The Three Black Princesses

East India was under siege. The enemy would not leave until they got six hundred dollars. The townspeople announced that whoever could get the money would become the mayor. There was a poor fisherman who fished on the lake with his son. The enemy came and took the son prisoner, and gave the father six hundred dollars for him. The father gave the money to the town leaders, the enemy left, and the fisherman became mayor. Then it was announced that anyone who did not say "Mr. Mayor" would be hanged.

The son escaped from the enemy and came to a great forest on a high mountain. The mountain opened, and he walked into a huge enchanted castle. Inside, chairs, tables, and benches were all draped in black. Then three young princesses came to him.

They were completely dressed in black, but had a little bit of white on their faces. They told him not to be afraid, they would not hurt him, and that he could set them free. He said he would gladly do that if he knew how.

They told him that for a whole year he must not speak to them or look at them. He could ask for anything he wanted, and if they dared, they would answer. After he had been there for a long time, he said he wanted to visit his father.

They told him he could go. He was to take a purse of money, put on this coat, and return in a week.

Suddenly, he was lifted up and instantly back in East India. He could no longer find his father in the fisherman's hut. He asked people where the poor fisherman was, and they told him he must not say that, or he would be hanged.

Then he went to his father and said, "Fisherman, how did you get here?" His father said, "You must not say that. If the town leaders knew, you would be hanged." But he would not stop, and was taken to the gallows.

When he was there, he said, "Oh, my masters, please let me go to the old fisherman's hut." He put on his old smock and came back to the leaders. "Do you not see? Am I not the son of the poor fisherman?

Did I not earn bread for my parents in this dress?" Then his father recognized him, begged for forgiveness, and took him home. The son told everything that had happened: how he had entered a forest on a high mountain, the mountain had opened, and he had gone into an enchanted castle where everything was black, and three black princesses with a little white on their faces had come to him.

They had told him not to be afraid and that he could set them free. His mother said that might not be a good idea, and that he should take a vessel of holy water and drop some boiling water on their faces.

He went back, very afraid. While the princesses were sleeping, he dropped the water on their faces. They turned half white. Then all three sprang up and cried, "You cursed dog, our blood will cry for vengeance! Now no man born in the world, nor any ever to be born, can set us free! We have three brothers bound by seven chains—they will tear you to pieces!" There was a loud shrieking all over the castle. He jumped out of the window and broke his leg. The castle sank into the earth, the mountain closed, and no one knew where the castle had stood.