In the city of Beautiful there
lived a Brahman family, Sacrifice and his lovely wife Devotion. Sacrifice and
Devotion, although they themselves were not royalty, were close friends of King
Pradyumna. After many years of trying to conceive a child, Devotion finally
gave birth to a healthy baby boy, who she and Sacrifice named Devasoma.
When Devasoma became of age, he
asked King Pradyumna if could have his daughter’s, Maria, hand in marriage.
Knowing what a fine young man his friends Sacrifice and Devotion had raised,
King Pradyumna gladly obliged to Devasoma’s request, and the two were set to be
married that weekend.
However, trouble arose in the land
of Beautiful. Devasoma became very ill, and after three days of battling this
terrible sickness, died. The whole town of Beautiful mourned the loss of such a
charming young man, well everyone except Damien that is…
Even though he was always getting
mixed up with the wrong crowd, Devasoma had always been a friend to Damien. One
day, however, Damien was caught stealing from King Pradyumna, and was banished
to live as a beggar in the cemetery. There, Damien had met a hermit who was
kind enough to share his hut with him and teach him his ways of begging.
Despite the fact that it was his
own behavior that had landed him in this situation, Damien was very jealous of
Devasoma and the wonderful life he was about to begin. Damien often took his
frustrations out on the poor old hermit he lived with.
Then, one day in the middle of one
of his temper tantrums, Damien saw a very elaborate funeral procession coming
through the cemetery. The hermit asked Damien to go see who had passed. When
Damien realized that the king and his family were a part of the funeral
procession, he agreed, but for selfish reasons.
Damien had decided that he would
kidnap Maria and hold her as ransom to get revenge on the king. As the mourning
families passed, Damien grabbed Maria. He was just about to drag her away
without being discovered when she broke free and screamed for her father.
Trying to figure out what all the
commotion was about, the hermit came out of his hut and said, “Your majesty,
what has happened to your lovely daughter? She looks so distressed.”
The king replied, “As if mourning
the loss of her fiancé was not burden enough, that ratchet young man just tried
to kidnap her!”
Seeing that the king was pointing
to Damien, the hermit made a proposal, “Your majesty, this despicable young man
has caused me nothing but grief since you banished him to living the life of a
beggar. Please, let me exchange his life for the life of young Devasoma.”
At this Maria rejoiced and said,
“Oh daddy, please! Bring back my beloved!”
But the king was a very noble man
and replied, “My dear, it is not my place to decide who receives the gift of
life and receives the burden of death. I do not possess the powers of the gods
above, and therefore cannot give the hermit permission to trade Damien’s life
for Devasoma’s life.”
Maria began to weep. Seeing this
broke the hermit’s heart. Knowing he was very old and had lived a good life, he
decided he would trade his own life for that of Devasoma’s. Upon making this
decision, the hermit chanted to himself and performed an intricate dance. Then
in a flash of light, he was gone and Devasoma stood before Maria.
Maria rejoiced and ran to the arms
of her fiancé. They were married the next day. As for Damien, he remained
banished to the cemetery, but was thankfully never seen again.
Author's Note
In the original story,
The Old Hermit, Devasoma dies; however, he is not engaged to the king's daughter. In fact, the king does not even know Devasoma or his family. Although I kept all the character's the same, I thought it would be interesting to give the king a daughter who would get engaged to Devasoma.
Book: Twenty-Two Goblins
Author: Arthur W. Ryder
Year: 1917
Web Source:
Project Gutenberg
