Fable
Afiong The Proud Princess
A long time ago, there lived a wealthy and
affluent king in a faraway kingdom. He had a very beautiful daughter of
marriageable age, named Afiong. All the young men in the country wanted to
marry her, but she refused all offers of marriage. Most of the rich old men
asked for her hand in marriage, but she called them old and ugly. Afiong was
very proud and vain.
In
spite of repeated entreaties from her parents, she refused to marry any man
from her land. She vowed to marry a rich prince from a faraway kingdom. Her
prince would be the best-looking man in the entire world. He would be strong
and perfect in every way, and capable of loving her properly. So Afiong the
princess continued to disobey her parents, at which they were very much
grieved.
One
day, there was commotion within the village. “What could be happening?” people
enquired. Not long after, the news got to the palace, a very fine man had been
seen in the market, who was better-looking than any of the natives. Afiong
rushed to the market at once, and directly she saw the most handsome man she
had ever set her eyes on. She fell in love immediately, and invited him to her
house. The prince was delighted, and went home with her.
On
his arrival, the handsome prince was introduced by Afiong to her parents. The
prince immediately asked their consent to marry their daughter. At first, they
refused, as they did not wish her to marry a stranger, but at last they agreed.
He lived with Afiong for two days in her parents' house, and then said he
wished to take his wife back to his country, which was far off. To this the
princess readily agreed, as he was such a fine man, but her parents tried to
persuade her not to go. However, being very headstrong, she made up her mind to
go, and they started off together. It was a sad day for the king and the queen.
After
walking for several days, Afiong and her husband crossed the border between the
spirit land and the human land. Immediately they set foot in the spirit land,
strange things began to happen. First of all, one man came to the prince and
demanded his legs, then another his head, and the next his body, and so on,
until in a few minutes the prince was left with an nothing but a skull.
The
princess became terrified. She could not understand what had happened to her
handsome prince. The prince then laughed at the princess and confessed that the
princess was now seeing him in his natural state. He had borrowed all his body
parts from the other spirits so he would look human when he went to ask for her
hand in marriage. In fact, his entire body consisted of only a human skull.
The
princess wanted to return home, but the skull would not allow this, and ordered
her to go with him. When they arrived at the skull's house they found his
mother, who was a very old woman quite incapable of doing any work. She could
only creep about. Afiong tried her best to help her, and cooked her food, and
brought water and firewood for the old woman. The old creature was very
grateful for these attentions, and soon became quite fond of Afiong.
One
day the old woman felt very sorry for Afiong, and decided to help her. She
promised to send her back to her country as soon as possible, providing that
she promised that in the future she would obey her parents. This Afiong readily
consented to do. Then the old woman sent for the spider, who was a very clever
hairdresser, and made him dress Afiong's hair in the latest fashion. She also
presented her with anklets and other things on account of her kindness. She
then used her supernatural power to call the breeze to gently carry Afiong to
her father’s kingdom. Soon afterwards, the breeze deposited Afiong outside her
home, and left her there.
When
the king and the queen saw their daughter, they were very glad, as they had for
some months given her up as lost. There was feasting and dancing throughout the
kingdom for eight days and nights. Afterwards, the king passed a law that
parents should never allow their daughters to marry strangers who came from a
far country. Then the prince from a neighboring village came to ask for
Afiong’s hand in marriage and she willingly consented, and lived with him for
many years, and had many children.
Moral
–
Pride goes before the fall.
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