राजा की बेटी से शादी

Summary

A king whose name and kingdom are unknown had a daughter who was perpetually ill. A man suggested she could be cured by eating a specific type of apple, but did not say where to find them. The king proclaimed that whoever brought apples to cure his daughter could marry her. A farmer with three sons heard this. He sent his eldest son with the best apples from his garden. On the way, an old man asked what he was carrying. The son lied, saying "frogs." The old man said, "So be it." When the son opened the basket before the king, it was full of frogs. The king angrily expelled him. The next day, the middle son went. He told the old man he was carrying "crabs." The old man again said, "So be it," and the basket turned into crabs. The king had him beaten and expelled. Finally, the youngest son insisted on going. When the old man asked, he truthfully said he was carrying apples to cure the princess. The old man said, "So be it." The apples remained apples, and the princess was instantly cured upon eating one. The king, however, broke his promise. He set three impossible tasks: first, to build a boat that could sail on land; second, to guard one hundred rabbits for a day; and third, to bring a feather from the tail of a wise bird with a hawk's neck and lion's body. With the old man's help, the youngest son succeeded in each task. On his journey for the feather, he stayed at a fort where the owner had lost a key. He also met a couple whose daughter was ill, and a ferryman who wanted to be free of his work. He promised to ask the wise bird about these problems. At the bird's home, its wife hid him under the bed. When the bird slept, he pulled a feather from its tail. The bird, waking, answered his wife's questions: the key was under a stone in a lumber room; the girl's lost hair, used by