Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/222

 192 King Midas and his Asss Ears.

and the king- says, — " It is contrary to nature to kill the son of such a mother." So he spares the boy, and swears him to secrecy. The boy falls ill through the secret which hangs upon his mind, and his physician advises him that he will never recover until he gets rid of it. His mother suggests that he should go into the desert and whisper it into a crack in a tree or rock. The youth follows this advice, and whispers the secret into a tree, in a hole of which lives a squirrel which chatters it out. The news reaches the king, Vv^ho sends for the boy and learns the whole story. The boy promises the king that he will make him a cap to cover his deformity. This cap comes into fashion, and is used by every one. The king is delighted that he can now appear in public, and makes the boy his minister.'*

In the Turkoman version the Khan, long childless, was at last blessed with a son, J any Bek, who was born with the ears of an ass. To conceal this deformity, every barber who shaved him was put to death. A youth who had learnt the secret gains his favour and is appointed minister. Years pass, and one day at a hunt his falcon outstrips that of the Khan. In thoughtless exultation he cries out, — " My falcon is better than the falcon of ass-eared J any Bek Khan." Too late he regrets his hasty words, and flies to save his life. After a time he returns to the capital, and one day, while sitting at the well in the palace square, in regret for the renewed cruelties of the Khan, he prays to God to punish him. In answer to his prayer the water begins to pour out of the well in such abundance that it submerges the city, and its cruel ruler and his cowardly subjects are de- stroyed.25 Similar cases of the destruction of cities as a

^E. Cosquin, Le Lait de la Mere et le Coffre Flottant (1908), pp. i^Zet seq., quoting the Siddhi Kfir, Tale 22. Cf. A. de Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology , vol. i., pp. 381 et seq.

^E. Schuyler, Turkistan, vol. ii., p. 129.