Page:Turkish fairy tales and folk tales (1901).djvu/295

 "I came not hither to take counsel of thee," replied the Emperor; "but to know if thou hast herbs by eating whereof we may get us children."

"Such herbs have I," replied the old man; "but ye will have but one child, and him ye will not be able to keep, though he be never so nice and charming."

So when the Emperor and the Empress had gotten the wondrous herbs, they returned joyfully back to their palace, and a few days afterwards the Empress felt that she was a mother. But ere the hour of her child's birth came the child began to scream so loudly that all the enchantments of the magicians could not make him silent. Then the Emperor began to promise him everything in the wide world, but even this would not quiet him.

"Be silent, my heart's darling," said he, "and I will give thee all the kingdoms east of the sun and west of the moon! Be silent, my son, and I will give thee a consort more lovely than the Fairy Queen herself." Then at last, when he perceived that the child still kept on screaming, he said: "Silence, my son, and I will give thee Youth without Age, and Life without Death."

Then the child ceased to cry and came into the world, and all the courtiers beat the drums and blew the trumpets, and there was great joy in the whole realm for many days.