The prince thanked her for her gift, which he placed in his tunic, and
sorrowfully bade the eagle and his daughter farewell.
Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and
many times did he bless the kind thought of the princess. One evening
it had carried him to the top of a high mountain, where he saw a man
with a bald head, busily engaged in digging up spadefuls of earth and
throwing them in a basket. When the basket was full he took it away and
returned with an empty one, which he likewise filled. The prince stood
and watched him for a little, till the bald-headed man looked up and
said to him: “Dear brother, what surprises you so much?”
“I was wondering why you were filling the basket,” replied the prince.
“Oh!” replied the man, “I am condemned to do this, for neither I nor
any of my family can die till I have dug away the whole of this
mountain and made it level with the plain. But, come, it is almost
dark, and I shall work no longer.” And he plucked a leaf from a tree
close by, and from a rough digger he was changed into a stately
bald-headed king. “Come home with me,” he added; “you must be tired and
hungry, and my daughter will have supper ready for us.” The prince
accepted gladly, and they went back to the palace, where the
bald-headed king’s daughter, who was still more beautiful than the
other princess, welcomed them at the door and led the way into a large
hall and to a table covered with silver dishes. While they were eating,
the bald-headed king asked the prince how he had happened to wander so
far, and the young man told him all about it, and how he was seeking
the Land of Immortality. “You have found it already,” answered the
king, “for, as I said, neither I nor my family can die till I have
levelled this great mountain; and that will take full eight hundred
years longer. Stay here with us and marry my daughter. Eight hundred
years is surely long enough to live.”
“Oh, certainly,” answered the prince; “but, all the same, I would
rather go and seek the land where there is no death at all.”
So next morning he bade them farewell, though the princess begged him
to stay with all her might; and when she found that she could not
persuade him she gave him as a remembrance a gold ring. This ring was
still more useful than the box, because when one wished oneself at any
place one was there directly, without even the trouble of flying to it
through the air. The prince put it on his finger, and thanking her
heartily, went his way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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