princess. So
a mark was raised and the eldest brother stepped forward with his bow
and quiver. He shot, and no great distance from the mark fell his arrow.
After that stepped forward the second brother, and his arrow well-nigh
reached the mark. Last of all stepped forward the third and youngest
brother, and his arrow seemed to go farther than the others, but in
spite of continued search for many days it could not be found. The king
decided in this matter that his second son should marry the princess.
They were married accordingly, and as the king, the father of the
princess, was dead, his daughter now succeeded him, and her husband
became king over his wife’s inheritance. They are now out this tale, as
is also the eldest brother, who settled in life abroad.
The youngest brother stayed at home with his father, highly displeased
at the decision the latter had given concerning the marriage of the
princess. He was wont to wander about every day where he fancied his
arrow had fallen, and at last he found it fixed in an oak in the forest,
and saw that it had by far outstripped the mark. He now called together
witnesses to the place where the arrow was, with the intention of
bringing about some justice in his case. But of this there was no
chance, for the king said he could by no means alter his decision. At
this the king’s son was so grieved that he went well-nigh out of his
wits. One day he busked for a journey, with the full intention of never
again setting foot in his country. He took with him all he possessed of
fine and precious things, nobody knowing his rede, not even his father,
the king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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