The Fan Prince
In a country there lived a king who had a wife and seven daughters. One day he called his daughters and said to them, “Who is feeding you? And by what permission do you eat it?
Six of them answered Father, it is you who gives me food, and it is by your permission that we eat it. The seventh daughter, the youngest, answered Father, it is God who gives me my food, and it is by my own permission that I eat it.
This answer made her father and mother very angry with their youngest daughter. They said We will not let our youngest child stay with us any longer.
The king called his servants and said Prepare a palanquin and put my youngest daughter in it, then take her into the jungle and leave her there.
The servants prepared the palanquin. They put the youngest princess in it and carried her into the jungle. There, they put down the palanquin and said to her, “We’re going to drink some water.
But the young girl said Go home. Do as my father has ordered. So they left her alone in the jungle and returned to the king’s palace.
Once alone, the young girl prayed to God. Then she fell asleep for a while in her palanquin. When she woke up, it was already evening and she found in her palanquin a jar of water and some food on a plate that God had sent her while she was sleeping. She thanked Him for adoring her. Then she bathed her face and hands in a bowl of water, ate and B and fell asleep peacefully in her palanquin, for night had come.
This little princess had always been a very gentle girl. She had always done the right thing and had been very good. Heaven loved her dearly.
While she slept. So God made her a beautiful palace on the plain of the jungle, where she lay in her palanquin. He also made her a garden and a reservoir. When the girl woke up in the morning and got out of her palanquin, she saw the palace standing next to her reservoir in a magnificent garden.
I’ve never seen this palace,” she said. It wasn’t there last night. She entered the garden, where servants met her and greeted her with salams. The palace was much finer than her father’s, and when she entered it, she found it full of servants. Who owns this palace? she asked them.
Is it yours? they replied. So the princess thanked the heavens and the venerable man.
A few days later, her father heard that in the jungle where he had sent her, a beautiful palace, a garden and a reservoir had suddenly appeared, and that in this palace lived the young princess. So he said Yes, my daughter has told me the truth. It is God who gives us everything, and I know that it was he who gave her this beautiful house.
So some time passed, and the princess lived in her palace in the jungle. But her father never went to see her.
Then one day. The king said to himself Today, I’m going to get some fresh air in another country and I’m going by sea. So he ordered a boat to be prepared and went to find his six daughters, telling them that he was leaving for a little while.
What would you like me to bring you from this other country,” he said, “and I’ll bring you anything you want. Some of them wanted jewellery, a necklace, a pair of earrings and so on. Others wanted silk to make saris and other clothes. The king then remembered his youngest daughter and thought I must send someone to see what she would like.
He called one of his servants and told him to go into the jungle to see his youngest daughter and to say to her Your father is going to another country for a breath of fresh air and he would like to know what you would like him to bring back for you.
The servant found the little princess reading her prayer book. He gave her the king’s message, to which she replied Sabre, meaning Wait! Because she wanted him to wait for her answer until she had finished reading her prayers. But the servant didn’t understand. He immediately went to the king and told him.
Your daughter wants you to bring her a sword. Sword”, said the king. What is a sword? It doesn’t matter what it is. I’ll see if I can find some swords and if I find any, I’ll bring her some.
The king then left in his boat for another country. He stayed there for a while and bought jewellery and silks for his six eldest daughters. When he felt like going home, he went down to his boat and got in. But the boat wouldn’t move, because he had forgotten one thing, which his youngest daughter had asked for.
He didn’t have a sword. So he gave one of his servants 4,000 ₹ and told him to go to the shore, go through the bazaar and try to find the sword. And he was to give him the 4,000 ₹ in return.
The man went to the bazaar and asked everyone if they had any swords for sale. Then he asked if they could tell him what it was. No,” they replied, “but our king’s son is called Sabre. Perhaps you should speak to him.
So the servant went to see Prince Sabre. Our king’s youngest daughter told him. He asked his father to bring him some swords, and the king gave me 4,000 ₹ to buy them for him. But I can’t find any, and no one knows what they are. The prince said Very well, give this little box to your king, and tell him to give it to his youngest daughter.
But be careful, she and only she must open the box. Then he tells the man to keep the 4,000 ₹ as a gift from him.
The servant went back to the boat to the king and gave him the box, saying. In this box is the sword and he told him that Prince Sabre had said that no one but the youngest princess should open it. With that, the boat began to move and the king returned home safely.
He gave his eldest daughters the presents he had brought for them and sent the little box to his youngest daughter.
She opened the box and found a very pretty little fan. She was delighted, used it to fan herself, and immediately a handsome prince appeared before her.
Delighted, she asked him Who are you and where do you come from? My name is Prince Sabre,” he replied. Your father came to my father’s country and he said that you asked him to bring you a sword. So I gave him this little fan for you. I’m obliged to come to anyone who uses his little fans with the right side out.
