Once upon a time there was a King who had a daughter who was quite
beautiful. When she was of marriageable age the King sent heralds
inviting all the young men of his realm to come to court in order
that the Princess might make her selection. On the appointed day
all the young men of the country passed before the Princess, who was
standing with a golden apple in her hand that she might throw it at
the choice of her heart. She threw the apple, and lo! it hit a poor
widow's son. It was reported to the King, who was angry, and said:
"It cannot be; we must try it once more."
On the following day the Princess again threw the apple, and once
more hit the same poor widow's son. On the third trial the same lad
proved to be the maiden's choice. Thereupon the King was very angry,
and expelled both the maiden and the lad from the court and the royal
city. The lad took the maiden to the house of his mother, a poor old
hut near the bridge without the city. The old widow, seeing the maiden,
said to her son:
"We had not bread enough to keep us alive, and lo! you have brought
a tender maiden. How shall we live now?"
"Be not angry, mamma," said the maiden, humbly, "I know how to spin
yarn, and we shall be able to earn our living."
In this manner they lived a few months. Then they decided that the
youth should travel and sojourn in other countries in order to earn
money. On the following day they saw a merchant crossing the bridge
with eighty camel-loads of merchandise destined for Arabia. The
lad offered the merchant his services in the caravan. The merchant
accepted, and the lad came home to make ready.
"Before you set out," said the bride, "go to yonder convent where
there is a wise monk and ask him to give you some good advice, which
you may need in your travels."
The lad went, and the old monk gave him the following maxims for
his guidance:
First, "She whom one loves the best is the most beautiful;" secondly,
"Patience leads to safety;" thirdly, "There is a good in every
patient waiting."
He came back to his bride, who said:
"Commit these wise words to memory; you will no doubt have need
of them."
"Farewell!" said the youth.
"Farewell!" said the young bride.
The lad departed from her. After a long journey the caravan camped in a
desert near Arabia. There had camped before them also a large caravan
composed of eighty other merchants. The lad was tired and soon fell
into a deep sleep. There were many men and animals in the caravan,
and all were thirsty. In that desert there was only one well, and that
was dangerous; of all who had gone down to draw water, not one had
ever come out. In the middle of the night, the lad was wakened by the
crying of a herald in the caravan, who announced that each merchant
was offering ten pieces of gold to the man who would descend into the
well and draw water for men and animals. The lad, coveting the sum,
promised to go down. His master pitied him, and tried to prevent him,
but it was too late.
"You are going down into that dangerous well of your own free will,"
he said; "your blood shall be upon your own head. But if you come out
safely, one of my camels shall be yours with the merchandise upon it."
They let the lad down with a rope. Reaching the bottom, he saw a
flowing river of fresh water; he drank and quenched his thirst. Lifting
up his eyes, nearby he saw a Giant sitting with a maiden on each side,
one colored and the other white.
"Look, human being," exclaimed the Giant; "I will ask you a
question. If you answer it rightly I will let you go; if not, I will
kill you with this club, as I have killed so many men before you. Which
of these two maidens is the beautiful one, and which the ugly?"
The lad remembered the first maxim of the old monk, and said: "She
whom one loves the most is the most beautiful."
The Giant jumped up, and kissing the lad on the forehead, said:
"Well done, youth! you gave me the only right answer; all the rest
were wrong."
He then asked the lad the cause of his descent, and said:
"This well is enchanted; I must therefore give you a safe conduct. Take
these three apples, and after drawing water enough, when you go up,
drop one of these apples as soon as your feet are lifted from the
ground; drop the second one when you reach the middle, and the third
apple when you approach the well's mouth. Thus you will have a safe
return."
And the Giant gave to the lad three pomegranates as a present,
one white, one green and one red. The lad put them in his pockets,
and after sending a sufficiency of water for the caravan, gave a sign
to be drawn up. He threw the three apples just as he was directed by
the Giant, and reached the surface safely. The merchants gave him the
800 pieces of gold and his master a camel's load of merchandise, as
previously promised. The lad said to his master that he wanted to send
the camel's load of merchandise and the money to his wife. His master
consented, and the lad, putting the three pomegranates in the load,
sent it with a driver to his hut near the bridge under the sycamore
tree. The merchant promoted the lad, and made him superintendent
of the camel drivers. After a time the merchant died, and his wife
continued to do the business. She liked the lad and adopted him as
her son. Thus he worked with that merchant and his wife for twenty
years. One day he was granted permission by his adopted mother to go
and visit his family, and he set out on his journey.
Leaving him on his way for a moment, let us turn to his family. A few
months after the departure of the youth Heaven blessed his humble
home by the birth of a son. When the camel's load of merchandise,
money and pomegranates arrived, both the old widow and her young
daughter-in-law were greatly pleased. At first sight the Princess
knew that the pomegranates were not common fruits, but jewels; but
the old widow, who thought they were common pomegranates, prepared
to cut them, saying:
"Heaven's blessing rest upon you, my son, that you have remembered
your aged mother by sending her fruits to eat!"
