Sham S. Misri
"Do not be afraid," said the Wonderful Sheep;
"Have patience, and listen to the story of my misfortunes. I was once a
king, and my kingdom was the most splendid in the world. My subjects loved me;
my neighbours envied and feared me. I was respected by everyone, and it was
said that no king ever deserved it more.
"I was very fond of hunting, and one day, while chasing
a stag, I left my attendants far behind; suddenly I saw the animal leap into a
pool of water, and I rashly urged my horse to follow it, but before we had gone
many steps I felt an extraordinary heat, instead of the coolness of the water;
the pond dried up. A great gulf opened before me, out of which flames of fire
shot up, and I fell helplessly to the bottom of a precipice.
"I gave myself up for lost, but presently a voice said:
`Ungrateful Prince, even this fire is hardly enough to warm your cold heart!'
"`Who complains of my coldness in this sad and gloomy
place?' I cried.
"`An unhappy being who loves you hopelessly,' replied
the voice, and at the same moment the flames began to flicker and cease to
burn, and I saw a fairy, whom I had known as long as I could remember, and
whose ugliness had always horrified me. She was leaning upon the arm of a most
beautiful young girl, who wore chains of gold on her wrists and was evidently
her slave.
"`Why, Zingari,' I said, for that was the fairy's name,
`what is the meaning of all this? Is it by your orders that I am here?'
"`And whose fault is it,' she answered, `that you have
never understood me until now? Must a powerful fairy like me humiliate to
explain her doings to you who are no better than an ant by comparison, though
you think yourself a great king?'
"`Call me what you like,' I said impatiently; `but what
is it that you want--my crown, or my cities, or my treasures?'
"`Treasures!' said the fairy. `If I chose I could make
any one of my servants richer and more powerful than you. I do not want your
treasures, but,' she added softly, `if you will give me your heart--if you will
marry me--I will add twenty kingdoms to the one you have already; you shall
have a hundred castles full of gold and five hundred full of silver, and, in
short, anything you like to ask me for.'
"`Madam Zingari,' said I, `when one is at the bottom of
a pit where one has fully expected to be roasted alive, it is impossible to
think of asking such a charming person as you are to marry one! I beg that you
will set me at liberty, and then I shall hope to answer you fittingly.'
"`Ah!' said she, `if you really loved me you would not
care where you were--a cave, a wood, a fox-hole, a desert, would please you
equally well. Do not think that you can deceive me; you fancy you are going to
escape, but I assure you that you are going to stay here and the first thing I
shall give you to do will be to keep my sheep--they are very good company and
speak quite as well as you do.
"As she spoke she advanced, and led me to this plain
where we now stand, and showed me her flock, but I paid little attention to it
or to her.
"To tell the truth, I was so lost in admiration of her
beautiful slave that I forgot everything else, and the cruel Zingari,
perceiving this, turned upon her so furious and terrible a look that she fell
lifeless to the ground.
"At this dreadful sight I drew my sword and rushed at Zingari,
and should certainly have cut off her head had she not by her magic arts
chained me to the spot on which I stood; all my efforts to move were useless,
and at last, when I threw myself down on the ground in despair, she said to me,
with a scornful smile:
"`I intend to make you feel my power. It seems that you
are a lion at present, I mean you to be a sheep.'
"So saying, she touched me with her wand, and I became
what you see. I did not lose the power of speech, or of feeling the misery of
my present state.
"`For five years,' she said, `you shall be a sheep, and
lord of this pleasant land, while I, no longer able to see your face, which I
loved so much, shall be better able to hate you as you deserve to be hated.'
"She disappeared as she finished speaking, and if I had
not been too unhappy to care about anything I should have been glad that she
was gone.
"The talking sheep received me as their king, and told
me that they, too, were unfortunate princes who had, in different ways, offended
the revengeful fairy, and had been added to her flock for a certain number of
years; some more, some less. From time to time, indeed, one regains his own
proper form and goes back again to his place in the upper world; but the other
beings that you saw are the rivals or the enemies of Zingari, whom she has
imprisoned for a hundred years or so; though even they will go back at last.
The young slave of whom I told you about is one of these; I have seen her
often, and it has been a great pleasure to me. She never speaks to me, and if I
were nearer to her I know I should find her only a shadow, which would be very
annoying. However, I noticed that one of my companions in misfortune was also
very attentive to this little sprite, and I found out that he had been her
lover, whom the cruel Zingari had taken away from her long before; since then I
have cared for, and thought of, nothing but how I might regain my freedom. I
have often been in the forest; that is where I have seen you, lovely Princess,
sometimes driving your chariot, which you did with all the grace and skill in
the world; sometimes riding to the chase on so spirited a horse that it seemed
as if no one but yourself could have managed it, and sometimes running races on
the plain with the Princesses of your Court--running so lightly that it was you
always who won the prize. Oh! Princess, I have loved you so long, and yet how
dare I tell you of my love! What hope can there be for an unhappy sheep like
myself?"
