Eleventh Tale Of a Prince and a Handmaid’s Son #2
The merchant handed several head of cattle over to him to drive, and he drove them out of the city, whereupon he met the rest of the herdsmen driving their cattle.
They all walked on together. The young man drove his cattle by foot as the merchant rode alongside them on horseback.
The merchant pressed them all cruelly, and he was especially cruel to the young man.
He grew ever more frightened of the merchant because he could clearly see the degree of cruelty and abuse the merchant heaped on him.
Being a person of refinement, he was afraid lest the merchant 127 deal him a blow with his staff powerful enough to kill him.
So he walked on among the cattle with the merchant alongside until they came to a place to rest. A sack was passed around and bread distributed.
The young man, too, was given some, and he ate.
Afterwards, they were travelling through a dense forest and two cows went astray.
The merchant yelled at him, so he and some of the herdsmen went to look for the cattle.
The cows had fled quite a distance, so he pursued them.
Since the forest was so dense, none of them could see the others, each person hidden from the others’ sight.
The young man kept on in pursuit of his two missing cows.
They continued to flee and he continued to go after them until he arrived in an especially dense part of the forest.
He reflected, No matter what, I am going to die. If I return without the cows, the merchant will kill me. And if I stay here, the beasts of the forest will get me.
So he considered, How can I go back to face the merchant without his cows?
Because of his great fear of the merchant, he continued to pursue the cows, who continued to flee.
Meanwhile, night had fallen. Such a thing had never happened to him before, having to spend the night in such a dense forest. He heard the roaring of the forest beasts, as was their wont.
He decided to climb up a tree and spend the night there.
From the tree he listened to the sound of the forest beasts, roaring as they do.
In the morning, he looked and saw the cows standing nearby.
So he climbed down out of the tree and went to seize them.
But on they fled, with him in pursuit. The cows found a grassy patch and stopped to graze.
The young man tried to take hold of them, 128 but on they fled.
And so it went, over and over again, the young man pursuing and the cows fleeing, until he reached the dense heart of the forest where the beasts had no fear of humans as they were very far from any settlement.
Night fell once more. He heard the sound of the beasts roaring, and he was terrified.
He then caught sight of an especially large tree.
So he clambered up it. As soon as he had climbed the tree he saw a man lying there.
This frightened him, but he also took comfort in it because he had found another person.
They began asking questions of one another.
Who are you?
Just a man. Who are you?
Just a man, as well.
Where have you come from?
The young man did not want to explain all that had happened to him, so instead he replied, Two of the cows I was herding strayed into the forest. That’s how I came to be here.
He then asked the man he had found in the tree, Where have you come from?
The man answered, I came here on account of my horse. I was riding and stopped to rest. My horse strayed into the forest, so I went after it. But it kept running away until I arrived here.
They took the opportunity to stick together and agreed that even if they were to come to a settlement, they would stay together. The two of them spent the night there in the tree, listening to the sounds of the beasts as they roared and howled.
At dawn, the young man heard the sound of immense laughter over the forest. The laughter was so loud it made the tree shake.
129 He was terrified. The other man said, That no longer frightens me.
I have spent several nights here, and every morning as dawn approaches that laughter is heard, making all the trees tremble and shake.
The young man, still terrified, said to the other man, Apparently this is a demons’ place, because in a place where people live you never hear laughter like that. Where in the world has anyone ever heard such laughter?
Dawn came swiftly. The two of them looked and saw the cows and the horse standing there.
So they climbed down from the tree and started pursuing their animals, the young man after his cows and the other man after his horse.
But the cows fled and the young man pursued them, and the horse fled and the other man pursued it, until they were completely separated and had no idea where the other one was.
The young man came upon a sack of bread, which is very important in a wilderness.
So he took the sack up onto his shoulder and continued after his cows.
He then encountered a man. At first he was frightened, but then he took some comfort in it because he had found yet another person.
The man asked him, How have you come to be here?
He countered, How have you come to be here?
The man replied in surprise, I, my parents, and my parents’ parents were raised here. But you, how have you come to be here? No people from town ever come here.
The young man was terrified because he realized that this was no ordinary man. But still, the man from the forest was doing him no harm and so he befriended him.
The man from the forest asked, What are you doing here? 130
He replied that he was pursuing his errant cattle.
The man from the forest said, Stop pursuing your sins. For it is not your cows but your sins that drive you on. Enough already! You have already done your penance. Now stop pursuing them. Come with me and you will achieve your purpose.
The young man went with him, but he was afraid to speak with him or ask him anything, because a man like that might open his mouth and devour him. So he simply followed.
Later, the young man came across his friend, who was still pursuing his horse.
As soon as he saw him he sought to signal to him that the other man was no ordinary man and because of that he should have no dealings with him.
He walked up to him and whispered as much in his ear.
His friend, meanwhile, had spied the sack of bread on the young man’s shoulder and began to beg, Brother!
It is many days since I have eaten. Give me some bread.
The young man replied, Here in the wilderness there is nothing I can do for you. I need the bread for myself. I must protect my own life before the life of another.
Despite understanding the young man’s explanation, his friend started begging and pleading, I will give you anything at all!
The young man answered, What can you give me for bread in the wilderness?
His friend said, I offer myself to you. I will sell myself to you as a slave for that bread.
The young man reflected that acquiring a person was worth the gift of bread.
So the young man purchased him as an eternal slave and made him swear oaths that in exchange for bread he 131 would be his eternal slave, even if they should happen to come to some human settlement.
They would both eat bread from the sack until it ran out.
The two of them went on together, the slave after his owner, and followed the man from the forest. Things were somewhat easier for the young man now that he had a slave.
If he needed to lift something or do something, he ordered his slave to lift it or to do it.
They followed the man from the forest until they reached a place swarming with snakes and scorpions.
The young man was very frightened and asked the man from the forest, How will we get past here?
How else? To do so we must head towards my house, the man replied, pointing to a house floating in the air.
They kept following him, and he led them across unharmed and brought them up into his house. He gave them food and drink, and then departed.
The young man ordered his slave around, telling him to do what he needed done.
His slave was terribly resentful at having sold himself into slavery on account of that single hour he needed bread.
Now he had something to eat, but for the sake of that one hour of need he was to be an eternal slave.
He let out a deep sigh. How has it come to this, that I should be a slave?
The young man, his master, asked him, What was your former glory that you can sigh so about how it has come to this?
In reply he told him the story, about how he was a king and how it was rumoured that he had been switched at birth; about how he had driven his erstwhile rival away; about how he was periodically overcome by the idea that he had not behaved justly 132 and felt remorse.
His mind was plagued with perpetual regret for his evil deed and for the great injustice he had done.
Once he dreamt that his redress was to abdicate his throne and go wherever his eyes directed him.
And so doing, he would expiate his sin. He did not want to do that, initially.
But his dreams that he should do so kept confounding him until the idea stuck and, at last, he abdicated the throne.
He went his way until he arrived in that place. Now here he was—a slave.
The young man listened to all of this and held his tongue, thinking, I need to consider what to do with you.
That night, the man from the forest returned and gave them food and drink.
There they spent the night. At dawn, they heard the immense laughter that made all the trees convulse with trembling.
The slave prevailed upon his master to ask the man from the forest what it was.
He asked him, What is that immense laughter so close to dawn?