Wonder Tales from Tibet

by Eleanore Myers Jewett

“Nay, now,” said he soothingly, “truly [[85]]a paltry ring is not worth so many tears. My dearest, when I go again to my father’s kingdom I will buy you a dozen rings more beautiful than that which you have lost! So dry your eyes and think no more about it.”

But the girl refused to be comforted. “That ring,” said she between her sobs, “is a magic one, and its loss will bring all manner of woe to us both.”

Nor was she mistaken in this. The ring was borne along by the swift stream for a long distance and was finally washed ashore near the pleasure gardens of a great Khan. There some one found it and, seeing that it was a strange ring, curiously wrought, took it at once to the Khan himself. The monarch looked long upon it, and then, calling his ministers about him, he said:

“This trinket has magic power about it. I believe that it belongs to a very beautiful woman, perhaps the daughter of some king. Take it, therefore, and wheresoever [[86]]it leads you, follow. And if its owner indeed proves to be a lovely damsel, take her prisoner and bring her at once to me, that she may be head over my household.”

The chief minister bowed low, took the ring and called a goodly number of soldiers and servants to accompany him on his quest. As soon as he held the magic ring in his hand, he felt a strange power drawing him; and as he yielded to that power, it led him out of the pleasure gardens to the bank of the stream, and then up along the bank straight toward the log hut in the woods. And so, in a very short time, the Khan’s minister and all his soldiers and servants were standing before the door of the little house where the Prince’s son and his wife had been living so happily together, and were calling them to come out at once. They dared not disobey, and so the unhappy husband led forth the beautiful damsel, weeping as if her heart would break, and delivered her to the Khan’s minister. She was taken away at [[87]]once, and the poor Prince’s son was left alone to grieve in his lonely little cabin. The old foster-father and mother were so stricken with sorrow that it seemed they would die, yet neither did they nor the Prince’s son dare to do anything against the commands of the great Khan.

Meanwhile the girl was led by the chief minister to the monarch’s palace. He was delighted with her beauty and charm and paid not the slightest heed to her tears or prayers to be allowed to return to her husband. She was made chief of the royal servants, must needs live in the palace within constant call of the Khan, and there seemed to be no possible hope of escape. Days passed by, and her sorrow and longing for her husband became ever greater instead of less, until she began to grow pale and thin, and those about her feared she would sicken and die. The Khan, too, noticed the change in her and tried every means in his power to cheer her, but all in vain. At last he grew angry. [[88]]

“This husband of hers,” he cried, “is making the fairest of my servants sickly and plain. But if it is, indeed, longing for him that is eating the bloom off her cheeks, I will quickly remedy the matter!” And calling the court executioner, he whispered a few words in his ear. “There now!” said he later to the damsel, “when you know that your husband is dead and there is no use in wishing for him any longer, then perhaps you will forget him and learn to smile again.”

In vain did the poor girl plead with the monarch for her husband’s life! The more she wept and besought him, the more angry and determined he became.

So the executioner set out with a number of soldiers and, finding the log hut in the woods, dragged forth the Prince’s son with little gentleness and took him afar off to a meadow in which was a dry, deserted well. Down in this the poor lad was thrust, and a great rock was rolled over it. There in the darkness he laid [[89]]him down to die, with no hope of rescue and no desire for life, anyway, if he could not live it with his dear and beautiful wife.

Now it happened that the very next day was that on which the six friends had agreed to meet by the little round pond with the six streams running into it. And true to their promise, the other five gathered together and there awaited the coming of the Prince’s son. The day passed slowly by and he did not appear, and then they noticed that the tree which he had planted was drooping and withering.