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| The Pearl Fan by Robert Lewis Reid. Source. |
Bibliography: Excerpt from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. Source.
Story: "Patience Stone and Patience Knife"
A young woman is at home alone when a bird flies to her window and says, "Oh my poor maiden, your kismet [fate] is with a dead person." The young woman freaks out about this. Later in the day, the mother comes home and the young woman tells her what happened. The mother advises her to lock the door and window. The next day, the young woman locks the door and window but the bird comes in and says the same thing. The mother tells her daughter to continue locking the door but hide in the cupboard and work with only candles for light. However, the bird continues getting in. The mother and daughter stay at home and wait for the bird to show up again. A few days later, girls in the neighborhood ask the daughter to come out and play. The mother is reluctant but the neighborhood girls promise to watch out for the daughter. However, on the way back on a fun day out, the neighborhood girls and young woman stop at a spring to get water when a magical wall pops out of the ground between the young woman and the neighborhood girls. The mother hears about this but she and her daughter are separated by the wall. The daughter cries a lot and eventually notices a door in the wall that leads to a palace.
In the palace are rooms made out of gems and the young woman eventually finds a young prince lying on a corpse frame (bier). On the young prince is a document that says anyone who fans him with the pearl fan and prays hor him for forty days will find her fate. The young woman remembers what the bird says and fans the young prince. On the last day, another girl comes by and our heroine asks her to fan the prince while she prepares everything for his awakening. The prince wakes up and the rival makes him believe that she was the one who fanned him for many days while the heroine is a servant. The prince has been comatose this whole time so he goes with the flow.
A Festival approaches and the young prince wants to give everyone a gift. The heroine asks for a patience-stone and patience-knife. The young prince wants to know why the heroine wants it. He watches her carve something with the patience-stone and patience-knife. The heroine recounts what happened and the stone splits by the end of it. The heroine says if a stone can't bear her life story, how can she, so she decides to commit suicide. The prince stops her and they get married.
That blasted bird sometimes visits and says, "O maid! O happy maid! You have found your kismet."
Retelling Ideas:
The heroine is tired of bird making her anxious. If she can't avoid her fate, she will confront it. She decides to catch the bird and make it tell her what he is blabbing on about with her fate. With the bird in a cage, the heroine marches right up to where the wall will appear and sees a young prince in a coma, not a dead person. She fans the prince and visitor girl appears. The prince is tricked into believing the visitor girl is his fate. The heroine tells what happened, and uses the bird as a witness. They all live happily ever after (except for the rival girl who is banished).
Image may be from a painting commissioned for the young woman who fanned him for forty days.
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