Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 09 (2 page)

By stage after stage, and after many days' journeying, he arrived
at the city of King Quimus. What did he see? A towering citadel
whose foot kept firm the wrinkled earth, and whose battlements
touched the blue heaven. He saw hanging from its battlements
many heads, but it had not the least effect upon him that these
were heads of men of rank; he listened to no advice about laying
aside his fancy, but rode up to the gate and on into the heart of
the city. The place was so splendid that the eyes of the ages
have never seen its like, and there, in an open square, he found
a tent of crimson satin set up, and beneath it two jewelled drums
with jewelled sticks. These drums were put there so that the
suitors of the princess might announce their arrival by beating
on them, after which some one would come and take them to the
king's presence. The sight of the drums stirred the fire of
Prince Tahmasp's love. He dismounted, and moved towards them;
but his companions hurried after and begged him first to let them
go and announce him to the king, and said that then, when they
had put their possessions in a place of security, they would
enter into the all important matter of the princess. The prince,
however, replied that he was there for one thing only; that his
first duty was to beat the drums and announce himself as a
suitor, when he would be taken, as such, to the king, who would
then give him proper lodgment. So he struck upon the drums, and
at once summoned an officer who took him to King Quimus.

When the king saw how very young the prince looked, and that he
was still drinking of the fountain of wonder, he said: 'O youth!
leave aside this fancy which my daughter has conceived in the
pride of her beauty. No one can answer er her riddle, and she
has done to death many men who had had no pleasure in life nor
tasted its charms. God forbid that your spring also should be
ravaged by the autumn winds of martyrdom.' All his urgency,
however, had no effect in making the prince withdraw. At length
it was settled between them that three days should be given to
pleasant hospitality and that then should follow what had to be
said and done. Then the prince went to his own quarters and was
treated as became his station.

King Quimus now sent for his daughter and for her mother,
Gulrukh,
[6]
and talked to them. He said to Mibrafruz: '
Listen to me, you cruel flirt! Why do you persist in this folly?
Now there has come to ask your hand a prince of the east, so
handsome that the very sun grows modest before the splendour of
his face; he is rich, and he has brought gold and jewels, all for
you, if you will marry him. A better husband you will not find.'

But all the arguments of father and mother were wasted, for her
only answer was: 'O my father! I have sworn to myself that I
will not marry, even if a thousand years go by, unless someone
answers my riddle, and that I will give myself to that man only
who does answer it.'

The three days passed; then the riddle was asked: 'What did the
rose do to the cypress?' The prince had an eloquent tongue,
which could split a hair, and without hesitation he replied to
her with a verse: 'Only the Omnipotent has knowledge of secrets;
if any man says, " I know " do not believe him.'

Then a servant fetched in the polluted, blue-eyed headsman, who
asked: 'Whose sun of life has come near its setting?' took the
prince by the arm, placed him upon the cloth of execution, and
then, all merciless and stony hearted, cut his head from his body
and hung it on the battlements.

The news of the death of Prince Tahmasp plunged his father into
despair and stupefaction. He mourned for him in black raiment
for forty days; and then, a few days later, his second son,
Prince Qamas, extracted from him leave to go too; and he, also,
was put to death. One son only now remained, the brave,
eloquent, happy-natured Prince Almas-ruh-bakhsh. One day, when
his father sat brooding over his lost children, Almas came before
him and said: 'O father mine! the daughter of King Quimus has
done my two brothers to death; I wish to avenge them upon her.'
These words brought his father to tears. 'O light of your
father! ' he cried, 'I have no one left but you, and now you ask
me to let you go to your death.'

'Dear father!' pleaded the prince, 'until I have lowered the
pride of that beauty, and have set her here before you, I cannot
settle down or indeed sit down off my feet.'

