From the Firelight Fairy Book
We read last week that the Witch of the Sands gave the sailor an enchanted ring, telling him it was her last one as she had already given two to his brothers and they had not returned them. She then directed him to the under-waters, but not before warning him not to eat anything that was offered to him there. If he did, she said, he would forget everything and spend the rest of his life there. She asked him to tell the King to stop sending the tide too close to her home. The merchant’s youngest son took the ring in its little leather purse, thanked the Witch and set off to find the underwaters. Following her directions, he placed the ring on his finger when he felt the water deepening and before long he found himself in a strange underwater city. The story continues…
The sailor looked into their faces and saw that a broad golden ring encircled the pupils of their eyes. Suddenly two men of the sea, distinguished from the others by swords of red stone, moved through the water, and seizing the sailor in their webbed hands, hurried him before the King of the UnderWaters.
On a coral throne, in a great hall roofed with a high circular dome, sat the King. The flowing waters within were bright, and a queer, pale green light pierced through the hall from a kind of fountain of light in the centre of the floor under the dome. Approaching this shining fountain, the sailor discovered it to be a mass of glowing sea-creatures, living flowers of the deep, which, even as he looked, stirred their mysterious petals.
“Welcome, Wearer of the Enchanted Ring,” said the King, staring hard at the sailor with his large golden eyes. “You come at a fortunate time. This very evening, we celebrate the wedding of the second of my three daughters with the mortal wearer of the second ring. Stand you upon the steps of the throne, for they are coming at once. Let the trumpets sound!”
At this command, two youths of the sea lifted huge conch-shells to their mouths and sounded them.
Great doors instantly opened wide, and a gorgeous procession entered. First, appeared a dozen pages; then, in walked the Sea King’s second daughter, hand in hand with a merry young man, in whom the sailor recognized his second brother.
Presently the conch-shells sounded again.
“The Prince and the Princess!” cried a voice.
The King leaned over from his throne and whispered in the sailor’s ear:” My eldest daughter and her husband. They were married just a year ago. The Prince is a youth of the world above and wears the first of the enchanted rings.”
Now entered the eldest Princess of the Sea, walking by the side of her husband. And in the husband the young sailor beheld the elder of his two brothers. And though the young sailor stretched out his arms to them, neither of his brothers remembered him, for while faint and hungry, they had forgotten the warning of the Witch of the Sands and had eaten of the bread of the under-world. Their memories of the world above, the lost emerald, and their father’s plight had faded away. The conches sounded a third time. “Come to the wedding banquet,” ordered the King. “You shall sit beside my youngest daughter.”
And now the sailor lad, willy nilly, was hurried into the banquet hall, and seated at the royal table beside the King’s youngest daughter. And she was quite the most beautiful of all the three. Noticing that the youngest son touched no food, she said to him: “Why do you refuse to taste of the wedding banquet?”
“Princess,” replied the sailor, “I have come to the Under-Waters to seek the Emerald of the Sea; for if I return to my own country without it, my father’s life will be forfeited. Would you have me forget?” “But you will never find the Emerald of the Sea!” cried the Princess. “Never find the Emerald of the Sea! What do you mean?” said the sailor anxiously.
“The Emerald of the Sea has disappeared,” continued the little Princess, fixing the sailor with her golden eyes. “Years ago, it was stolen from my father’s treasury by a wicked Prince of the Under-Waters. My father pursued him and overthrew him, but in the struggle the emerald was lost, and rising to the surface, drifted to the shores of the Land of the Dawn. There it remained till the Prince of the Unknown Isles purchased it and took it away in his black ship. This ship, overcome by a storm, sank; but where it lies we know not, though we have searched far and wide through the waters. Whosoever finds it shall be master of the land under the sea, for the emerald is master of us all. My father will not lift a finger to help you find it; indeed, if he knows that you are in search of it, he will force you to eat of the bread of the under-waters. Say nothing, therefore, of your quest.”
At these words, the brave sailor’s heart sank very low. Mindful of the Witch’s warning, he dared touch no morsel of food, yet he knew that hunger would soon bring weakness in its train. Either he must find the emerald at once, or he must abandon all hope of finding it. He could not live long if he touched no food, and if but one morsel touched his lips he would forget the upper world.
Far away, the poor merchant, whom the King had now cast in prison, watched the days pass one by one, and the last year approach its end. Every morning he would ask in vain for tidings of his sailor son.
Now, when the wedding banquet was over, and the ball which followed was at its height, the eldest of the princesses called her sister, the bride, aside and said to her: “We must rid ourselves at once of this newcomer.
Do you not see that he is the younger brother of our husbands? I beheld him stretch out his arms to them as they passed. Who can tell but that he may lead them away from us? Let us tell our servants to lie in wait for him and deliver us from such a danger.” To be continued…