In Seidel’s story of the “Miracle of the Sidi” (Geschichten und Lieder
der Afrikaner, 105), the devil dares the Sidi to marry a slave to a
princess. The father of the princess has set to her wooers the
supposedly impossible task of filling a bag with hyacinths out of
hyacinth season. The Sidi fills the bag with stones and bids the slave
empty it out before the king, when the stones are by miracle turned
into hyacinths.