In the end he, too, got leave to go; but he went a without a
following and alone. Like his brothers, he made the long journey
to the city of Quimus the son of Timus; like them he saw the
citadel, but he saw there the heads of Tahmasp and Qamas. He
went about in the city, saw the tent and the drums, and then went
out again to a village not far off. Here he found out a very old
man who had a wife 120 years old, or rather more. Their lives
were coming to their end, but they had never beheld face of child
of their own. They were glad when the prince came to their
house, and they dealt with him as with a son. He put all his
belongings into their charge, and fastened his horse in their
out-house. Then he asked them not to speak of him to anyone, and
to keep his affairs secret. He exchanged his royal dress for
another, and next morning, just as the sun looked forth from its
eastern oratory, he went again into the city. He turned over in
his mind without ceasing how he was to find out the meaning of
the riddle, and to give them a right answer, and who could help
him, and how to avenge his brothers. He wandered about the city,
but heard nothing of service, for there was no one in all that
land who understood the riddle of Princess Mihr-afruz.

One day he thought he would go to her own palace and see if he
could learn anything there, so he went out to her garden-house.
It was a very splendid place, with a wonderful gateway, and walls
like Alexander's ramparts. Many gate-keepers were on guard, and
there was no chance of passing them. His heart was full of
bitterness, but he said to himself: 'All will be well! it is here
I shall get what I want.' He went round outside the garden wall
hoping to find a gap, and he made supplication in the Court of
Supplications and prayed, 'O Holder of the hand of the helpless!
show me my way.'

While he prayed he bethought himself that he could get into the
garden with a stream of inflowing water. He looked carefully
round, fearing to be seen, stripped, slid into the stream and was
carried within the great walls. There he hid himself till his
loin cloth was dry. The garden was a very Eden, with running
water amongst its lawns, with flowers and the lament of doves and
the jug-jug of nightingales. It was a place to steal the senses
from the brain, and he wandered about and saw the house, but
there seemed to be no one there. In the forecourt was a royal
seat of polished jasper, and in the middle of the platform was a
basin of purest water that flashed like a mirror. He pleased
himself with these sights for a while, and then went back to the
garden and hid himself from the gardeners and passed the night.
Next morning he put on the appearance of a madman and wandered
about till he came to a lawn where several pert-faced girls were
amusing themselves. On a throne, jewelled and overspread with
silken stuffs, sat a girl the splendour of whose beauty lighted
up the place, and whose ambergris and attar perfumed the whole
air. 'That must be Mihrafruz,' he thought, 'she is indeed
lovely.' Just then one of the attendants came to the water's
edge to fill a cup, and though the prince was in hiding, his face
was reflected in the water. When she saw this image she was
frightened, and let her cup fall into the stream, and thought,
'Is it an angel, or a peri, or a man?' Fear and trembling took
hold of her, and she screamed as women scream. Then some of the
other girls came and took her to the princess who asked: 'What is
the matter, pretty one?'

'O princess! I went for water, and I saw an image, and I was
afraid.' So another girl went to the water and saw the same
thing, and came back with the same story. The princess wished to
see for herself; she rose and paced to the spot with the march of
a prancing peacock. When she saw the image she said to her
nurse: 'Find out who is reflected in the water, and where he
lives.' Her words reached the prince's ear, he lifted up his
head; she saw him and beheld beauty such as she had never seen
before. She lost a hundred hearts to him, and signed to her
nurse to bring him to her presence. The prince let himself be
persuaded to go with the nurse, but when the princess questioned
him as to who he was and how he had got into her garden, he
behaved like a man out of his mind—sometimes smiling, sometimes
crying, and saying: ' I am hungry,'Or words misplaced and random,
civil mixed with the rude.

'What a pity!' said the princess, 'he is mad!' As she liked him
she said: 'He is my madman; let no one hurt him.' She took him
to her house and told him not to go away, for that she would
provide for all his wants. The prince thought, 'It would be
excellent if here, in her very house, I could get the answer to
her riddle; but I must be silent, on pain of death.'