The bride snatched them from her hand and kept them in
the drawer. Thereupon the old woman was offended, cursed her
daughter-in-law and withdrew to the adjoining room. The bride ran to
the neighboring shop, and buying three common pomegranates, brought
them to her, saying:
"Mamma, be not offended; pardon my harsh conduct. Here are the
pomegranates; you may eat them."
And mother and daughter were reconciled. The Princess then bought new
dresses for her mother-in-law, herself, and the baby. She filled her
mother-in-law's pocket with gold pieces, and cutting a slice from
one of the pomegranates, put it in a costly golden box and gave it
to her, saying:
"Now, mamma, go to the King's palace, and giving the gold pieces as
a present to the attendants, say you want to see the King, and give
him this golden box with the slice of pomegranate in it. When he asks
you what you want, say that you have brought it to him as a present,
and that you want nothing but a decree sealed with the royal seal,
permitting you to do whatever you please without being molested."
The old woman, making herself as trim as she could, started on the
errand and did all that the Princess had bid her. The King, upon seeing
the jewels in the shape of a pomegranate slice, at once called the
royal jewelers to set a price on them. The jewelers, examining the
slice of pomegranate, said:
"No one can set a price on this. Let a lad of fifteen stand and throw a
stone with all his might toward the sky; a heap of gold as high as that
would hardly equal the value of this wonderful row of precious stones."
The King thought there was not so much gold in his treasury.
"Do you want the price of this jewel, or have you brought it as a
present to the King?" asked the King of the woman.
"I have brought it as a present to your majesty," answered the woman.
"What favor do you want in recompense?" asked the King.
The old woman answered as she had been advised by her
daughter-in-law. The royal decree was immediately signed, sealed,
and given to the old woman, who brought it to her daughter-in-law. As
soon as the Princess took the royal edict, she sent slices of the
three pomegranates to all the seven Kings of the world and received in
recompense treasure inestimable. She then built a splendid palace in
the place of the poor old hut, and decorated it with silver, gold,
and the rest of the jewels, which illumined the palace by night,
making it as bright and lustrous as the twinkling morning star. The
fame of this palace spread all over the world, and people came to see
its splendor. The King also came to see it and admired it, because
it contained so many beautiful things which were not to be found in
his own palace. He visited all parts of it and sighed deeply from
his heart, saying:
"I wish my only daughter was not lost, and that she lived in this
magnificent building!"
From behind the curtain his daughter heard him speak, and she also
sighed. The Princess' son had by this time grown into a good-looking,
intelligent lad, and it was he who made a grand princely reception
to the King in the new palace. The King greatly liked the lad and
took him into his service. Seeing that he was an uncommon youth,
displaying extraordinary ability in everything he handled, the King
was so much pleased with him that he advanced him to the position of
commander of his forces, without knowing that he was his own grandson.
Now let us return to the father of the commander. He arrived in
his country and went directly in search of the bride, with the
expectation of finding his lowly hut under the sycamore tree. But to
his disappointment and surprise he found in its place a magnificent
palace, the most magnificent indeed that he had seen in his travels
of twenty years' duration. There was nothing left of the old hut,
only the sycamore tree which had grown taller and thicker during the
past twenty years. As a stranger he walked into the yard, approached
the old sycamore tree, his only acquaintance in the neighborhood,
and climbed it. Soon he saw a woman and the commander come to the
porch and sit upon the sofa near one another. He knew the woman; she
was his wife, the Princess. Twenty years seemed to have made little
change in her. But why was she in this splendid palace and not in
his hut? And what was the business of the commander there? Suspicion
filled his mind, and he drew his bow and arrow with the intention
of killing both of them. Just at that moment he remembered the old
monk's second maxim--"Patience leads to safety," and he did not use
his arms. Presently he saw the commander and his wife embracing one
another. This time his blood ran to his brain and he drew his bow and
arrow to shoot; but remembered the old monk's third maxim--"There is
good in all patient waiting," and again he did not shoot. He began,
however, to listen attentively to their talk, and heard the commander
saying:
"Mother, is my father living? Where is he? Last night I dreamed in
my dream that he had come home."
Thereupon his mother told him all this story, which she had till then
kept secret from him.
"What!" exclaimed the young commander, "you the daughter of the King;
I the commander of his army; this palace our home, and my father a
wanderer in foreign lands! It is impossible! I will to-morrow take
my army and go and find my father."
His father, who was listening to his words from the tree, felt the
great tears rolling down his cheeks. After nightfall he came down
from the tree, and spent the night in a neighboring inn. The following
morning he sent messages to his wife and son, bearing the good tidings
of his arrival. Their meeting was a very happy one. The King, hearing
of the return of his dear commander's father, hastened to express
his congratulations and best wishes. Entering the palace he met,
to his great surprise, his daughter, who with her husband and son
fell on their knees, begging the blessing of the King. The old King
was almost mad with joy, and embraced them all, shedding tears.
"Now I see," he exclaimed, "that it is useless to strive to undo what
destiny has decreed. It was destined that you should marry one another,
and lo! you prove to be the best match that I could desire."
As the King had no other child except that daughter, upon his death
his son-in-law succeeded him upon the throne. Thus they reached the
highest glory of this world. May Heaven grant that we may all reach
the highest glory of the world to come!