"You are come," said the prince.
"I am," said he.
"That"s true," said Prince Underwaves. "A king"s son are you, but a son of success am I. We shall have no more mistakes and delays, but a wedding this time."
"Go easy," said the Princess of the Greeks. "Your wedding is not so near as you think yet. Till you make a castle, I won"t marry you. Not to your father"s castle nor to your mother"s will I go to dwell; but make me a castle for which your father"s castle will not make washing water."
"You rider of the black horse, make that," said Prince Underwaves, "before the morrow"s sun rises."
The lad went out to the horse and leaned his elbow on his neck and sighed, thinking that this castle never could be made for ever.
"There never came a turn in my road yet that is easier for me to pa.s.s than this," said the black horse.
The lad gave a glance from him and saw all that were there, and ever so many wrights and stone masons at work, and the castle was ready before the sun rose.
He shouted at the Prince Underwaves, and he saw the castle. He tried to pluck out his eye, thinking that it was a false sight.
"Son of King Underwaves," said the rider of the black horse, "don"t think that you have a false sight; this is a true sight."
"That"s true," said the prince. "You are a son of success, but I am a son of success, too. There will be no more mistakes and delays, but a wedding now."
"No," said she. "The time is come. Should we not go to look at the castle? There"s time enough to get married before the night comes."
They went to the castle and the castle was without a fault.
"I see one," said the prince. "One want at least to be made good. A well must be made inside, so that water may not be far to fetch when there is a feast or a wedding in the castle."
"That won"t be long undone," said the rider of the black horse.
The well was made, and it was seven fathoms deep and two or three fathoms wide, and they looked at the well on the way to the wedding.
"It is all very good," said she, "but for one little fault yonder."
"Where is it?" said Prince Underwaves.
"There," said she.
He bent him down to look. She came out, and she put her two hands at his back, and cast him in.
"Be thou there," said she. "If I go to be married, thou art not the man; but the man who did each exploit that has been done, and, if he chooses, him will I have."
Away she went with the rider of the little black horse to the wedding.
And at the end of three years after that, so it was that he first remembered the black horse or where he left him.
He got up and went out, and he was very sorry for his neglect of the black horse. He found him just where he left him.
"Good luck to you, gentleman," said the horse. "You seem as if you had got something that you like better than me."
"I have not got that, and I won"t; but it came over me to forget you,"
said he.
"I don"t mind," said the horse, "it will make no difference. Raise your sword and smite off my head."
"Fortune will not allow that I should do that," said he.
"Do it instantly, or I will do it to you," said the horse.
So the lad drew his sword and smote off the horse"s head; then he lifted his two palms and uttered a doleful cry.
What should he hear behind him but "All hail, my brother-in-law!"?
He looked behind him, and there was the finest man he ever set eyes upon.
"What set you weeping for the black horse?" said he.
"This," said the lad, "that there never was born of man or beast a creature in this world that I was fonder of."
"Would you take me for him?" said the stranger.
"If I could think you the horse I would; but if not, I would rather have the horse," said the rider.
"I am the black horse," said the lad, "and if I were not, how should you have all these things that you went to seek in my father"s house.
Since I went under spells, many a man have I ran at before you met me.
They had but one word amongst them: they could not keep me, nor manage me, and they never kept me a couple of days. But when I fell in with you, you kept me till the time ran out that was to come from the spells. And now you shall go home with me, and we will make a wedding in my father"s house."
_Truth"s Triumph_
Several hundred years ago there was a certain Rajah who had twelve wives, but no children, and though he caused many prayers to be said, and presents made in temples far and near, never a son nor a daughter had he. Now this Rajah had a Wuzeer who was a very, very wise old man, and it came to pa.s.s that one day, when he was travelling in a distant part of his kingdom, accompanied by this Wuzeer and the rest of his court, he came upon a large garden, in walking round which he was particularly struck by a little tree which grew there. It was a bringal tree, not above two feet in height. It had no leaves, but on it grew a hundred and one bringals. The Rajah stopped to count them, and then turning to the Wuzeer in great astonishment, said, "It is to me a most unaccountable thing, that this little tree should have no leaves, but a hundred and one bringals growing on it. You are a wise man--can you guess what this means?"
The Wuzeer replied, "I can interpret this marvel to you, but if I do, you will most likely not believe me; promise therefore that if I tell you, you will not cause me to be killed as having told (as you imagine) a lie."
The Rajah promised, and the Wuzeer continued: "The meaning of this little bringal tree, with the hundred and one bringals growing on it, is this. Whoever marries the daughter of the Malee in charge of this garden will have a hundred and one children--a hundred sons and one daughter."
The Rajah said. "Where is the maiden to be seen?"
The Wuzeer answered, "When a number of great people like you and all your court come into a little village like this, the poor people, and especially the children, are frightened and run away and hide themselves; therefore, as long as you stay here as Rajah you cannot hope to see her. Your only means will be to send away your suite, and cause it to be announced that you have left the place. Then, if you walk daily in this garden, you may some morning meet the pretty Guzra Bai, of whom I speak."
Upon this advice the Rajah acted; and one day whilst walking in the garden he saw the Malee"s young daughter, a girl of twelve years old, busy gathering flowers. He went forward to accost her, but she, seeing that he was not one of the villagers, but a stranger, was shy, and ran home to her father"s house.
The Rajah followed, for he was very much struck with her grace and beauty; in fact, he fell in love with her as soon as he saw her, and thought he had never seen a king"s daughter half so charming.
When he got to the Malee"s house the door was shut; so he called out, "Let me in, good Malee; I am the Rajah, and I wish to marry your daughter."