Now in the princess's household there was a girl called
Dil-aram
[7]
; she it was who had first seen the image of the
prince. She came to love him very much, and she spent day and
night thinking how she could make her affection known to him.
One day she escaped from the princess's notice and went to the
prince, and laid her head on his feet and said: ' Heaven has
bestowed on you beauty and charm. Tell me your secret; who are
you, and how did you come here? I love you very much, and if you
would like to leave this place I will go with you. I have wealth
equal to the treasure of the miserly Qarun.' But the prince only
made answer like a man distraught, and told her nothing. He said
to himself, ' God forbid that the veil should be taken in vain
from my secret; that would indeed disgrace me.' So, with
streaming eyes and burning breast, Dil-aram arose and went to her
house and lamented and fretted.

Now whenever the princess commanded the prince's attendance,
Dil-aram, of all the girls, paid him attention and waited on him
best. The princess noticed this, and said: 'O Dil-aram! you must
take my madman into your charge and give him whatever he wants.'
This was the very thing Dil- aram had prayed for. A little later
she took the prince into a private place and she made him take an
oath of secrecy, and she herself took one and swore, ' By Heaven!
I will not tell your secret. Tell me all about yourself so that
I may help you to get what you want.' The prince now recognised
in her words the perfume of true love, and he made compact with
her. 'O lovely girl! I want to know what the rose did to the
cypress. Your mistress cuts off men's heads because of this
riddle; what is at the bottom of it, and why does she do it?'
Then Dil-aram answered: ' If you will promise to marry me and to
keep me always amongst those you favour, I will tell you all I
know, and I will keep watch about the riddle.'

'O lovely girl,' rejoined he, 'if I accomplish my purpose, so
that I need no longer strive for it, I will keep my compact with
you. When I have this woman in my power and have avenged my
brothers, I will make you my solace.'

'O wealth of my life and source of my joy!' responded Dil-aram,
'I do not know what the rose did to the cypress; but so much I
know that the person who told Mihr-afruz about it is a negro whom
she hides under her throne. He fled here from Waq of the
Caucasus—it is there you must make inquiry; there is no other
way of getting at the truth.'On hearing these words, the prince
said to his heart, 'O my heart! your task will yet wear away much
of your life.'

He fell into long and far thought, and Dil-aram looked at him and
said: 'O my life and my soul! do not be sad. If you would like
this woman killed, I will put poison into her cup so that she
will never lift her head from her drugged sleep again.'

'O Dil-aram! such a vengeance is not manly. I shall not rest
till I have gone to Waq of the Caucasus and have cleared up the
matter.' Then they repeated the agreement about their marriage,
and bade one another goodbye.

The prince now went back to the village, and told the old man
that he was setting out on a long journey, and begged him not to
be anxious, and to keep safe the goods which had been entrusted
to him.

The prince had not the least knowledge of the way to Waq of the
Caucasus, and was cast down by the sense of his helplessness. He
was walking along by his horse's side when there appeared before
him an old man of serene countenance, dressed in green and
carrying a staff, who resembled Khizr.
[8]
The prince thanked
heaven, laid the hands of reverence on his breast and salaamed.
The old man returned the greeting graciously, and asked: 'How
fare you? Whither are you bound? You look like a traveller.'

'O revered saint! I am in this difficulty: I do not know the way
to Waq of the Caucasus.' The old man of good counsel looked at
the young prince and said: 'Turn back from this dangerous
undertaking. Do not go; choose some other task! If you had a
hundred lives you would not bring one out safe from this
journey.' But his words had no effect on the prince's resolve.
'What object have you,' the old man asked, 'in thus consuming
your life?'

'I have an important piece of business to do, and only this
journey makes it possible. I must go; I pray you, ill God's
name, tell me the way.'

When the saint saw that the prince was not to be moved, he said:
'Learn and know, O youth! that Waq of Qaf is in the Caucasus and
is a dependency of it. In it there are jins, demons, and peris.
You must go on along this road till it forks into three; take
neither the right hand nor the left, but the middle path. Follow
this for a day and a night. Then you will come to a column on
which is a marble slab inscribed with Cufic characters. Do what
is written there; beware of disobedience.' Then he gave his good
wishes for the journey and his blessing, and the prince kissed
his feet, said good-bye, and, with thanks to the Causer of
Causes, took the road.