So she went home and told her son what the sultan had said. Then he
rubbed the lantern and asked for a suit to wear, all dazzling with
gold and silver, and a richly caparisoned horse, and six pages in
velvet dresses, four to ride behind, and one to go before with a purse
scattering alms to the people, and one to cry, 'Make place for the
Signor Cajusse!' Thus he came to the sultan, and the sultan received
him well, and gave him his daughter to be his wife; but Cajusse had
brought the lantern with him, and he rubbed it, and ordered that there
should stand by the side of the sultan's palace a palace a great deal
handsomer, furnished with every luxury, and that all the windows should
be encrusted round with precious stones, all but one. This was all
done as he had said, and he took the princess home with him to live
there. Then he showed her all over the beautiful palace, and showed her
the windows all encrusted with gems, 'and in this vacant one,' said he,
'we will put those in the six baskets I sent you before the sultan
consented to our marriage; 'and they did so; but they did not suffice.
But the magician meantime had learnt by his incantations what had
happened, and in order to get possession of the lantern he watched
till Cajusse was gone out hunting; then he came by dressed as a
pedlar of metal work, [137] and offered to exchange old lanterns
for new ones. The princess thought to make a capital bargain by
exchanging Cajusse's shabby old lantern for a brand new one, and
thus fell into his snare. The magician no sooner had possession of
it than he rubbed it, and ordered that the palace and all that was
in it should be transported on to the high seas.
The sultan happened to look out of window just as the palace of
Cajusse had disappeared. 'What is this?' he cried. And when he found
the palace was really gone, he uttered so many furious threats that
the people, who loved Cajusse well, ran out to meet him as he came
home from hunting, and told him of all that had happened, and warned
him of the sultan's wrath. Instead of going back to be put in prison
by the sultan therefore, he rubbed his ring and desired to be taken to
the place wherever the princess was. Instantly he found himself on a
floating rock in mid ocean, at the foot of the palace. Then he went to
the gate and sounded the horn. [138] The princess knew her husband's
note of sounding and ran to the window. Great was her delight when she
saw that it was really he, and she told him that there was a horrid
old man who had possession of the palace, and persecuted her every day
to marry him, saying her husband was dead. And she, to keep him at a
distance, yet without offending him lest he should kill her, had said:
'No, I have always resolved never to marry an old man, because then if
he dies I should be left alone, and that would be too sad.' 'But when
I say that,' she continued, 'he always says, "You need not be afraid
of that, for I shall never die!" so I don't know what to say next.'
Then the prince said, 'Make a great feast to-night, and say you
will marry him if he tells you one thing: say it is impossible that
he should never die, for all people die some day or other; it is
impossible but that there should be some one thing or other that is
fatal to him; ask him what that one fatal thing is, and he, thinking
you want to know it that you may guard him against it, will tell;
then come and tell me what he says.'
The princess did all her husband had told her, and then came back
and repeated what the magician had said: 'One must go into the wood,'
she repeated, 'where is the beast called hydra, and cut off all his
seven heads. In the head which is in the middle of the other six, if
it is split open, will be found a leveret; if this leveret is caught
and his head split open there is a bird; if this bird is caught and
his head split open, there is in it a precious stone. If that stone
is put under my pillow I must die.'
The prince did not wait for anything more: he rubbed the ring, and
desired to be carried to the wood where the hydra lived. Instantly he
found himself face to face with the hydra, who came forward spueing
fire. But Cajusse had also asked for a coat of mail and a mighty sword,
and with one blow he cut off the seven heads. Then he called to his
servant to take notice which was the head which was in the middle
of the other six, and the servant pointed it out. Then he said,
'Watch when I split it open, for a leveret will jump out. Beware
lest it escapes.' The servant stood to catch it, but it was so swift
it ran past the servant. The prince, however, was swifter than it,
and overtook it and killed it. Then he said, 'Beware when I split
open the head of the leveret. A little bird will fly out; mind that
it escapes not, for we are undone if it escapes.' So the servant
stood ready to catch the bird, but the bird was so swift it flew
past the servant. The prince, however, was swifter than the bird,
and he overtook it and killed it, and split open its head and took
out the precious stone. Then he rubbed the ring and bid it take him
back to the princess. The princess was waiting for him at the window.
'Here is the stone,' said the prince; and he gave it to her, and
with it a bottle of opium. 'To-night,' he said, 'you must say you are
ready to marry the wizard; make a great feast again, and have ready
some of this opium in his wine. He will sleep heavily, and not see
what you are doing; then you can put the stone under his pillow and
when he is dead call me.'
