The next day the other man told Labakan his story. The Pacha of Cairo had brought up the other man. And the other young man was well-versed in sword fighting, horseback riding and all the other things necessary for a prince to know. But however, the other young man had never known his parents. On his deathbed, the Pacha of Cairo called the young man and told him that the young man was not his nephew but the son of a great king.
The Pacha of Cairo had also told the other man why the king had acted the way he had. As soon as the king had a son, the astrologers had warned the king about the dangers to his son until the son's twenty-second year.
It was for this reason that the king decided not to see the boy till his twenty-second birthday and sent the young prince away from him.
Even on his deathbed the Pacha of Cairo did not tell the prince his father's name but asked the young man to be at a great pillar, which was a four day journey to the east of Alexandria. There the young man was to meet some men to whom the young man was to give a dagger that the Pacha of Cairo had been given in safe possession by the king. The young man was supposed to give the dagger to the men near the pillar and tell them that he was whom they were seeking. Then the people would take the young man to see the king.
Labakan was very surprised on hearing this story and he could not help feeling envious of the Prince.
Slowly over the journey Labakan began to make comparisons between himself and the Prince and finally Labakan reached the conclusion that he was as fine and as pleasant as the prince and Labakan could be a prince himself.
That was the time that Labakan decided to take over the life of the prince.
A night later when the prince was fast asleep Labakan gently drew the dagger out from the prince’s clothes. Labakan was able to do that without waking up the prince.
Then leaving behind his own old horse, Labakan took the swift horse of the prince and Labakan set off to find the great pillar.
Adapted from Egyptian Folk Tales
No comments:
Post a Comment