Fairy tales

by Wilhelm Hauff

With the royal robe Labakan seemed also to have assumed a royal mood and he began really to persuade himself that he must be a king’s son in disguise, and he therefore decided to leave the place, where the people all seemed too stupid to recognise his worth. It seemed to him as though the splendid robe had been sent to him by some good fairy and to be too precious a gift to be despised, and so, putting the little money he possessed into his pockets, he slipped through the gates of Alexandria, his flight being covered by the darkness of the night. The new prince caused a good deal of surprise amongst the people of the towns he passed through, for it was not usual to see a man so handsomely arrayed walking on foot, but on being questioned he would reply in dignified tones that he had his own reasons for so travelling. This, however, did not satisfy the folks, and when he found he was making a laughing-stock of himself, he spent part of his money in purchasing a broken-down old horse, which he obtained for a very small sum, and which suited him excellently, because its quiet pace called for little display of horsemanship and therefore did not betray the fact that he was an unskilful rider.

One day, as he rode carefully along upon old Murva, as he had named his horse, he was joined by another rider, who requested permission to travel in his company, as converse made the time pass more pleasantly and quickly.

This rider was a cheery young fellow, and very good-looking. He questioned Labakan as to whence he came and whither he was going, and it appeared that he too was riding about at present merely for his own pleasure. He told his new friend that his name was Omar and that he was the nephew of Elfi Bey, the unfortunate Pasha of Cairo, and that his uncle had made a communication to him shortly before his death which would presently necessitate his taking a journey in a certain direction. Labakan was not quite so communicative as his companion, but he intimated that he came of very high parentage and was travelling for his own pleasure.

The two young men seemed mutually pleased with each other and on the second day Labakan had become sufficiently familiar with him to ask him what was the communication Elfi Bey had made to him, and was much surprised to hear the following: Elfi Bey had brought up Omar from his earliest youth and he had never known his own parents. But the Pasha, being defeated and mortally wounded by his enemies, thought the right time had now come to tell his adopted nephew that, instead of being his nephew, he was really the son of a mighty ruler, who had removed the young prince from his court on account of a prophecy the astrologers had made concerning him, and who had declared he would not see his son again until his two-and-twentieth birthday.

Elfi Bey had not told him his father’s name, but had given him minute instructions as to what he was to do. Upon the fourth day of the coming month of Ramadan, which was his birthday, he was to go to the celebrated Pillar of El-Serujah, four day’s journey east of Alexandria. He would there find some men awaiting him, to whom he was to present a dagger, with the words, “I am he whom ye seek.” The men would answer, “Praised be the Prophet who has preserved thee,” and he was to follow them, for they would then lead him to his father. The tailor’s apprentice was very much astonished to hear his companion’s story and regarded him with envious eyes, inwardly raging over the fate which had first allowed Omar to pass for the nephew of a mighty pasha, and yet heaped still further dignity upon him by proving him to be a royal prince, whilst Labakan, though possessing all the attributes of a prince, came from humble origin and belonged to a common trade.

He was forced to confess that the young prince was of a pleasing countenance and possessed gentle and engaging manners, and yet in spite of that he tried to persuade himself that the young man’s father would have preferred him, Labakan, for his son.

All day long he dwelt upon this and dreamt of its possibility at night, and when morning dawned and he looked upon the face of the unconscious youth, he determined to take by cunning what an unkind fate had denied him. The dagger which was to establish the prince’s identity was stuck in his girdle, and Labakan drew it out and placed it in his own, then, mounting the prince’s fleeter steed, he rode off and was many miles away before the prince awoke and discovered the trick his perfidious companion had played him.

It was the first day of the month of Ramadan, and so Labakan had four days in which to reach the Pillar of El-Serujah, which was well known to him and which was only two days’ journey; but he hurried on as fast as he could, because he feared the real prince would overtake him.

At the end of the second day he came in sight of the Pillar, which stood upon a little hill in the midst of a wide plain, and could be seen for some miles away.

Labakan’s heart beat wildly and his guilty conscience made him afraid as to whether he might be able to carry out his intentions, but he comforted himself with the thought that he had been born to be a prince and rode on.