And when you want me to leave, you have to turn the right side of the fan towards you and brag with it.
They talked together for a while, then the princess turned her fan so that the wrong side was on the outside, fanned herself with it, and the prince disappeared.
For a month. The princess would brag about how she could make Prince Sabre appear, and then, after long discussions, she would turn her fan around, brag and they would disappear.
One day, the prince said to her I would like to marry you. Will you marry me? She answered Yes. So she wrote a letter to her father, her mother and her six sisters, inviting them to come to her wedding.
They all came, and her father was very happy that she had married the sword prince. The six sisters, on the other hand, were angry that their youngest sister was married while she, who was older, was not yet. She thought that, being the eldest, she would have said she was getting married. The first. Especially as she had lived in their father’s palace and had been looked after while the younger sister had been cast out into the jungle.
So on the day of the wedding, the little sisters said Today, we won’t let the servants make your bed, we’ll make it ourselves for you.
The little princess agreed and her sisters went to make the bed in secret. They took a glass bottle and ground it into powder, which they spread on the side where Prince Sabre was to lie.
Once the wedding was over. When Prince Sabre and his wife went to bed, the prince fell very ill because the glass powder had penetrated his pulpit.
He said to the little princess Turn, turn the fan the wrong way and fan yourself quickly so that I can go back to my father’s country, because I’m very ill and I don’t dare stay here. Knowing nothing about glass powder, the poor princess complied. So Prince Sabre returned to his father’s house and stayed there for a long time, very ill.
Every day, the little princess turned her fan to the right side and boasted, but the sword prince never came. He was far too ill. One day, she cried a lot and was very, very sad. Why doesn’t my prince come to see me? she said. I don’t know where he is, or what has become of him.
That night, she had a dream in which she saw the sword prince lying on his bed, very ill.
When she got up in the morning, she thought she had to go in search of her prince. So she took off all her beautiful clothes and jewellery and put on a yogi robe. Then she got on a horse and rode off into the jungle. Nobody knew she was a woman, or that she was the daughter of a king. Everyone thought she was a man and a yogi.
She rode into the night where? Where? She came to another jungle. There, she got off her horse and sat down under a tree where she fell asleep. At 0.00 am, she was woken by the chatter of a parrot and a Maïna, who came to sit on the tree. Knowing that she was lying underneath. The Maïna said to the parrot Tell me something.
The parrot replied Prince Sabre is very, very ill in his country. On his wedding day, at 6 o’clock in the morning, they took a glass bottle and ground it to powder, and they sprinkled the powder on the prince’s bed, so that when he lay down it penetrated his flesh. The glass powder made her very ill.
What will cure him? asked the Maïna. No doctor can cure him,” replied the parrot. No medicine will do him any good. But if someone were to lie under this tree and take some of the earth from it and mix it with cold water and rub it on the prince, this sword, then he would be cured.
The princess heard all this. She got up and waited impatiently for the morning to come. She took some soil, mounted her horse and set off. She rode on until she reached the land of Prince Sabre. She went to see the king and said. I am a yogi and I can cure your son. Let me see him and arrange for some cold water to be brought in.
The king did all this. The cold water was brought to her and she mixed it with the earth she had found under the tree. She rubbed this mixture on the prince for three days and three nights. After that, he got better, and after a week he was completely well. Once again able to talk and walk as usual.
The king said to the yogi Before you leave, let me give you a present first. You shall have everything you want. You can have as many sport horses or as many rupees as you like, because you have done my son good.
The princess, still disguised as a yogi, replied I don’t want anything at all, but nothing, apart from the ring of the sword prince and the handkerchief he has with his name on it.
These were two things the princess had given him on their wedding day. Prince Sabre’s father and mother went to their son and begged him to give the handkerchief and the ring to the yogui. He did so willingly, because, he thought, without his yogi, I would never see my dear princess again.
The princess took the ring and the handkerchief and went home. Once there, she took off Yuk’s dress and put on her own beautiful clothes. Then she turned her fan right side up and used it to fan herself. And immediately her sword prince stood beside her. Why didn’t you come to see me before? she said. I was always bragging.
I was very ill and couldn’t come,” replied Prince Sabre. Finally, a yogi came and cured me. And as a reward, I gave him my ring and my handkerchief.
It wasn’t a yogi,” said the princess. It was me who came to see you and was cured.
You,” said the prince. Oh no, he was a yogi. You were sitting here in your palace when the yogi came to cure me.
No,” she said, insisting and laughing, “I was the yogi. Look, isn’t that your ring? Isn’t that my handkerchief with your name on it? Is it? Well, he believed her. She told him about her dream, her journey in the robe of the Yogi, the speech of the birds and everything that had happened. Prince Sabre became very grateful for everything his wife had done for him.
And together they lived happily ever after.
