whole world, no virtuous woman. Each evening his vizier procured for him a new daughter of a prince of the country whom in the morning he had killed. Throughout the land fathers and mothers lamented and finally there were no more maidens left except the two daughters of the chief vizier himself. The older wished to be conducted to the sultan. By means of the fairy tales which she spun out to him nightly—a thousand and one—she held his interest so that each time he put off her execution until she had finished.
Schehersad bore him, during this time, three sons. At the close of her story telling, she begged him for permission to present the children, and he spared her life for their sake.
"The Prudent Princess" is somewhat related to the previous fairytale (Rittershaus, XLIX).
It is not the motive of sexual cruelty but the insatiableness which, however, is usually bound up in the fairy tales with the first motive.
An Emperor has a very fierce son. He took the daughters of the treasurers of his father for himself, slept three nights with them and then sent them back home. Not one could escape his desire.
A little daughter was born to one of the treasurers and he had, on this account, great anxiety. He spread the news that the child was dead and had her brought up in secrecy. At twelve years she insisted on having a tower for herself like other princesses. The father considered her lost, as in this manner her existence became known.
The son of the Emperor had also noticed her and this year he will personally collect the taxes with the treasurer. He is dazzled by the beauty of the daughter and wishes to sleep with her.
She then gives him a sleeping draught, packs him in a chest and sends it to the Emperor. On awaking the prince is furious and plots revenge. She, however, once again plays him a trick and shuts him in the tower which the prince had intended as a prison for her. He is found sitting fast on a spiked stool. The princess appears as an Egyptian physician at the palace, sets him free and heals him. She is suspected as being the originator of the trouble but all ruses to trap her prove ineffectual.
