The Sandmaiden

Long ago, in the great city of Samarkand, there lived the nephew of a camel merchant named Abul and Abuls wicked Uncle, named Zaffir, who wished to get rid of the boy and steal the inheritance that Abuls father had left him, sent Abul to the market place on the other side of the desert with goods to sell but he made a hole in Abuls water bottle so that all the water ran out of it and later, while Abul was crossing the desert in the hot blazing sun he started to get thirsty, however, when he put the water bottle to his lips no water came out of it.

“Oh no”, said Abul, starting to worry, “What shall I do? If I don’t have water soon then I shall die”.

But he had no other option but to carry on through the desert and hope that he might come across a well or an oasis or run into some kind traveller who would share their water.

Unfortunately for Abul, though he staggered onwards he could find no well and no oasis nor did he meet a single traveller and, eventually, the heat and the glaring sun became too much for him to bear and Abul collapsed from exhaustion.

As he was lying, dazed, upon the desert floor, however, he thought that he heard the sound of gentle footsteps approaching across the sand and then, leaning over him, he saw a beautiful young, brown skinned and raven haired maiden dressed in richly embroidered silk and velvet and carrying a golden pitcher full of water which she pressed to his lips.

“Drink”, she said, “Drink or you shall die”.

“Who are you?”, asked Abul, not knowing if she was real or if he was just dreaming, delirious from the sun.

“A sandmaiden”, said the woman.

“A sandmaiden?”, asked the boy, “What is that?”.

“Like a mer-maid of the desert”, she replied, pouring more water into his mouth.

“You are beautiful”, he said, “The most beautiful woman I think I have ever seen”.

The sandmaiden laughed,

“You must really be delirious”, she said.

But then she gave Abul a kiss and it was the sweetest kiss he had ever felt; like the touch of sweet rose petals against his lips.

Unfortunately, then he passed out and, when he awoke again, the Sandmaiden had gone.

“I can’t have been dreaming”, he thought to himself, “Can I?”.

Still, he carried on through the desert and this time, because of the water that the Sandmaiden had given him, he made it safely to the market place where his uncle had sent him with goods to sell.

But then, having made quite a bit of money, he went back home to his uncle.

Understandably, his Uncle was quite surprised to see him alive.

But then he told his uncle all about what had happened to him; how his water bottle had been empty and how he had been rescued by the Sandmaiden.

“Aah!”, said his Uncle, “Well that explains why your water bottle was empty. No doubt the sandmaiden made a hole in it to let the water run out. They are very mischievous these desert spirits”.

“Perhaps”, said Abul, “But she seemed very friendly and why would she take my water but then save my life by giving me water?”.

“Who knows how the mind of a spirit works?”, said his uncle, “Nevertheless she was a devil; a ghost and so it is probably best that you forget all about her”.

But Abul could not forget about her or about the kiss she had given him, he could still feel it upon his lips.

“She is the one for me”, he thought to himself as he lay awake gazing up at the stars in the night sky, “Oh, Allah, let it be so”.

And the next day he begged his uncle to let him go back into the desert to search for his Sandmaiden and his uncle, though he did not care one grain of sand for his nephews happiness, agreed, saying that he would even come with him.

His uncle had thought to himself, you see, “If I go with my Nephew into the desert then I can kill him and leave his body for the vultures”.

And so, the next day, Abul and his uncle both went out into the desert and Abul called out,

“Sandmaiden! Are you there Sandmaiden? It is I, Abul, the man that you saved yesterday”.

And his Uncle even pretended to call with him,

“Sandmaiden”, he called out, “Are you there?”.

But when his uncle thought they had gone far enough into the desert, he pulled out his golden dagger and raised it to stab his nephew in the back.

Just at that moment, however, both the men heard a loud and terrible roar and, looking over to see where the noise was coming from, they saw a gigantic creature; a dragon of the desert with the humped back and the feet of a camel but the head of a serpent, the wings of an eagle and the tail of a scorpion.

“Allah preserve me”, cried his uncle, dropping his dagger and fleeing in fear.

And Abul tried to run aswell but then he stumbled and fell face down in the sand and he was sure, as he heard the monstrous humpbacked dragon coming closer, that he would soon be eaten.

However, instead of a dragons claw, Abul felt a soft hand upon his shoulder and, turning round, he saw the Sandmaiden smiling down at him.

“The Sandmaiden”, he asked, confused, “But what happened to the dragon?”.

“Your uncle was about to kill you and so I created a Mirage; one that would frighten him away”, she said.

Abul laughed with relief but then he remembered why he had come to the desert.

“I am in love with you”, he told her, “And I want to marry you”.

He felt the Sandmaidens rose petal like kiss upon his lips once more and then, in the next instant, she had turned herself into a desert whirlwind that carried Abul back to Samarkand where they were married.

Now, Abuls uncle had thought that his nephew had been eaten by a Sand dragon and so, when he discovered that Abul was alive and had married the Sandmaiden he sensed that he had been tricked and plotted his revenge upon his nephew.

He summoned a djinn from inside a magical mirror that he kept locked away in his house; a djinn who knew everything and could answer any question and he asked the djinn,

“Djinn. How can I kill the Sandmaiden that my Nephew has married?”.

The djinn thought for a while, stroking its beard, then replied,

“You cannot kill a Sandmaiden but you can trap her. Stand outside the house where she and your nephew are staying and play your flute. When you do this then she will turn herself into sand and fly into the flute and, when she does, pour the sand from the flute into a water bottle and seal it up tight”.

And so the wicked Uncle did as the Djinn had instructed him; he stood outside of the window of the house where his Nephew and the Sandmaiden were staying and he blew a haunting melody upon his flute and, when the Sandmaiden heard this music, she turned herself into sand and flew out of the window and into the end of his flute and, when she did this, his uncle poured the sand into the water bottle and sealed it up tight.

“Aha!”, he said with glee to the Sandmaiden trapped in the bottle, “Now I have you trapped and you cannot help my Nephew anymore”.

And then, drawing out his golden dagger, the uncle crept into the house of his nephew to kill him.

Fortunately for Abul, his Uncle had forgotten that, only two days earlier, he had made a hole in the water bottle for water to leak out of and now the Sandmaiden used that same hole to escape from.

Then, turning herself into a tornado of sand, she blew in through the window and, just as the uncle was about to murder his sleeping nephew, she picked him up and carried him off to the desert where she buried him up to his neck in sand.

Now, I do not know what became of Abuls wicked uncle after that but what I do know is that he never bothered the Sandmaiden or his nephew ever again and they lived, as man and wife, happily ever after.