The Second Dervish’s Tale

Notable Characters

  • The dervish
  • The tailor
  • The woman in the tree
  • The demon
  • The king
  • The king’s daughter, the transforming sorceress
  • A second demon

Plot Summary

This dervish also was once the son of a king. He went on a journey with some men, but they were robbed, and all his men were killed. The prince escaped and made friends with a tailor who helped him.

One day, he went exploring and discovered a tree, which he entered magically. The woman inside became his lover, and she warned him that a demon visited her once every ten days. They planned to spend all their time together except when the demon came to visit.

The prince, drunk, stumbled into the step that calls the demon, and he had to flee. He made it back to town, but his friend the tailor told him that there was a man outside wearing his clothes. The demon had found him, and he brought him back to the tree.

The demon tortured and killed the woman, and was going to kill the prince, but he told the demon the Tale of the Envious and the Envied, so the demon turned him into an ape instead.

The prince, as an ape, retained the ability to write, and he became a spectacle that the king in a different kingdom wanted to see. The king was amazed by the ape, but his daughter saw through the disguise and realized this ape was actually a man. She removed the spell from the prince, turning him back into a man, but a different demon attacked her for interfering.

She and the demon fought, shape-shifting into different creatures and objects. She managed to kill the demon, but she caught fire and died as well. An ember from the fire burned the prince, blinding him in one eye.

The king was distraught, and the prince fled. He disguised himself as a dervish and eventually came across the other two dervishes. they entered the party at the ladies’ house that night, and that was the end of his tale.

Tales within this Tale

  • The Tale of the Envious and the Envied