Andrew Lang_Fairy Book 09 (4 page)

Having stored these things in the prince's memory, she said: 'You
will see everything happen just as I have said.' Then she
escorted him a little way; they parted, and she went home to
mourn his absence.

Prince Almas, relying on the Causer of Causes, rode on to the
Place of Gifts and dismounted at the platform. Everything
happened just as Jamila had foretold; when one or two watches of
the night had passed, he saw that the open ground around him was
full of such stately and splendid animals as he had never seen
before. By-and-by, they made way for a wonderfully big lion,
which was eighty yards from nose to tail-tip, and was a
magnificent creature. The prince advanced and saluted it; it
proudly drooped its head and forelocks and paced to the platform.
Seventy or eighty others were with it, and now encircled it at a
little distance. It laid its right paw over its left, and the
prince took the kerchief Jamila had given him for the purpose,
and rubbed the dust and earth from its face; then brought forward
the game he had prepared, and crossing his hands respectfully on
his breast stood waiting before it. When it wished for food he
cut off pieces of the meat and put them in its mouth. The
serving lions also came near and the prince would have stayed his
hand, but the king-lion signed to him to feed them too. This he
did, laying the meat on the platform. Then the king-lion
beckoned the prince to come near and said: 'Sleep at ease; my
guards will watch.'. So, surrounded by the lion-guard, he slept
till dawn, when the king lion said good-bye, and gave him a few
of his own hairs and said: 'When you are in any difficulty, burn
one of these and I will be there.' Then it went off into the
jungle.

Prince Almas immediately started; he rode till he came to the
parting of the ways. He remembered quite well that the
right-hand way was short and dangerous, but he bethought himself
too that whatever was written on his forehead would happen, and
took the forbidden road. By-and-by he saw a castle, and knew
from what Jamila had told him that it was the Place of Clashing
Swords. He would have liked to go back by the way ho had come,
but courage forbade, and he said, 'What has been preordained from
eternity will happen to me,' and went on towards the castle. He
was thinking of tying his horse to a tree which grew near the
gate when a negro came out and spied him. ' Ha!' said the wretch
to himself, 'this is good; Taram-taq has not eaten man-meat for a
long time, and is craving for some. I will take this creature to
him.' He took hold of the prince's reins, and said: 'Dismount,
man-child! Come to my master. He has wanted to eat man-meat
this long time back.' 'What nonsense are you saying?' said the
prince, and other such words. When the negro understood that he
was being abused, he cried: 'Come along! I will put you into such
a state that the birds of the air will weep for you.' Then the
prince drew the Scorpion of Solomon and struck him—struck him on
the leathern belt and shore him through so that the sword came
out on the other side. He stood upright for a little while,
muttered some words, put out his hand to seize the prince, then
fell in two and surrendered his life.

There was water close at hand, and the prince made his ablution,
and then said: 'O my heart! a wonderful task lies upon you.' A
second negro came out of the fort, and seeing what had been done,
went back and told his chief. Others wished to be doubled, and
went out, and of every one the Scorpion of Solomon made two.
Then Taram-taq sent for a giant negro named Chil-maq, who in the
day of battle was worth three hundred, and said to him: 'I shall
thank you to fetch me that man.'

Chil-maq went out, tall as a tower, and bearing a shield of eight
millstones, and as he walked he shouted: 'Ho! blunder- head! by
what right do you come to our country and kill our people? Come!
make two of me.' As the prince was despicable in his eyes, he
tossed aside his club and rushed to grip him with his hands. He
caught him by the collar, tucked him under his arm and set off
with him to Taram-taq. But the prince drew the dagger of Timus
and thrust it upwards through the giant's armpit, for its full
length. This made Chil-maq drop him and try to pick up his club;
but when he stooped the mighty sword shore him through at the
waist.

