The Rose Beauty

Once upon a time, when the sieve was in the straw, when the camel was a crier and the mouse a barber, when the cuckoo was a tailor and the donkey ran errands, when the tortoise baked bread, when I was fifteen years old but my father rocked my cradle, in those old, old days there was a sultan who had three daughters. The eldest was forty, the middle one thirty and the youngest twenty.

One day the youngest daughter wrote her father a letter: "My lord father! My eldest sister is forty and my middle sister is thirty, and still you have not married them. I do not want my hair to turn grey while I wait for a husband." The sultan read the letter, called his three daughters and said: "Look, my daughters! Let each of you take a bow and shoot an arrow. Whoever's door the arrow falls at, marry him."

The eldest daughter's arrow fell into the palace of the vizier's son, so they gave her to the vizier's son. The middle daughter's arrow fell into the mansion of the chief mufti's son, so they gave her to him. The youngest shot her arrow too; it flew and stuck in the hut of a poor labourer. "That won't do, that won't do!" everyone cried. She shot again, and again the arrow stuck in that hut. She shot a third time, and a third time the arrow fell at the poor young man's hut.

The sultan was furious: "Your sisters waited patiently and found husbands to their liking. You are the youngest, yet you wrote me that saucy letter. This is your share. Go to your husband, and be content with whatever he gives you!" The poor girl went to the labourer's hut and married him. The hut was poor, but the young man was kind-hearted, and the two of them loved each other.

After a while the girl was expecting a child. When her time came, her husband ran to find a midwife. While he was away the girl had neither a bed to lie on nor a fire to warm herself by, and outside a bitter winter raged. Suddenly the walls of the hut opened to either side, and three beautiful maidens of the peri race stepped inside. One stood at her head, one at her feet, and one at her side. In the blink of an eye the hut was spotless, the girl was lying on a soft bed, and beside her lay a tiny, lovely baby girl.

Before they left, the peri maidens came one by one to the baby. The first said, "Let her name be Rose; when she weeps, let pearls fall from her eyes instead of tears." The second said, "Let her name be Rose; when she smiles, let roses bloom." The third said, "Let her name be Rose; wherever she steps, let fresh green grass spring up." Then all three vanished.

Her husband searched all day for a midwife but could not find one. When he came home he found the hut spotless and his wife lying on a fine bed. When his wife told him about the three peri maidens he was struck dumb with amazement. The little girl grew lovelier from hour to hour, from day to day; there was none like her in the world. When she cried, pearls fell from her eyes; when she laughed, roses bloomed; when she walked, a path of green grass stretched out behind her. The fame of the Rose Beauty spread from mouth to mouth.

At last the sultan of that land heard of the girl too and decided that his son should have no other wife. He called his son and told him about her. For a long time the peri maidens had been showing the Rose Beauty to the prince in his dreams, and a sweet fire of love was already burning in his heart. The sultan sent the chief lady of the palace to the labourer's hut to ask for the girl's hand for the prince in God's name. The poor family rejoiced at this good fortune and began to prepare for the wedding.

But the palace lady also had a beautiful daughter who looked a little like the Rose Beauty. The lady was bitterly upset that the prince should marry a poor labourer's daughter, and she decided to put her own daughter in her place. This woman also knew a little magic. On the wedding day she made the Rose Beauty eat very salty food, then took with her a jug of water and a large basket, put Rose and her own daughter in the bridal carriage and set off for the palace.

The road was long. The Rose Beauty grew thirsty and asked for water. "I'll give you water if you give me the light of one of your eyes," said the woman. The poor girl was dying of thirst, so she agreed. The woman muttered a spell and shut the light of one of the girl's eyes inside a little bead. A while later the girl was thirsty again. This time the woman asked for the light of her other eye, and the girl gave that too. The woman put the two beads in her pocket, put the girl, who could no longer see, into the big basket and left her on the top of a mountain. Then she dressed her own daughter in the wedding gown and took her to the prince: "Here is your bride!"

A great wedding was held. When the bride's veil was lifted, the prince saw that the girl before him was not the girl of his dreams. But because she looked a little like her, he said nothing to anyone. The next day he was quite sure: the girl of his dreams wept pearls, made roses bloom when she smiled and left grass behind her when she walked, but this girl had neither pearls nor roses nor grass. "There is some trickery here," he thought, but still he said nothing to anyone.

