There was once a king who had a very beautiful daughter of marriageable age. A neighbouring king had three grown sons, who all fell in love with the princess. The princess’s father said, “As far as I am concerned, you are all three equal, and I couldn’t for the life of me give any one of you preference over the other two. But I wouldn’t want to be the cause of any strife among you, so why not travel about the world for six months, and the one who returns with the finest present will be my son-in-law.”
The three brothers set out together, and when the road branched off in three different directions, each went his separate way.
The oldest brother travelled for three, four, and five months without finding a thing worth taking home as a present. Then one morning of the sixth month in a faraway city, he heard a hawker under his window: “Carpets for sale! Fine carpets for sale!”
He leaned out the window, and the carpet seller asked, “How about a nice carpet?”
“That’s the last thing I need,” he replied. “There are carpets all over my palace, even in the kitchen!”
“But,” insisted the carpet seller, “I am sure you have no magic carpet like this one.”
“What’s so special about it?”
“When you set foot on it, it takes you great distances through the air.”
The prince snapped his fingers. “There’s the perfect gift to take back. How much are you asking for it, my good man?”
“One hundred crowns even.”
“Agreed!” exclaimed the prince, counting out the hundred crowns.
As soon as he stepped onto it, the carpet went soaring through the air over mountains and valleys and landed at the inn where the brothers had agreed to meet at the end of the six months. The other two, though, had not yet arrived.
The middle brother also had travelled far and wide up to the last days without finding any suitable present. And then he met a peddler crying, “Telescopes! Perfect telescopes! How about a telescope, young man?”
“What would I do with another telescope?” asked the prince. “My house is full of telescopes, and the very best, mind you.”
“I bet you’ve never seen magic telescopes like mine,” said the telescope seller.
“What’s so special about them?”
“With these telescopes you can see a hundred miles away and through the walls as well.”
The prince exclaimed, “Wonderful! How much are they?”
“One hundred crowns apiece.”
“Here are one hundred crowns. Give me a telescope.”
He took the telescope to the inn, found his big brother, and the two of them sat and waited for their little brother.
The youngest boy, up to the very last day, found nothing and gave up all hope. He was on his way home when he met a fruit vendor crying, “Salamanna grapes! Salamanna grapes for sale! Come buy nice Salamanna grapes!”
The prince, who’d never heard of Salamanna grapes, since they didn’t grow in his country, asked, “What are these grapes you’re selling?”
“They are called Salamanna grapes,” said the fruit vendor, “and there’re no finer fruits in the world. They also work a special wonder.”
“What do they do?”
“Put a grape in the mouth of someone breathing their last, and they will get well instantly.”
“You don’t say!” exclaimed the prince. “I will buy some in that case. How much are they?”
“They are sold by the grape. But I’ll make you a special price: one hundred crowns per grape.”
As the prince had three hundred crowns in his pocket, he could buy only three grapes. He put them in a little box with cotton around them and went to join his brothers.
When they were all three together at the inn, they shared with each other what they had bought.
“I wonder what’s going on at home right now. And at the princess’s palace,” one of the boys said.
The middle boy casually pointed his telescope toward their capital city. Everything was usual. Then he looked toward the neighbouring kingdom, where their beloved’s palace was, and let out a cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked the brothers.
“I see our beloved’s palace, a stream of carriages, people weeping and tearing their hair. And inside… inside I see a doctor and a priest at somebody’s bedside, yes, the princess’s bedside. She lies there as still and pale as a dead girl. Quick, brothers, let’s hurry to her before it is too late… She’s dying!”
“We’ll never make it. That’s more than fifty miles away.”
“Don’t worry,” said the oldest brother, “we’ll get there in time. Quick, everybody step onto my carpet.”
The carpet flew straight to the princess’s room, passed through the open window, and landed by the bed, where it lay like the most ordinary bedside rug, with the three brothers standing on it.
The youngest brother had already taken the cotton from around the three Salmanna grapes, and he put one into the princess’s pale mouth. She swallowed it and immediately opened her eyes. Right away the prince put another grape into her mouth, which regained its colour at once. He gave her the last grape, and she breathed and raised her arms. She was well. She sat up in bed and asked the maids to dress her in her most beautiful clothes.
Everybody was rejoicing, when all of a sudden the youngest brother said, “So I’m the winner, and the princess will be my bride. Without the Salamanna grapes she’d now be dead.”
“No, brother,” objected the middle boy, “if I’d not had the telescope and told you the princess was dying, your grapes would have done no good. For that reason I will marry the princess myself.”
“I am sorry, brother,” put in the oldest boy. “The princess is mine, and nobody will take her away from me. Your contributions are nothing compared with mine. Only my carpet brought us here in time.”
So the quarrel the king had wanted to avoid became ever more heated, and the king decided to put an end to it by marrying his daughter to a fourth suitor who had come to her empty-handed.
Kalampedia 