When news of his champion's death reached Taram-taq he put
himself at the head of an army of his negroes and led them forth.
Many fell before the magic sword, and the prince laboured on in
spite of weakness and fatigue till he was almost worn out. In a
moment of respite from attack he struck his fire-steel and burned
a hair of the king-lion; and he had just succeeded in this when
the negroes charged again and all but took him prisoner.
Suddenly from behind the distant veil of the desert appeared an
army of lions led by their king. 'What brings these scourges of
heaven here?' cried the negroes. They came roaring up, and put
fresh life into the prince. He fought on, and when he struck on
a belt the wearer fell in two, and when on a head he cleft to the
waist. Then the ten thousand mighty lions joined the fray and
tore in pieces man and horse.

Taram-taq was left alone; he would have retired into his fort,
but the prince shouted: 'Whither away, accursed one? Are you
fleeing before me?' At these defiant words the chief shouted
back, 'Welcome, man! Come here and I will soften you to wax
beneath my club.' Then he hurled his club at the prince's head,
but it fell harmless because the prince had quickly spurred his
horse forward. The chief, believing he had hit him, was looking
down for him, when all at once he came up behind and cleft him to
the waist and sent him straight to hell.

The king-lion greatly praised the dashing courage of Prince
Almas. They went together into the Castle of Clashing Swords and
found it adorned and fitted in princely fashion. In it was a
daughter of Taram taq, still a child She sent a message to Prince
Almas saying, 'O king of the world! choose this slave to be your
handmaid. Keep her with you; where you go, there she will go! '
He sent for her and she kissed his feet and received the
Mussulman faith at his hands. He told her he was going a long
journey on important business, and that when he came back he
would take her and her possessions to his own country, but that
for the present she must stay in the castle. Then he made over
the fort and all that was in it to the care of the lion, saying:
'Guard them, brother! let no one lay a hand on them.' He said
goodbye, chose a fresh horse from the chief's stable and once
again took the road.

After travelling many stages and for many days, he reached a
plain of marvellous beauty and refreshment. It was carpeted with
flowers—roses, tulips, and clover; it had lovely lawns, and
amongst them running water. This choicest place of earth filled
him with wonder. There was a tree such as he had never seen
before; its branches were alike, but it bore flowers and fruit of
a thousand kinds. Near it a reservoir had been fashioned of four
sorts of stone—touchstone, pure stone, marble, and loadstone.
In and out of it flowed water like attar. The prince felt sure
this must be the place of the Simurgh.' he dismounted, turned
his horse loose to graze, ate some of the food Jamila had given
him, drank of the stream and lay down to sleep.

He was still dozing when he was aroused by the neighing and
pawing of his horse. When he could see clearly he made out a
mountain-like dragon whose heavy breast crushed the stones
beneath it into putty. He remembered the Thousand Names of God
and took the bow of Salih from its case and three arrows from
their quiver. He bound the dagger of Tlmus firmly to his waist
and hung the scorpion of Solomon round his neck. Then he set an
arrow on the string and released it with such force that it went
in at the monster's eye right up to the notch. The dragon
writhed on itself, and belched forth an evil vapour, and beat the
ground with its head till the earth quaked. Then the prince took
a second arrow and shot into its throat. It drew in its breath
and would have sucked the prince into its maw, but when he was
within striking distance he drew his sword and, having committed
himself to God, struck a mighty blow which cut the creature's
neck down to the gullet. The foul vapour of the beast and horror
at its strangeness now overcame the prince, and he fainted. When
he came to himself he found that he was drenched in the gore of
the dead monster. He rose and thanked God for his deliverance.

The nest of the Simurgh was in the wonderful tree above him, and
in it were young birds; the parents were away searching for food.
They always told the children, before they left them, not to put
their heads out of the nest; but, to-day, at the noise of the
fight below, they looked down and so saw the whole affair. By
the time the dragon had been killed they were very hungry and set
up a clamour for food. The prince therefore cut up the dragon
and fed them with it, bit by bit, till they had eaten the whole.
He then washed himself and lay down to rest, and he was still
asleep when the Simurgh came home. As a rule, the young birds
raised a clamour of welcome when their parents came near, but on
this day they were so full of dragon-meat that they had no
choice, they had to go to sleep.