Meanwhile poor Rose was weeping on the mountain top. She wept so much that the pearls falling from her eyes would no longer fit in the basket. Just then an old carter who carried mud passed by. When he heard the weeping he was frightened: "Who are you? A jinni or a peri?" The girl said, "I am neither a jinni nor a peri; I am a child of man." The old man took heart, opened the basket and saw a girl who could not see, weeping, her tears falling as pearls. He took her by the hand and led her to his hut. The old man had nobody in the world; he held the girl to his heart as if she were his own child. When they needed money he sold one of her pearls, and on that they lived.

The days passed. One day, as Rose sat in the hut, something made her smile, and at once a rose bloomed. The girl said to the old man: "Father, take this rose, go in front of the prince's palace and cry, 'I have a rose for sale that has no match in the world!' If the palace lady comes out, don't sell it for money; say you will give it for the light of an eye."

The old man took the rose and began crying it in front of the palace. It was not the season for roses. When the palace lady heard him she thought, "I'll put it in my daughter's hair, and the prince will think she is his true bride." She called the man and asked the price of the rose. "I won't sell it for money," said the man, "but I'll give it for the light of an eye." The woman took one of the beads from her pocket and gave it to him. She braided the rose into her daughter's hair. When the prince saw the rose he remembered the girl of his dreams, but still he said nothing; he felt he was getting close to the truth.

The old man brought the bead to Rose. Rose touched the bead to her eye, prayed to God, and that eye began to see again. The girl was so happy that she smiled, and another rose bloomed. The old man took this rose too to the palace. The woman thought, "He's come just in time; the prince is beginning to love my daughter, and if I get this rose too he will forget the other one completely," and she gave the second bead as well. When Rose opened her second eye she smiled all day long, and everything around her filled with roses. She was lovelier than ever.

One day the Rose Beauty went out for a walk. As she smiled, roses bloomed around her and green grass sprang up beneath her feet. When the palace lady saw her she trembled with fear: "If this comes out, what will become of me?" At once she went to the old carter's hut and frightened the man by saying, "You are keeping a witch in your house! First find out her talisman, and leave the rest to me."

The simple man was frightened, and that evening he asked Rose, "My child, you are a child of man; where does this power of yours come from?" Rose, suspecting no harm, told him: "I got my talisman from three peri maidens. As long as my talisman lives, the pearls and roses and grass will be with me. My talisman is a little fawn on the hilltop. If anything happens to it, I will fall into a deep sleep."

The next day the woman came, learned everything and hurried back to the palace with joy. She told her daughter, "Tell your husband to bring you the fawn from the hilltop." The false bride begged the prince, and the prince's men caught the fawn, brought it to the palace and shut it in a dark stable. The moment the fawn was taken from its hilltop, the Rose Beauty fell into a deep sleep like death. The old man could not wake her; weeping, he laid her in a tomb filled with flowers.

Around the fawn's neck there was a little red coral bead that nobody noticed. As they were taking the fawn to the stable, the bead fell off and rolled down the palace stairs, as if it wanted to hide. In those days the prince could not sleep at all. One night the Rose Beauty appeared to him in a dream and said: "O my prince, O my betrothed! My soul is beneath the stairs of your palace; my body is sleeping in the tomb. My talisman is the little coral bead."

As soon as the prince woke he ran to the stairs, searched high and low and found the little coral bead. At once he had the fawn taken out of the stable and carried back to its hilltop. Then he took the bead and ran to the tomb. At the door of the tomb the three peri maidens were waiting for him. "Put the bead in her palm," they said. As soon as the prince put the bead in Rose's palm, she woke from her deep sleep, opened her eyes and smiled. Roses bloomed all around her, and pearls of joy fell from her eyes.

The prince took the Rose Beauty to his palace. The palace lady and her daughter had to answer for the wrongs they had done and were driven from the palace. The Rose Beauty's mother, the sultan's daughter, her father, that kind-hearted labourer, and the old carter all came to the palace. The old sultan forgave his youngest daughter too and held his granddaughter to his heart. For forty days and forty nights the drums were beaten, the pipes were played and a great wedding was held. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told the tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the Rose Beauty, who makes roses bloom in the world when she smiles.