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
Now she had given birth to a boy and a girl, but her two sisters, after
having shut them up in a box, sent them away by a servant to be exposed
on the bank of the river, and a violent wind afterwards arising, the box
was drifted to the other side. There was a mill on that side, where
dwelt an old man and his wife. The old man having found the box brought
it home. They opened it, and discovered the boy and the girl, with a
star on their foreheads and a moon on their shoulders. Astonished
thereat, they took them out and brought the children up as well as they
could.
Time passed away; the old woman died, and soon after came the turn of
the old man. Before dying he called the youth to him and said, “Know, my
son, that in such a place is a cave where there is a bridle which
belongs to me. That bridle is thine; but avoid opening the cave before
forty days have elapsed, if you wish the bridle to do whatever you
command.” The forty days having expired, the young man went to the cave,
and on opening it found the bridle. He took it in his hand and said to
it, “I want two horses,” and in a moment two horses appeared. The
brother and sister mounted them, and in the twinkling of an eye they
arrived in their father’s country. There the young man opened a café,
and his sister remained secluded at home.
As the café was the best in the country, the King came to hear of it,
and when he entered it he saw the youth, who had a star on his forehead.
He thought him so beautiful [and lingered so long] that he returned late
to the palace, when he was asked why he had tarried so late. He replied,
that a young lad had opened a café, and was so beautiful that he had
never seen his equal; and, what was most extraordinary, there was a star
on his brow. The sisters no sooner heard these words of the King than
they understood that he referred to their younger sister’s son. Full of
rage and spite, they quickly devised a plan of causing his death. What
did they do? They sent to his sister an old woman, who said to her, “Thy
brother, O my daughter, can hardly love thee, for he is all day at the
café and has a good time of it, while he leaves thee here alone. If he
truly loves thee, tell him to bring thee a flower from the Belle of the
Earth, so that thou too mayest have something to divert thyself with.”
On returning home that evening the young man found his sister quite
afflicted, and asked the cause of her grief. “Why should I not grieve?”
said she. “You leave me alone, secluded here, while you go about as your
fancy directs. If you love me, go to the Belle of the Earth and bring a
flower, so that I too may be amused.” “Console yourself,” replied he,
and at once gave orders to the bridle. An enormous horse appeared, which
he mounted and set off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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