All this the princess did. She told the wizard that she was now ready
to do as he wished. The magician was so delighted that he ordered a
great banquet.
'Here,' said the princess at the banquet, 'is a little of my father's
choicest wine, which I had with me in the palace when it was brought
hither,' and she poured out to him to drink of the wine mixed with
opium.
After this, when the wizard went to bed, he was heavy and took no
notice what she did, and thus she put the stone under his pillow. No
sooner did he, therefore, lay his head on the pillow than he gave
three terrible yells, turned himself round and round three times,
and was dead.
There was no need to call the prince, for he had heard the death
yells, and immediately came up. They found the lantern, after they
had hunted everywhere in vain, tied on to the magician's body under
all his clothes, for he had hid it there that he might never part
with it. By its power Cajusse ordered the palace to be removed back
to its place, and there they lived happily for ever afterwards.
[The introduction into this story of the dog to be appeased with
a sop, and the hydra to be slain, no trace of either occurring in
'Aladdin's Lamp,' is noticeable; the incident of the unjewelled window
loses its point, probably through want of memory. The transporting
the palace into the middle of the sea is a novel introduction; but
the most remarkable change is in the mode of compassing the death
of the magician. This episode as here described enters into a vast
number of tales. It occurs in a Hungarian one I have in MS.:--A
king directs in dying that his three sons shall go out to learn
experience by adventure before they succeed to the throne. The first
two nights of the journey the two elder brothers keep watch in turn,
while the others sleep, and each kills a dragon. The third night,
István (Stephen), the youngest, keeps watch, and is enticed away by
the cries for help of a frog, which he delivers, but when he comes
back the watch-fire is out. He has now to wander in search of fresh
fire; he sees a spark in the distance and makes for it; by the way
he meets 'Dame Midnight,' who tells him the fire is a week's journey
off, so he binds her to a tree, and the same with 'The Lady Dawn,'
so that it might not be day before his return. In a week he reaches
the fire, but three giants guard it, who are laying siege to a vár
(fortress) to obtain possession of three beautiful maidens, whom
they destined to be the brides of the King of the Dwarfs and of the
very two dragons his brothers had killed. But before they give him
of their fire they say he must help them in the siege. He, however,
kills them by stratagem, and makes his way into the princesses'
sleeping apartment, takes three pledges of his having been there,
and returns to his brothers. They continue their wanderings till they
come to an inn where the three princesses and the king their father
have established themselves in disguise, and make all who pass that
way tell the tale of their adventures as a means of discovering who
it was delivered them from the giants. The princes make themselves
known, and the king bestows his daughters on them. As they drive
home with their brides, they pass the Dwarf-King in a ditch by the
roadside, who implores them to deliver him. The two elder brothers
take no notice. István stops and helps him out. The dwarf with his
supernatural strength thrusts István back into the ditch, and drives
off with his bride. István sets out to search after and recover her;
he meets the frog he delivered, who gives him supernatural aid, and
leads him through heroic adventures in which he does service to other
persons and animals, who in turn assist him by directing him to the
palace of the Dwarf-King. Here exactly the same scene occurs between
István and his bride as between Cajusse and the sultan's daughter,
and they lay the same plan. But the Dwarf-King is more astute than the
magician, and he at first tells her that his life's safety lies in his
sceptre, on which she makes him give her the sceptre, 'that she may
take care of it,' in reality intending to give it up to István. When
he sees her so anxious for his safety, he tells her it is not in
the sceptre, but he does not yet tell the truth; he next says it is
in the royal mantle, and then in the crown (incidents proper to the
version of Hungary, which sets so great store by the royal crown and
mantle). Ultimately he confides that it resides in a golden cockchafer,
inside a golden cock, inside a golden sheep, inside a golden stag,
in the ninety-ninth sziget (island). She communicates all this to
István. He overcomes the above-named series of golden animals by the
aid of the animals he lately assisted, and thus recovers his bride.
All these incidents (somewhat differently worked in), occur in the
Norse tale of 'The Giant who had no Heart in His Body,' and in the
Russian 'Koschei the Deathless,' and in many others.
I have other of the 'Arabian Night' stories, told with the local
colouring of characters and incidents proper to the neighbourhood of
Rome; particularly various versions of 'The Forty Thieves,' leading
to a number of Brigand stories, for which I have not space left in
this volume.]