Page:Turkish fairy tales and folk tales (1901).djvu/190

 in one place. By this time they had reached the old grandmother, the old old beldame of thrice thirty winters.

"Guard well thy pomegranate cluster," said the old woman, "never leave it out of thy sight. If on the first night of thy wedding thou and thy bride are able to listen to their music all night without going to sleep once, these pomegranates will love thee, and after that thou wilt have nothing more to fear, for they will deliver thee from every ill." Then they went from the old mother to the son; he also bade them take to heart his mother's words, and then the youth went on his way to his sole-beloved, the World's most beauteous Damsel.

The girl was awaiting him with the greatest impatience, for she also dearly loved the prince, and her days were passed in anxiety lest some mischief should befall the youth. All at once she heard the sound of music, the fifty pomegranates were singing fifty different songs with fifty different voices, and she opened her heart to the beautiful music. The damsel rushed forth to meet the youth, and at their joyous embrace the pomegranates rang out with a melody so sweet that the like of it is not to be found in this world, but only in Allah's world beyond the grave. Forty days and forty nights did the wedding-feast last, and on the fortieth day the King's son went