Bai Manzil Gar Thito Musha (The Prince Who Brought Down a Twelve-Story Castle)
The Prince and the Falling Castle
Once upon a time, there was a king and queen who had no children. They prayed earnestly for a child, and God blessed them with a baby boy. In their joy, the king ordered that every year on the prince’s birthday, a new floor should be added to a castle built in his honor. By the prince’s twelfth birthday, the castle had twelve towering floors.
On this special day, the king told his son:
"My son, go and visit the castle we built to celebrate your birth."
The prince went with a guard to see the castle. As he reached the twelfth floor, the entire structure suddenly collapsed. Shocked and scared, the prince thought, “Perhaps my father has plotted against me.” Fearing betrayal, he fled the kingdom.
As he traveled, news spread ahead of him: “A prince has destroyed a twelve-story castle at once!”
Meeting Powerful Companions
On his journey, he met a man gazing at the sky.
"What are you looking at?" asked the prince.
"A year ago, I shot an arrow, and I am still waiting for it to land," the man replied.
The prince was amazed by this man’s strength, but the man said, “I am nothing compared to the prince who brought down a twelve-story castle.”
"That prince is me," said the boy.
They became friends and continued their journey.
They soon met another man who was threshing wheat using lions instead of oxen. The prince praised his power, but the man humbly replied, “I’m nothing compared to the prince who destroyed the twelve-story castle.”
"That’s me," said the prince, and the man joined their company.
Later, they met a third man threshing wheat with bears. The same conversation followed, and this man too joined the group.
The Ogre in Disguise
The four friends stopped at a hut to rest. They decided that while three of them went hunting, one would stay behind to bake bread. The man who could shoot arrows to the sky stayed behind.
While he was baking, a dwarf riding a cat appeared and demanded bread. When the man refused, the dwarf slapped him hard and ate all the bread. Ashamed, he baked more, but when his friends returned, he lied, saying he had simply been careless.
The same thing happened to the second and third men when it was their turn to stay behind. Each was beaten by the dwarf but lied to save their pride.
Finally, it was the prince’s turn to stay back. His friends hid nearby to watch what would happen. When the dwarf demanded bread, the prince refused. The dwarf tried to slap him, but the prince grabbed him, and the fight revealed that the dwarf was actually a fearsome ogre in disguise.
A fierce battle broke out. They decided to settle the fight by striking each other three times with a dafoqu (a traditional weapon from Gilgit-Baltistan). The ogre missed all three strikes, but the prince’s single blow split the ogre’s stomach open.
To their surprise, several people, including a king and many captives, emerged alive from the ogre’s belly. Among them was a princess.
The rescued king offered his daughter’s hand in marriage, but the prince humbly gave her to his companion, the man who could shoot arrows into the sky.
Defeating More Ogres
The group continued their journey, defeating several other ogres:
-
They rescued another princess from a hut where an ogre fed on villagers, giving her in marriage to the man who threshed wheat with lions.
-
They fought a river-drinking ogre who threatened a kingdom, and the king gave his daughter to the man who worked with bears.
The prince then ventured on alone.
The Magical Cow
By a riverbank, the prince met a woman crying, awaiting a magical cow that devoured anyone who failed to fully milk her.
The clever prince drilled tiny holes into the bottom of his bucket. When the magical cow appeared, he convinced her to stand in the river while he milked her. As he milked, all the milk spilled through the holes into the flowing river, keeping the bucket empty.
The cow, feeling drained and in pain, begged him to stop.
"Please, let me go! I will never harm anyone again!" she cried.
The prince spared her, and she fled, never to return.
The woman, whose life he saved, revealed herself to be a princess, and this time, the prince married her. Together, they built a grand palace, half on land and half over the river.
The Treachery
One day, the princess lost her shoe in the river. It floated downstream to another kingdom, where three princes quarreled over it. An old woman found the matching shoe at the palace and convinced the princess to reveal her husband’s secret: his soul was tied to his sword.
The old woman stole the sword and burned it, causing the prince to fall unconscious. She locked him in a wheat bin and abducted the princess to the other kingdom, where the princes argued over who would marry her. She bought time by cutting her hair, saying she would only marry after it grew back.
The Rescue
Before leaving, the prince had given his friends a lilio bato (a symbolic bucket of flowers) as a warning system: if the flowers wilted, it meant he was in danger. When his friends saw the flowers wilting, they rushed to him, retrieved his sword, cooled it, and revived him.
The prince stormed the rival kingdom, defeated its king, and rescued his wife. Together, they returned home and lived happily ever after.
The prince and his wife returned home, and their bravery became legend.
"Kho piyo watis taqshai ro bago churegisi khegeta."
(I came eating and drinking, and I left some for you in the little hole by the door lock—did you find it?)
Bedtime isn’t complete without another story! Read more below 👇
Comments