The Stag Prince

Once upon a time, long ago, when the sieve was in the straw, there lived a sultan who had one son and one daughter. When the sultan died he left his son a great fortune. But the prince was young and his head was full of air, and in a short time he had spent everything his father had left him. When there was nothing left in his hands, he took his sister with him, and the two of them left their homeland and set out for other lands.

They walked and walked, and at last they came to an endless desert. The sun burned above them and the sand boiled beneath their feet. The prince's tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. After a while they saw a small puddle by the side of the road. It was rainwater that had gathered in the footprint of an animal. His sister said, "Brother, don't drink, that water is not clean." But the prince could not bear his thirst. He bent down and drank, and the moment he drank he turned into a stag.

His sister cried and wept, but what could she do? She stroked her brother, who was now a stag, and promised she would never leave him. They went on together, and at last they came to a large spring. Beside the spring stood an enormous tree. The girl said, "Here no one will touch us," and climbed the tree and sat among the branches. The stag lay down at the foot of the tree and kept watch over his sister.

One day the sultan of that land was returning from a hunt and came to the spring to water his horses. But as soon as the horses bent down to the water they shied and pulled back. The sultan was curious and looked into the water, and in the water he saw a face as lovely as the moon. When he raised his head he noticed the beautiful girl sitting at the top of the tree. "Who are you? Are you human, or are you a peri?" he asked. The girl did not answer, and she did not come down.

The sultan ordered his men to cut down the tree. The woodcutters chopped at the tree all day. Towards evening, when the tree was about to fall, they left the work for the next day and went away. When night came the stag licked the wounds of the tree with his tongue, and by morning the tree was sounder than before. This went on for three days. The sultan was astonished.

At last the sultan called for an old woman. The woman said, "I will bring her down." She brought a griddle and a cauldron to the spring, but she set the griddle upside down and the cauldron bottom up. Pretending she could not see, she tried to milk a sheep, but she took hold of its horn. When the girl saw all this from the top of the tree, she could not stand it: "Granny, you've put the griddle upside down, the cauldron is bottom up, and you're milking the sheep by its horn instead of its udder!" The woman said, "My child, my eyes cannot see, come and help me." Out of pity the girl climbed down, and at that very moment the sultan's men caught her.

The sultan took the girl to his palace and married her. The girl asked for only one thing: that the stag should be with her too. The sultan agreed. The stag began to live in the palace garden; every day his sister took him food and stroked him. The girl and the sultan lived very happily together. After a while the girl was expecting a child.

But in the palace there was a jealous servant girl. She envied the girl who had become queen and wanted to take her place. One day, as the queen was sitting by the pool in the palace garden, the servant pushed her and she fell into the pool. In the pool there was an enormous fish; the fish swallowed the girl but did her no harm at all. The servant put on the queen's clothes, covered her face and took her place.

The sultan noticed that his wife had changed, but he said nothing to anyone. The servant was afraid of the stag, because he knew who she really was. She pretended to be ill and paid the physicians. The physicians told the sultan, "Only the heart of the stag can cure the queen." The sultan was very sad, but because he wanted his wife to get well he agreed to have the stag killed.

When the stag heard the news of his death he ran to the edge of the pool and called out, weeping: "Sister, sister! The knives are being sharpened, the cauldrons are boiling, they are coming to kill me!" From inside the pool, from the belly of the fish, came his sister's voice: "Brother, brother! I am in the belly of the fish. I have a son in my arms. There is nothing I can do!"

A gardener passing by heard this and ran at once to tell the sultan. The sultan rushed to the pool and heard the stag and the girl talking with his own ears. At once he had the water of the pool drained, had the fish caught, and had its belly carefully opened. Out of the fish's belly came the queen, safe and sound, with a beautiful baby in her arms. The sultan embraced them and wept for joy.

As soon as the stag drank the water that came out of the fish's belly, he became a man again. Brother and sister threw their arms around each other. The sultan drove the jealous servant out of his palace and ordered that she never be seen in his land again. Then a great feast was held, and it lasted four days and four nights. The prince became a wise and honest vizier at the sultan's side and never wasted his wealth again.

Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told the tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the faithful sister who never left her brother.