The Wind Demon

Once there was an old sultan who had three sons and three daughters. One day the sultan fell gravely ill. All the physicians were called, but none of them could cure him. The sultan knew his hour of death had come and called his children: "When I die, let the son who keeps watch at my grave for three nights become sultan. And give my daughters to the first who asks for them." After these words he died.

On the first night the eldest son went to the grave. He sat until midnight and prayed. But suddenly a terrible noise broke out, and the eldest son snatched up his shoes in fright and ran home. On the second night the middle son went, and he too ran away when he heard the noise. On the third night it was the youngest son's turn. He girded on his sword and went to the grave. At midnight the noise broke out; it was so terrible that the ground shook. But the young prince did not run away. He walked towards the sound, and before him he saw a huge dragon.

The prince drew his sword and flung himself on the dragon. At last the dragon was left without strength: "If you are a man, strike once more!" it said. "No," said the prince, "my mother bore me only once," and the dragon never rose again. The prince wanted to take the dragon's ears and nose as proof, but he could not see in the dark. Far away he saw a little light and walked towards it. In the light he saw an old man holding two balls, one black and one white. He was turning the black ball, and light was spreading from the white one. "What are you doing, grandfather?" he asked. "I hold the thread of the nights and let the days go free," said the old man.

The prince said, "My work is even greater than yours," and tied the old man's arms so that the day would not dawn and the light would be enough for him. He walked on and saw forty bandits gathered at the foot of a castle. The bandits wanted to get into the castle and steal the treasure. The prince drove nails into the castle wall, climbed to the top and said to the bandits, "Come up one at a time." As each bandit reached the top, the prince overpowered him and threw him into the moat. So he guarded the castle against the forty bandits.

When he went into the castle he saw a palace. On the stairs a snake was climbing a pillar; the prince cut the snake in two with his sword, but the sword stuck fast in the stone pillar and he forgot to pull it out. On the first floor of the palace a beautiful girl was sleeping, on the second floor an even more beautiful girl, and on the third floor the room was lined with steel from top to bottom, and there slept a girl so beautiful that if the prince had had a thousand hearts he would have given all thousand to her. The prince quietly closed the doors, went out, untied the old man's arms, and the day dawned again. He took the dragon's ears and nose and returned home. When he got back he found they had made his eldest brother sultan, but the prince said nothing.

Before long a lion came to the palace and asked for the sultan's eldest sister. The sultan did not want to give her, but the youngest prince said, "That was our father's will," and they gave the girl to the lion. The next day a tiger came and asked for the middle daughter, and they gave her too. On the third day a bird came and asked for the youngest daughter. This bird was the Simurgh, the padishah of the birds.

Meanwhile the sultan who owned the castle got up in the morning and saw the snake on the stairs, the sword stuck in the pillar and the forty bandits in the moat. "A friend has done this," he said, and to find the owner of the sword he built a great bathhouse; everyone would bathe free of charge, and the man whose scabbard was empty would be found. Last of all the three princes came, and the youngest one's scabbard was empty. The sultan said he would give him whatever he wished. The prince asked for the youngest daughter. The sultan said, "If I give her to you, trouble will come upon you. She has a terrible enemy called the Wind Demon. The eye cannot see him, the arrow cannot reach him; he flies like a storm." But the prince insisted, and they were married.

To protect his wife the prince did not leave her side for a long time. One day he said, "Let me go hunting for a little while." His wife said, "If you go, you will never see me again," but at last she agreed. The moment the prince was out of the door, the Wind Demon came and carried the girl away. When the prince returned he could not find his wife. He wept, and then he mounted his horse and swore to find either death or his wife.

On the way he came first to the palace of his eldest sister. His sister hid him from her lion husband. When the lion came home he said, "If your little brother came, I would let him sleep between my paws," and welcomed the prince like a brother. Then he came to the palace of his middle sister, to the tiger, and the tiger too welcomed him with love. Then he came to his youngest sister, to the palace of the Simurgh. The Simurgh showed him the Wind Demon's palace: "The demon is sleeping now. You can take your wife and flee, but if he wakes he will find you."

The prince came to the demon's palace, which had no door and no chimney. His wife saw him from the window, jumped down with joy, and the prince caught her in his arms. They mounted their horses and fled. But on the fourth day the Wind Demon woke, saw that the girl was gone, and set off after them like a storm. The invisible demon caught up with them and flung the prince about with such a storm that the prince fell lifeless to the ground. Weeping, the girl begged the demon for permission: "At least let me gather his bones." The demon said, "Do as you like." The girl laid the prince on the horse's back and whispered in the horse's ear: "Take him where he must be taken."

The horse galloped all the way to the Simurgh's palace. The Simurgh gathered all the birds and asked, "Who can go to the garden of paradise?" An old owl could go. They set the owl on another bird's back and sent it off, and brought back a glass of water from the garden of paradise. When the Simurgh sprinkled the water over the prince, he opened his eyes as if waking from sleep.

The Simurgh said, "You can defeat the demon only through his talisman. Tell your wife to find out where his talisman is." Again the prince went secretly to the demon's palace and spoke with his wife. When the demon woke from his forty-day sleep, the girl spoke sweet words to him and learned where his talisman was: "Beyond the seventh sea there is an island. On the island an ox grazes. In the ox's belly there is a golden cage, and in the cage there is a white dove. That dove is my life." The demon also said that the only way to get there was to ride one of the forty sea-horses that drink from the spring on the mountain opposite the Simurgh's palace.

The birds took the prince to the spring. While the sea-horses were drinking, the prince caught one, put a bit in its mouth and mounted it. The horse said, "What is your command, sweet master?" "Take me to the island in the seventh sea," said the prince, and in the blink of an eye he reached the island. On the island he met a herdsman who watched over the ox and began to work beside him. At watering time, when he was alone with the ox, he took the golden cage, called his sea-horse and went to the demon's palace. He took his wife too, and they flew towards the Simurgh's palace.

At that very moment the demon woke and came after them like a storm. The girl felt the demon's breath on the back of her neck. The sea-horse said, "Quick, set the dove free!" The prince opened the cage and let the white dove fly into the sky; when the dove flew away the wind died down, and the Wind Demon never blew again. And after that no evil storm ever rose in the land again.

The prince and his wife first visited his sisters and learned that the lion was the padishah of the lions and the tiger the padishah of the tigers. Then they went to the girl's land and held a wedding of forty days and forty nights. Finally they returned to the prince's own land. The prince showed everyone the dragon's ears and nose and told them how he had fulfilled his father's will, and they made him sultan. They lived happily to the end of their days. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told the tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the brave prince who saved his wife from the hands of the Wind Demon.