There was a poor tailor starving for poverty because he could get no
work. One day there knocked at his door a good-natured-looking old man;
the tailor's son opened the door, and he won the boy's confidence
immediately, saying he was his uncle. He also gave him a piastre
[129] to buy a good dinner. When the father came home and found him
installed, and heard that he called himself his son's uncle, and would,
therefore, be his own brother, he was much surprised; but as he found
he was so rich and so generous, he thought it better not to dispute
his word. The visitor stayed a whole month, providing all expenses so
freely all the time that everyone was delighted with him, and when at
last he came to take leave, and proposed that the tailor's boy should
go with him and learn some business at his expense, the son himself was
all eagerness to go, and the father, too, willingly gave his consent.
As soon as they had gone a good way outside the gates the stranger said
to the boy, 'It is all a dodge about my calling myself your uncle. I
am not your uncle a bit; only I want a strong daring sort of boy to
do something for me which I am too old to do myself. I am a wizard,
[130] and if you do what I tell you I will reward you well; but if you
attempt to resist or escape you may be sure you will suffer for it.'
'Tell me what I have to do, before we talk about resisting and
escaping,' replied the boy; 'maybe I shan't mind doing it.'
They were walking on as they talked, and the boy observed that they
got over much more ground than by ordinary walking, and they were
now in a wild desolate country. The wizard said nothing till they
reached a spot where there was a flat stone in the ground. Here he
stopped, and as he lifted up the stone, he said, 'This is what you
have to do. I will let you down with this rope, and you must go all
along through the dark till you come to a place where is a beautiful
garden. At the gate of the garden sits a fierce dog, which will fly
out at you, and bark fearfully. I will give you some bread and cheese
to throw to him, and, while he is devouring the bread and cheese,
you must pass on. Then all manner of terrible noises will cry after
you, calling you back; but take no heed of them, and, above all,
do not look back; if you look back you are lost. As soon as you are
out of sound of the voices you will see on a stone an old lantern,
take that and bring it back to me.'
The boy showed no unwillingness to try his fortune, and the magician
gave him the bread and cheese he had promised, and let him down by
a rope. He gave him also a ring, saying, 'If anything else should
happen, after you have got the lantern, to prevent your bringing
it away, rub this ring and wish at the same time for deliverance,
and you will be delivered.'
The boy did all the wizard had told him, and something more besides;
for when he got into the garden he found the trees all covered with
beautiful fruits, which were all so many precious stones; with these
he filled his pockets till he could hardly move for the weight of
them; then he came back to the opening of the cave, and called to
the wizard to pull him up.
'Send up the lantern first,' said the magician, 'and I'll see about
pulling you up afterwards.'
But the boy was afraid lest he should be left behind; so he refused
to send up the lantern unless the wizard hauled him up with it. This
the wizard would by no means do.
'Ah! the youngster will be frightened if I shut him up in the dark
cave a bit,' said he, and closed the stone, meaning to call to him
by-and-by to see if he had come round to a more submissive mind. The
boy, however, finding himself shut up alone in the cave, bethought him
of the ring, and rubbed it, wishing the while to be at home. Instantly
he found himself there, lantern in hand. His parents were very much
astonished at all he told them of his adventures, and, poor as they
were, were very glad to have him safe back.
'I wonder what the magician wanted this ugly old lantern for,' said
the boy to himself one day. 'It must be good for something or he would
not have been so anxious to have it; let me try rubbing it, and see if
that answers as well as rubbing the ring.' He no sooner did so than
One [131] appeared, and asked his pleasure. 'A table well laid for
dinner!' said the boy; and immediately a table appeared covered with
all sorts of good things, with real silver spoons and forks. [132]
Then he called on his mother and father, and they made a good meal;
after that they lived for a month on the price of the silver which
the mother took out and pawned. [133] One day she found the town all
illuminated. What is going on?' she asked of the neighbours. 'The
daughter of the Sultan is going to marry the son of the Grand Vizier,
and there is a distribution of alms to the people on the occasion;
that is why they rejoice.' Such was the answer.
When she came home she told her son what she had heard. He said,
'That will not be, because the daughter of the Sultan will have to
marry me!' but she only laughed at him. The next day he brought her
three neat little baskets filled with the precious stones which he
had gathered in the under-ground garden, and he said, 'These you
must take to the Sultan, and say I want to marry his daughter.' But
she was afraid and would not go; and when at last he made her go, she
stood in a corner apart behind all the people, for there was a public
audience, and came back and said she could not get at the Sultan;
but he made her go again the next two days following, and she always
did the same. The last day, however, the Sultan sent for her, saying,
'Who is that old woman standing in the corner quite apart? bring her
to me.' So they brought her to him all trembling.
'Don't be afraid, old woman,' said the Sultan. 'What have you to say?'
'My son, who must have lost his senses, sent me to say he wanted to
marry the daughter of the Sultan,' said the old woman, crying for
very fear; 'and he sends these baskets as a present.'
When the Sultan took the baskets and saw of what great value were the
contents, he said, 'Don't be afraid, old woman; go back and tell your
son I will give him an answer in a month.'
She went back and told her son; but at the end of a week the princess
was married, nevertheless, to the son of the Grand Vizier.
'There!' said the mother, when she heard it; 'I thought the Grand
Sultan was only making game of you. Was it likely that the daughter
of the Sultan should marry a beggar, [134] like you?'
'Don't be in too great a hurry, mother,' replied the lad; 'leave it
to me, leave it to me.' [135]
With that he went and took out the old lantern, and rubbed it till
One appeared asking his pleasure.
'Go to-night, at three hours of night,' [136] was his reply, 'and
take the daughter of the Sultan and lay her in a poor wallet in the
out-house here.'
At three hours of night he went into the out-house and found the
princess on the poor wallet as he had commanded. Then he laid his sabre
on the bed between them, and sat down and talked to her; but she was
too frightened to answer him. This he did three nights running. The
princess, however, went crying to her mother, and told her all that had
happened. The Sultana could not imagine how it was. 'But,' she said,
'something wrong there must be;' and she went and told the Sultan,
and he, too, said it was all wrong, and that the marriage must be
annulled. Also the son of the Grand Vizier went to his father and
complained, saying, 'Every night my wife disappears just at bed-time,
and, though the door is locked, I see nothing of her till the next
morning.'
His father too said, 'There must be something wrong,' and when the
Sultan said the marriage must be annulled, the Grand Vizier was quite
willing. So the marriage was annulled.
At the end of the month, the lad made his mother go back to the
Sultan for his answer, and he gave her three other baskets of precious
stones to take with her. The Sultan, when he saw the man had so many
precious stones to give away, thought he must be in truth a prince
in disguise, and he answered, 'He may come and see us.' He also said,
'What is his name that I may know him?'