Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 01 (46 page)

In the evening, when everyone was to appear before
the King and Princess, in order that he who had the
golden apple might show it, one knight went in after the
other, but none of them had a golden apple to show.

At night the two brothers went home as they had
done the night before, and told how things had gone,
and how everyone had ridden, but no one had been able
to get up the hill. "But last of all," they said, "came
one in silver armor, and he had a silver bridle on his
horse, and a silver saddle, and oh, but he could ride!
He took his horse two-thirds of the way up the hill, but
then he turned back. He was a fine fellow," said the
brothers, "and the Princess threw the second golden
apple to him!"

"Oh, how I should have liked to see him too!" said
Cinderlad.

"Oh, indeed! He was a little brighter than the ashes
that you sit grubbing among, you dirty black creature!"
said the brothers.

On the third day everything went just as on the former
days. Cinderlad wanted to go with them to look at the
riding, but the two brothers would not have him in their
company, and when they got to the glass hill there was
no one who could ride even so far as a yard up it, and
everyone waited for the knight in silver armor, but he
was neither to be seen nor heard of. At last, after a
long time, came a knight riding upon a horse that was
such a fine one, its equal had never yet been seen. The
knight had golden armor, and the horse a golden saddle
and bridle, and these were all so bright that they shone
and dazzled everyone, even while the knight was still
at a great distance. The other princes and knights were
not able even to call to tell him how useless it was to try
to ascend the hill, so amazed were they at sight of his
magnificence. He rode straight away to the glass hill,
and galloped up it as if it were no hill at all, so that the
Princess had not even time to wish that he might get
up the whole way. As soon as he had ridden to the top,
he took the third golden apple from the lap of the Princess
and then turned his horse about and rode down
again, and vanished from their sight before anyone was
able to say a word to him.

When the two brothers came home again at night they
had much to tell of how the riding had gone off that day,
and at last they told about the knight in the golden
armor too. "He was a fine fellow, that was! Such
another splendid knight is not to be found on earth!"
said the brothers.

"Oh, how I should have liked to see him too!" said
Cinderlad.

"Well, he shone nearly as brightly as the coal-heaps
that thou art always lying raking among, dirty black
creature that thou art!" said the brothers.

Next day all the knights and princes were to appear
before the King and Princess—it had been too late for
them to do it the night before—in order that he who had
the golden apple might produce it. They all went in
turn, first princes, and then knights, but none of them
had a golden apple.

"But somebody must have it," said the King, "for
with our own eyes we all saw a man ride up and take it."
So he commanded that everyone in the kingdom should
come to the palace, and see if he could show the apple.
And one after the other they all came, but no one had
the golden apple, and after a long, long time Cinderlad's
two brothers came likewise. They were the last of all,
so the King inquired of them if there was no one else in
the kingdom left to come.

"Oh! yes, we have a brother," said the two, "but he
never got the golden apple! He never left the
cinder-heap on any of the three days."

"Never mind that," said the King; "as everyone else
has come to the palace, let him come too."

So Cinderlad was forced to go to the King's palace.

"Hast thou the golden apple?" asked the King.

"Yes, here is the first, and here is the second, and here
is the third, too," said Cinderlad, and he took all three
apples out of his pocket, and with that drew off his sooty
rags, and appeared there before them in his bright golden
armor, which gleamed as he stood.

"Thou shalt have my daughter, and the half of my
kingdom, and thou hast well earned both!" said the
King. So there was a wedding, and Cinderlad got the
King's daughter, and everyone made merry at the wedding,
for all of them could make merry, though they
could not ride up the glass hill, and if they have not left
off their merry-making they must be at it still.
[29]

There was a sultan, who had three sons and a niece.
The eldest of the Princes was called Houssain, the second
Ali, the youngest Ahmed, and the Princess, his niece,
Nouronnihar.

The Princess Nouronnihar was the daughter of the
younger brother of the Sultan, who died, and left the
Princess very young. The Sultan took upon himself the
care of his daughter's education, and brought her up in
his palace with the three Princes, proposing to marry
her when she arrived at a proper age, and to contract an
alliance with some neighboring prince by that means.
But when he perceived that the three Princes, his sons,
loved her passionately, he thought more seriously on
that affair. He was very much concerned; the difficulty
he foresaw was to make them agree, and that the two
youngest should consent to yield her up to their elder
brother. As he found them positively obstinate, he
sent for them all together, and said to them: "Children,
since for your good and quiet I have not been able to
persuade you no longer to aspire to the Princess, your
cousin, I think it would not be amiss if every one traveled
separately into different countries, so that you might not
meet each other. And, as you know I am very curious,
and delight in everything that's singular, I promise my
niece in marriage to him that shall bring me the most
extraordinary rarity; and for the purchase of the rarity
you shall go in search after, and the expense of traveling,
I will give you every one a sum of money."

As the three Princes were always submissive and
obedient to the Sultan's will, and each flattered himself
fortune might prove favorable to him, they all consented
to it. The Sultan paid them the money he promised
them; and that very day they gave orders for the
preparations for their travels, and took their leave of the
Sultan, that they might be the more ready to go the
next morning. Accordingly they all set out at the same
gate of the city, each dressed like a merchant, attended
by an officer of confidence dressed like a slave, and all
well mounted and equipped. They went the first day's
journey together, and lay all at an inn, where the road
was divided into three different tracts. At night, when
they were at supper together, they all agreed to travel
for a year, and to meet at that inn; and that the first
that came should wait for the rest; that, as they had
all three taken their leave together of the Sultan, they
might all return together. The next morning by break
of day, after they had embraced and wished each other
good success, they mounted their horses and took each
a different road.

