The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk StoryGerould, Gordon Hall
General
The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story
Gerould, Gordon Hall
Dead -- Folklore; Folk literature -- Themes, motives; Grateful dead (Tale)
In Greek, a boy was sold to a pasha, who betrothed him to his
daughter. Because of the mother's objections, however, he was sent
away as a shepherd, while the girl was promised to another pasha's
son. The hero fed his flock under the shelter of the castle, and was
summoned by the maiden, who gave him her betrothal ring in a beaker,
though pretending not to know him. The next day she asked her parents
to let the two suitors go into the world with a thousand piasters
apiece, and see which came back with the most money. So they were
sent forth. The pasha's son remained in a city enjoying his money,
while the shepherd went on till he met an old man, to whom he told
his story. The man gave him a thousand piasters more, and told him to
buy an ape in a town hard by. He succeeded in doing this, and brought
the ape back to the old man, who cut it in pieces, much to the youth's
disgust, and made eye-salve of the brain. With this he sent the hero
away after exacting a promise of half of what was obtained. The youth
won a thousand piasters by curing the blind, and later a great sum,
besides thirty ships, by healing a very rich man. With this wealth he
returned to the old man, and with him to the city where the pasha's son
had sojourned. The latter agreed to let the shepherd's seal be burned
on his arm in return for the payment of his debts; but, while the hero
and the old man sailed home, he rode fast by land with the story that
his rival was dead. The shepherd arrived at home just in time for his
rival's wedding, and at the end of it showed the bride her ring. She
recognized her lover, called her parents, and, after the hero had
told his story and proved it by the seal on his rival's arm, married
him. That night the old man knocked on the door of their chamber,
and demanded that the bride be divided. According to his promise,
the hero prepared to cut her in twain, when the intruder said that
he wished only to test his fidelity, explaining that he was God,
Who had taken him under His protection because his father had sold
him in order to keep the lamp burning in honour of his saint.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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