Once upon a time there lived a sultan. He had no children. He once went to travel and on the way he met a dervish, to whom he told about his grief.
[Dervish - beggar, ascetic and ascetic; in fairy tales, a character endowed with magical powers.]
Dervish says:
- Take this apple, eat one half yourself, and give the other half to the sultana. God will send you a child...
The Sultan took the apple, returned home and did everything as the dervish ordered. And Allah sent them a girl. The Sultan did not know how to protect his daughter, how best to raise her, so he came up with an idea: he built her a palace underground, hired a wet nurse and a nanny, and the girl began to grow up in this underground kingdom. She was fed only bone marrow and milk and honey until she grew up.
Now the girl is already fifteen years old, and she has never left her palace. One day she was sitting at the table, having lunch, and suddenly a bone fell into her mouth. She threw a bone at the top window and broke the glass. And such a light poured through the broken glass that the girl was amazed. She looked out the window, looked outside. He sees a street, snow is falling, passers-by are walking along the street. One says to the other:
“They say that the son of the Indian Maharaja is as white as this snow, his cheeks are red, and the mole on his cheek is like black pepper.”
The girl heard these words and fell in love with the son of the Indian Maharaja. And her father was the Sultan of Khorasan. Every day she began to turn pale and lose weight. The Sultan called the nurse and nanny and asked:
-What happened to my daughter? What is the cause of her illness?
“We will find out everything and let you know,” the women answered. They took the girl to the doctors. They all unanimously said that the girl was in love. The Sultan became very angry and beat all the doctors who said that the girl’s illness was love. One day the Sultan’s daughter’s slave asked:
- Madam, what is your grief, why are you melting like a candle, tell me, maybe I can find a way to help you in your grief?
“Once I was eating bone marrow,” the girl answered, “and a bone fell into my mouth.” I threw it and broke the window, then looked out into the street and saw two men. I heard them say that the son of the Indian Maharajah has white skin, red cheeks and a pepper-black mole. Even before I saw this young man, I fell in love with him. That's why I turned so pale. The slave immediately ran to the Sultan:
- Good news, my Sultan, I learned the grief of your daughter! Hearing the slave's story, the Sultan ordered:
“Send an ambassador to the Indian Maharaja now.” If he is the Maharaja, then I am the great Turkish Sultan. Let his son marry my daughter!
An ambassador was immediately sent to India, but the maharaja's son rejected the Sultan's offer. He handed the ambassador a letter, a yellow rope, a dagger and said:
“Even if your bride turns as yellow as this rope and wants to kill herself with this dagger, I still won’t marry her!”
The ambassador gave the rope, letter and dagger to the Sultan and conveyed to him the words of the son of the Indian Maharaja. The Sultan was furious.
- And my daughter fell in love with such a vile man - may she be damned! - he said and abandoned his daughter.
And the girl, having left the country, went to look for the son of the Indian Maharaja. She walked and walked and finally came to the spring. He looks at some girl filling a jug, and in front of the spring there are huge palaces. The Sultan's daughter thought, went and knocked on the door of one of the palaces - she decided to hire herself as a maid.
-Will you take me as your maid? she asked. The man who opened the door replied:
- Now I’ll ask the princess.
The princess looked at the girl and saw that she did not look like a maid. She told her to enter the house and asked:
-Where are you from and where are you going?
- I am the daughter of the Sultan of Khorasan, I fell in love with the son of an Indian Maharaja.
She showed a yellow rope and a dagger, and the princess, seeing this, said:
“Don’t be sad, I’m his older sister, and he comes here once a year.” At this time, flowers bloom in the garden and nightingales begin to sing - this is how we find out the day of his arrival. I have three lessons for you. If you fulfill them, I will marry you. First of all, I will sell you on the slave market.
The girl agreed to everything. At the bazaar, the girl was sold to some bey, who brought her home. And the bey had a daughter, with a face and body like a large chest. The girl, having become a slave, had to feed this monster. Every day they were sent special dishes. But somehow the girl did not feed the bey’s daughter the lunch he had sent her and cooked the food herself. As soon as the bey's daughter ate, she turned into a beautiful girl. It turns out that she was fed enchanted food. In the morning both girls went up to the bey's room. He saw how prettier his daughter had become, was delighted and asked:
- How did this happen? My slave, I free you!.. Ask for what you want.
“I don’t need anything,” the girl answered.
Bey gave her a golden cup and set her free. The girl was delighted and went to the princess’s house. The princess said that she had two more lessons left to complete, and again sold her at the market.
The girl was bought by another bey. He had a son. And in the bey’s house there lived a blackamoor maid who wanted the bey’s son to marry her. The young man did not agree, and then she threw him into prison. She ran everything in the house, this blackamoor. The girl realized this and one night pretended to be asleep. He sees that the blackamoor got out of bed and, taking a piece of dry bread, went to the dungeon where the young man was locked.
-Will you take me as your wife? - asks the blackamoor.
“No,” the young man answers.
Then she beat him with a whip and returned to her place. The girl spied all this, and in the morning she went to the bey.
“I know where your son is imprisoned,” she said. - Invite several men in the evening, and as soon as I let you know, come with me, I will show you my son.
