Though my paper on this tale is of considerable length, it would perhaps
have been deemed intolerably long had I cited all the versions of the
first part—the quest of the most wonderful thing—which are current in
Europe, for it is found everywhere, though with few variations of
importance. There are two, however, of which I may furnish the outlines
in this place.
In the “Pentamerone” of Basile,[193] a man sends his five sons into the
world to learn something. The eldest becomes a master-thief; the second
has learned the trade of shipwright; the third has become a skilful
archer; the fourth has found an herb which brings the dead to life; and
the youngest has learned the speech of birds. Soon after they have
returned home, they set out with their father to liberate a princess who
had been stolen by a wild man, and by the exercise of their several arts
succeed in their adventure. While they quarrel as to which of them had
by his efforts done most to deserve the princess for wife, the king
gives her to the father, as the stock of all those branches.
In the 45th of Laura Gonzenbach’s “Sicilianische Märchen,” the king’s
daughter is stolen by a giant and recovered by the seven sons of a poor
woman. The eldest can run like the wind; the second can hear, when he
puts his ear to the ground, all that goes on in the world; the third can
with a blow of his fist break through seven iron doors; the fourth is a
thief; the fifth can build an iron tower with a blow of his fist; the
sixth is an unfailing shot; the seventh has a guitar which can awaken
the dead. Youths thus wonderfully endowed figure in many tales, but
generally as the servants of the hero.
By comparing the different European versions it will be found that some
are similar to the first part of the tale of Prince Ahmad, insomuch as
the brothers become possessed of certain wonderful things which are each
instrumental in saving the damsel’s life; while others more closely
approach the oldest known form of the story, in representing the heroes
as being endowed with some extraordinary kind of power, by means of
which they rescue the damsel from a giant who had carried her off. It is
curious to observe that in the “Sindibád Náma” version the damsel is
both carried off by a demon and at death’s door, which is not the case
of any other Asiatic form of the story.