[6] The orgia, i.e. shoulder, is a measure of length equal to the space from finger-tips to finger-tips of the hands when extended horizontally.
[7] Cf. with this the end of ‘Master and Pupil’ on p. 5.
IV
The Prince who befriended the Beasts
There was a king, and he had three sons. Once he fell ill, and became blind in both eyes. He sent his sons for a surgeon. All the surgeons agreed that there was a fish of a rare kind by the help of which the king might be cured.[1] They made a sketch of the fish, and left it with the sick monarch.
The king commanded his eldest son to go and catch that fish in the sea. A hundred men with their nets were lost in the sea, but nought could they find like the fish they sought. The eldest son came home to his father and said: ‘I have found nothing.’ This displeased the king, but what could he do? Then the second son set out, taking with him a hundred men also, but all his men were lost too, and he brought back nothing.
After this, the youngest brother went. He had recourse to cunning; he took with him a hundred kilas[2] of flour and one man. He came to the sea, and every day he strewed flour in the water, near the shore, until all the flour was used up; the fishes grew fat on the flour, and said: ‘Let us do a service to this youth since he has enabled us to grow fat’; so, as soon as the youth threw a net into the sea, he at once drew out the rare fish he sought. He wrapped it up in the skirt of his robe, and went his way.
As he rode along, some distance from his companion, he heard a voice that said: ‘O youth, I am dying!’ But on looking round he saw no man, and continued his journey. After a short time, he again heard the same words. He looked round more carefully, but saw nothing. Then he glanced at the skirt of his robe, and saw that the fish had its mouth open, and was dying. The youth said to it: ‘What dost thou want?’ The fish answered: ‘It will be better for thee if thou wilt let me go, some day I shall be of use to thee.’ The youth took it and threw it into the water, saying to his comrade: ‘I hope thou wilt not betray me.’
When he reached home, he told his father that he had been unsuccessful. Some time passed. Once the prince quarrelled with his comrade, and the latter ran off and told the king how his son had deceived him. When the king heard this, he ordered his son to be taken away and killed. He was taken out, but when they were about to kill him, the youth entreated them, saying: ‘What doth it profit you if you slay me? If you let me go, ’twill be a good deed, and I shall flee to foreign lands.’ The executioners took pity on him, and set him free; he thanked them, and departed.