Prince Houssain, the eldest brother, arrived at
Bisnagar, the capital of the kingdom of that name, and the
residence of its king. He went and lodged at a khan
appointed for foreign merchants; and, having learned
that there were four principal divisions where merchants
of all sorts sold their commodities, and kept shops, and
in the midst of which stood the castle, or rather the
King's palace, he went to one of these divisions the next
day.

Prince Houssain could not view this division without
admiration. It was large, and divided into several
streets, all vaulted and shaded from the sun, and yet
very light too. The shops were all of a size, and all that
dealt in the same sort of goods lived in one street; as
also the handicrafts-men, who kept their shops in the
smaller streets.

The multitude of shops, stocked with all sorts of
merchandise, as the finest linens from several parts of India,
some painted in the most lively colors, and representing
beasts, trees, and flowers; silks and brocades from
Persia, China, and other places, porcelain both from
Japan and China, and tapestries, surprised him so much
that he knew not how to believe his own eyes; but when
he came to the goldsmiths and jewelers he was in a kind
of ecstacy to behold such prodigious quantities of wrought
gold and silver, and was dazzled by the lustre of the
pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other jewels
exposed to sale.

Another thing Prince Houssain particularly admired
was the great number of rose-sellers who crowded the
streets; for the Indians are so great lovers of that flower
that no one will stir without a nosegay in his hand or a
garland on his head; and the merchants keep them in
pots in their shops, that the air is perfectly perfumed.

After Prince Houssain had run through that division,
street by street, his thoughts fully employed on the
riches he had seen, he was very much tired, which a
merchant perceiving, civilly invited him to sit down in his
shop, and he accepted; but had not been sat down long
before he saw a crier pass by with a piece of tapestry
on his arm, about six feet square, and cried at thirty
purses. The Prince called to the crier, and asked to see
the tapestry, which seemed to him to be valued at an
exorbitant price, not only for the size of it, but the
meanness of the stuff; when he had examined it well, he told
the crier that he could not comprehend how so small a
piece of tapestry, and of so indifferent appearance, could
be set at so high a price.

The crier, who took him for a merchant, replied: "If
this price seems so extravagant to you, your amazement
will be greater when I tell you I have orders to raise it
to forty purses, and not to part with it under."
"Certainly," answered Prince Houssain, "it must have
something very extraordinary in it, which I know nothing
of." "You have guessed it, sir," replied the crier, "and
will own it when you come to know that whoever sits
on this piece of tapestry may be transported in an
instant wherever he desires to be, without being stopped
by any obstacle."

At this discourse of the crier the Prince of the Indies,
considering that the principal motive of his travel was
to carry the Sultan, his father, home some singular
rarity, thought that he could not meet with any which
could give him more satisfaction. "If the tapestry,"
said he to the crier, "has the virtue you assign it, I shall
not think forty purses too much, but shall make you a
present besides." "Sir," replied the crier, "I have told
you the truth; and it is an easy matter to convince you
of it, as soon as you have made the bargain for forty
purses, on condition I show you the experiment. But,
as I suppose you have not so much about you, and to
receive them I must go with you to your khan, where
you lodge, with the leave of the master of the shop, we
will go into the back shop, and I will spread the tapestry;
and when we have both sat down, and you have formed
the wish to be transported into your apartment of the
khan, if we are not transported thither it shall be no
bargain, and you shall be at your liberty. As to your
present, though I am paid for my trouble by the seller,
I shall receive it as a favor, and be very much obliged to
you, and thankful."

On the credit of the crier, the Prince accepted the
conditions, and concluded the bargain; and, having got the
master's leave, they went into his back shop; they both
sat down on it, and as soon as the Prince formed his
wish to be transported into his apartment at the khan
he presently found himself and the crier there; and, as he
wanted not a more sufficient proof of the virtue of the
tapestry, he counted the crier out forty pieces of gold,
and gave him twenty pieces for himself.

In this manner Prince Houssain became the possessor
of the tapestry, and was overjoyed that at his arrival
at Bisnagar he had found so rare a piece, which he never
disputed would gain him the hand of Nouronnihar. In
short, he looked upon it as an impossible thing for the
Princes his younger brothers to meet with anything
to be compared with it. It was in his power, by sitting
on his tapestry, to be at the place of meeting that very
day; but, as he was obliged to stay there for his brothers,
as they had agreed, and as he was curious to see the King
of Bisnagar and his Court, and to inform himself of the
strength, laws, customs, and religion of the kingdom,
he chose to make a longer abode there, and to spend
some months in satisfying his curiosity.

Prince Houssain might have made a longer abode in
the kingdom and Court of Bisnagar, but he was so eager
to be nearer the Princess that, spreading the tapestry,
he and the officer he had brought with him sat down,
and as soon as he had formed his wish were transported
to the inn at which he and his brothers were to meet,
and where he passed for a merchant till they came.

Prince Ali, Prince Houssain's second brother, who
designed to travel into Persia, took the road, having three
days after he parted with his brothers joined a caravan,
and after four days' travel arrived at Schiraz, which was
the capital of the kingdom of Persia. Here he passed
for a jeweler.

The next morning Prince Ali, who traveled only for
his pleasure, and had brought nothing but just necessaries
along with him, after he had dressed himself, took
a walk into that part of the town which they at Schiraz
called the bezestein.

Among all the criers who passed backward and forward
with several sorts of goods, offering to sell them,
he was not a little surprised to see one who held an ivory
telescope in his hand of about a foot in length and the
thickness of a man's thumb, and cried it at thirty purses.
At first he thought the crier mad, and to inform himself
went to a shop, and said to the merchant, who stood at
the door: "Pray, sir, is not that man" (pointing to the
crier who cried the ivory perspective glass at thirty
purses) "mad? If he is not, I am very much deceived."