The poor parents were looking forward to the evening. When it got dark, the girl gave a sign, and everyone followed the blackamoor. As soon as the blackamoor approached the young man and asked: “Will you take me as your wife? I will free you,” she was immediately captured and killed, and they and the young man returned to the house.
“My daughter, you freed my son, marry him,” said the bey.
“I beg you, let me go,” the girl answered. They agreed, gave her a copper jug and released her. The girl with a copper jug ran to the princess.
“One more test remains,” she said. “If you do this, then everything will be all right.”
The girl was again taken to the slave market and sold. Some guy bought it again. He had a mad daughter tied with chains in prison. Every day she ate one girl. And our girl was also brought and thrown to the cannibal.
The girl looked around, saw human bones, immediately found a secluded corner in the attic and hid there. The bey's crazy daughter became furious, she was torn, she was rushing about, she wanted to break the chains... In the morning, her father brought another girl. But the Sultan’s daughter took her to her place. They began to tease the bey’s crazy daughter:
- What, she couldn’t eat us?
The next morning they brought a new girl. They hid it in the attic too. In the evening the Sultan's daughter said to the other two:
- Let's tie our belts and I'll go downstairs. I'll find some bread and a candle and come back.
They took the girl downstairs. She looked - there was a light ahead, she approached - and what do you think she saw? A diva woman sits with her chest open and cooks a ring in a cauldron full of water. A girl came up to her and began to suck her breasts...
“If you hadn’t immediately started sucking my breast,” says the diva woman, “I would have eaten you.”
- What is being cooked in this cauldron? - asks the girl.
“I’m cooking the mind of the bey’s daughter, bound in chains.” When all the water in the cauldron boils away, she will go completely crazy... But if the ring that is in the cauldron is put on her finger, she will immediately become healthy, she answers.
- Woman diva, show me how you lift this cauldron! - says the girl.
The diva woman immediately put her feet into the handles of the cauldron, and the girl did not yawn, she pushed her into the cauldron - she was cooked. The girl quickly took the ring from the cauldron, found bread and a candle and ran to the other girls. They took her upstairs, and suddenly they saw that the girl in chains had already come to her senses and began to ask them to free her.
- You eat us, how can we come to you! - they say.
“I won’t do anything to you, I’ve already recovered!” - the girl in chains cries.
The girls took pity on her and released her. The Sultan's daughter put a wonderful ring on her finger. And the parents were surprised at the silence in the house - after all, their daughter screamed all night long. They ran to the dungeon:
- Has our daughter died?
And suddenly they see four girls, one more beautiful than the other. The father and mother almost went crazy with joy that their daughter had finally recovered. Then the daughter of the Sultan of Khorasan told them everything that had happened.
“Now you are our daughter, we won’t let you go anywhere,” they said.
“Better give me freedom,” the girl asked.
Then the girl’s parents gave her a carpet and released her, and she, rejoicing, hurried to the princess, who said:
- Now all the lessons are completed. My brother will arrive soon. When he asks me for water, I will call you, and you bring it, as you give him water, pour it over him a little. I will scold you and drive you away, but don’t be offended.
And then one day, when the girl was walking through the garden, nightingales sang, flowers bloomed, and the pools began to bubble. And immediately the son of the Indian Maharaja appeared at the gate. He entered his sister's palace, sat down and asked for some water.
- Oh, my brother, I took a new maid, such a beauty! - the sister said and shouted to the girl. “Bring my brother some water,” she ordered.
The girl began to serve water and splashed it on the prince. The sister scolded the girl and sent her away:
“My brother comes once a year, and you soaked all his clothes!”
And the young man, seeing the girl, fell in love with her with his soul and heart. He began to stand up for her:
- The water will dry up, don’t scold it!
He stayed for a few days and left for his homeland, but a month later the nightingales sang again, the flowers bloomed, and the pools began to bubble. Then the princess ordered the bed to be made, and she herself placed dry cakes under the mattress. They washed the girl's face with straw water and put her to bed. The prince came to his sister and again asked for water. But this time the sister sent a lame blackamoor for water.
-Where is that beautiful girl? - asks the prince.
- Forget this lazy girl, I beat her, and she went to bed... The prince was upset and went to visit the girl. As soon as she saw him, she spun from side to side - the flatbread under the mattress was breaking and cracking...
“Oh, my bones are breaking,” the girl moans. The prince became angry with his sister.
- Why did you beat her so badly? Aren't you sorry? - and left.
A few days later, the sister told her brother that the girl had died: “You drank water from her hands, so come to her funeral.” The princess ordered a coffin, laid the girl there and placed a letter, a yellow rope and a dagger on her chest.
The maharaja's son arrived for the funeral.
“Open the face of the deceased, look...” says the sister.
He opened the shroud, saw his letter, rope and dagger on the girl’s chest and immediately fell dead. The sister brought her brother to consciousness:
“You tormented this girl for a long time.” How much she suffered because of you! I wanted to upset and torment you even more, but I couldn’t do more than necessary...
Then she pulled the girl out of the coffin, the lovers hugged, the son of the Indian Maharaja married the daughter of the Sultan of Khorasan and took her home. There they played the wedding for forty days and nights and finally achieved their desires.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru