TURKISH FAIRY TALES
THE STAG-PRINCE
Once upon a time, when the servants of Allah were many, there lived a Padishah[2] who had one son and one daughter. The Padishah grew old, his time came, and he died; his son ruled in his stead, and he had not ruled very long before he had squandered away his whole inheritance.
One day he said to his sister: “Little sister! all our money is spent. If people were to hear that we had nothing left they would drive us out of doors, and we should never be able to look our fellow-men in the face again. Far better, therefore, if we depart and take up our abode elsewhere.” So they tied together the little they had left, and then the brother and sister quitted their father’s palace in the night-time, and wandered forth into the wide world.
They went on and on till they came to a vast sandy desert, where they were like to have fallen to the ground for the burning heat. The youth felt that he could go not a step further, when he saw on the ground a little puddle of water. “Little sister!” said he, “I will not go a step further till I have drunk this water.”
“Nay, dear brother!” replied the girl, “who can tell whether it be really water or filth? If we have held up so long, surely we can hold up a little longer. Water we are bound to find soon.”
“I tell thee,” replied her brother, “that I’ll not go another step further till I have drunk up this puddle, though I die for it,”—and with that he knelt down, sucked up every drop of the dirty water, and instantly became a stag.