As they flew nearer, the old birds saw the prince lying under the
tree and no sign of life in the nest. They thought that the
misfortune which for so many earlier years had befallen them had
again happened and that their nestlings had disappeared. They
had never been able to find out the murderer, and now suspected
the prince. ' He has eaten our children and sleeps after it; he
must die,' said the father-bird, and flew back to the hills and
clawed up a huge stone which he meant to let fall on the prince's
head. But his mate said, 'Let us look into the nest first for to
kill an innocent person would condemn us at the Day of
Resurrection.' They flew nearer, and presently the young birds
woke and cried, 'Mother, what have you brought for us?' and they
told the whole story of the fight, and of how they were alive
only by the favour of the young man under the tree, and of his
cutting up the dragon and of their eating it. The mother-bird
then remarked, 'Truly, father! you were about to do a strange
thing, and a terrible sin has been averted from you.' Then the
Simurgh flew off to a distance with the great stone and dropped
it. It sank down to the very middle of the earth.

Coming back, the Simurgh saw that a little sunshine fell upon the
prince through the leaves, and it spread its wings and shaded him
till he woke. When he got up he salaamed to it, who returned his
greeting with joy and gratitude, and caressed him and said: 'O
youth, tell me true! who are you, and where are you going? And
how did you cross that pitiless desert where never yet foot of
man had trod?' The prince told his story from beginning to end,
and finished by saying: 'Now it is my heart's wish that you
should help me to get to Waq of the Caucasus. Perhaps, by your
favour, I shall accomplish my task and avenge my brothers.' In
reply the Simurgh.' first blessed the deliverer of his children,
and then went on: ' What you have done no child of man has ever
done before; you assuredly have a claim on all my help, for every
year up till now that dragon has come here and has destroyed my
nestlings, and I have never been able to find who was the
murderer and to avenge myself. By God's grace you have removed
my children's powerful foe. I regard you as a child of my own.
Stay with me; I will give you everything you desire, and I will
establish a city here for you, and will furnish it with every
requisite; I will give you the land of the Caucasus, and will
make its princes subject to you. Give up the journey to Waq, it
is full of risk, and the jins there will certainly kill you.'
But nothing could move the prince, and seeing this the bird went
on: 'Well, so be it! When you wish to set forth you must go into
the plain and take seven head of deer, and must make water-tight
bags of their hides and keep their flesh in seven portions.
Seven seas lie on our way— I will carry you over them; but if I
have not food and drink we shall fall into the sea and be
drowned. When I ask for it you must put food and water into my
mouth. So we shall make the journey safely.'

The prince did all as he was told, then they took flight; they
crossed the seven seas, and at each one the prince fed the
Simurgh When they alighted on the shore of the last sea, it said:
'O my son! there lies your road; follow it to the city. Take
thee three feathers of mine, and, if you are in a difficulty,
burn one and I will be with you in the twinkling of an eye.'

The prince walked on in solitude till he reached the city. He
went in and wandered about through all quarters, and through
bazaars and lanes and squares, in the least knowing from whom he
could ask information about the riddle of Mihr-afruz. He spent
seven days thinking it over in silence. From the first day of
his coming he had made friends with a young cloth-merchant, and a
great liking had sprung up between them. One day he said
abruptly to his companion: 'O dear friend! I wish you would tell
me what the rose did to the cypress, and what the sense of the
riddle is.' The merchant started, and exclaimed: 'If there were
not brotherly affection between us, I would cut off your head for
asking me this! ' 'If you meant to kill me,' retorted the prince,
' you would still have first to tell me what I want to know.'
When the merchant saw that the prince was in deadly earnest, he
said: ' If you wish to hear the truth of the matter you must wait
upon our king. There is no other way; no one else will tell you.
I have a well-wisher at the Court, named Farrukh-fal,
[12]
and
will introduce you to him.' 'That would be excellent,' cried the
prince. A meeting was arranged between Farrukhfal and Almas, and
then the amir took him to the king's presence and introduced him
as a stranger and traveller who had come from afar to sit in the
shadow of King Sinaubar.