Long ages ago there lived in Chara Kitad (2), which lieth to the
east of India, a king named Daibang (3), who had one only son. But
this son never showed himself to the people. No one in the whole
empire had once set his eyes on him. Every day he sent and fetched a
handsome youth of the people to come and comb his hair for him, and
immediately that he had made an end of combing him he had him put to
death. Every day one. This went on for many years, and no one dared
to withhold their son from the king's command. At last it came to the
turn of a youth who was a widow's son. The widow, therefore, full of
anguish at the thought of her son, her eldest stay and consolation,
being taken from her and slain, made cakes of dough kneaded with her
own milk, and gave them to her son, saying, "Manage so that while thou
art combing the hair of the Khan, he shall eat one of these cakes."
The widow's son, therefore, came and stood before the Khan; and as he
combed the Khan's hair with the Khan's golden comb, he saw that the
ears of the Khan were formed like to the ears of an ass, and that it
was that his subjects might not know he had ears like to the ears of
an ass, that he put to death every day the young men, who, combing his
hair, had seen them. Nevertheless, the widow's son went on combing the
Khan's hair, and eating the cakes his mother had given him the while.