The Golden-Haired Children

Long ago a sultan ordered that one night no light was to be lit in any house in his city. That night he disguised himself and went out to walk the streets. He saw a thin beam of light slipping from the window of a house. He came closer and listened. Inside, three sisters were sewing by candlelight and talking among themselves.

The eldest said, "If the sultan married me, I would weave him a carpet so big that his whole army could sit on it and there would still be room." The middle one said, "If the sultan married me, I would sew him a tent so big that his whole army could shelter under it and there would still be room." And the youngest said with a smile, "If the sultan married me, I would bear him two golden-haired children; the boy would have a moon on his forehead and the girl a star."

The next morning the sultan had all three girls brought to the palace. He married the eldest to his head cook and the middle one to another bey, and the youngest he took for himself. The eldest could not weave the carpet, and the middle one could not sew the tent. But after a while the youngest was expecting a child. This drove the two elder sisters mad with jealousy.

When the time of the birth came, the sultan had to go away on a campaign. The queen truly gave birth to golden-haired twins: a moon shone on the boy's forehead and a star on the girl's. But the two sisters made a pact with a wicked midwife, carried the babies away, and put two puppies in their place. Then they sent word to the sultan: "The queen has given birth to two puppies."

The sultan was very grieved and very angry. He had his wife shut up in a tower of the palace. The midwife put the twin babies in a chest and set it on the river. The chest floated and floated and at last got caught in front of a mill. The miller's she-goat came to the chest; when she heard the babies crying, she suckled them. Then the miller and his wife found the chest. This old couple had no children, and they were overjoyed to see the babies and raised them as their own. And every day the goat came and suckled them.

The years passed and the children grew up. The boy and the girl covered the moon and the star on their foreheads with a cloth, because the old miller had told them, "Never show these marks to anyone." One day the children went down to the city, and as the boy passed beside the palace garden the sultan saw him. He liked the nobility in the young man's face very much, called him into the palace, talked with him, and felt a strange love for him in his heart.

But the wicked midwife had also seen the young man and understood who he was. She told the two sisters. All three were frightened; if the truth came out they would be in great trouble. One day the midwife disguised herself and went to the young man's sister: "What a beautiful girl you are, but something is missing. At the other end of the world, in the garden of the Peri Queen, there is a branch; whoever puts it in her house will have everything she desires. How lovely it would be if your brother brought it to you." The girl begged her brother, and her brother set out for his sister's sake.

On the way the young man met a giantess. The giantess took pity on him and showed him the way: "Two giants guard the gate of the garden. If their eyes are open, they are asleep, so go in. Take the branch and come out without looking back." The young man took the branch and returned. This time the midwife tempted the girl with a mirror: "The Peri Queen has a mirror that shows the whole world." The young man set out again, and with the giantess's advice he brought back the mirror too.

At last the midwife told the girl, "None of these is any use until the Peri Queen herself comes." The young man set out for the third time. The giantess said to him, "This time it is very hard, my son. Everyone who enters the Peri Queen's garden turns to stone. But go all the same. Say the Queen's name three times; perhaps she will hear you." The young man entered the garden, but before he had a chance to say her name, he began to turn to stone, starting from his legs. The stone rose to his waist, it rose to his chest. With his last breath he cried out: "Peri Queen! Peri Queen! Peri Queen!"

The Peri Queen heard his voice and came down into the garden. When she saw the young man half turned to stone, and the moon shining on his forehead, she took pity on him. She sprinkled a glass of the water of life over him, and the young man came back to life. Then she sprinkled it over all the stones in the garden, and hundreds of princes, beys and brave young men were freed from the stone as well. The Peri Queen said to the young man, "I have seen your courage and your love for your sister. I will come with you."

The young man returned home with the Peri Queen. One morning the Peri Queen invited the sultan and the whole court. In front of everyone she said to the young man and his sister, "Take off the cloths from your heads." When the children took off their cloths, the moon and the star on their foreheads lit up the palace like daylight. The Peri Queen told the sultan the truth: what the jealous sisters and the wicked midwife had done, how the children had been set on the river in a chest, how the goat had suckled them.

In tears the sultan embraced his children. At once he ran to the tower, freed his wife and begged her forgiveness. The jealous sisters and the wicked midwife were banished from the land. The miller and his wife were brought to the palace and given the finest mansion, and the faithful goat was fed on the freshest grass in the palace garden for the rest of her life. The young man married the Peri Queen. The wedding lasted forty days and forty nights.

Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told the tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the golden-haired young man who went to the other end of the world for his sister.