The Three Orange-Peris

The Three Orange-Peris is a Turkish fairy tale first collected by Hungarian Turkologist Ignác Kúnos in the late 19th century. It is classified as tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. As with The Three Oranges, the tale deals with a prince's search for a bride that lives inside a fruit, who is replaced by a false bride and goes through a cycle of incarnations, until she regains physical form again.

The story was first published by folklorist Ignác Kúnos in Turkish as A három narancs-peri,^[1] which was translated to Hungarian as A három narancs-peri,^[2] and in German as Die Drei Orangen-Peris.^[3] The tale was also translated into English as The Three Orange-Peris^[4] and as The Orange Fairy in The Fir-Tree Fairy Book.^[5]

A padishah suffers for not having children. One day, he takes his Vizir (or lala) with him on a trip, when a dervish appears to him, green-robed and yellow-slipped. He says he knows the padishah's ailment and gives him an apple, to be shared with the Sultana and for both to eat. The padishah does as he was instructed and the Sultana gives birth to a son after nine months and ten days. When he is fourteen years, he asks his father to build a marble palace with two springs, one with honey and the other with butter. It happens thus, and one day, an old woman comes with a pitcher to fill them from the springs. The prince throws a stone and tosses it at the woman's pitcher. The old woman returns with her pitchers on the following two days to fill them, and the prince again tosses a stone at her jugs, breaking them. For this, the woman tells the prince it is Allah's will to fall in love with the three Orange-peris.

The prince becomes ill with longing for the Orange-Peris and his father tries many methods to cure him. The prince finally admits he is in love with the Three Oranges and wants to seek them out. The padishah allows the prince to depart on the journey for the three oranges. He journeys on and meets a Dev-Mother (called Mother of Devils in an English translation), who welcomes him in after he explains the reason for his journey and turns him into a water har to hide her from her thirty sons, who devour people. Her thirty sons return home and sense a human's smell; the Mother of Devils make her sons promise not to hurt the human she is sheltering and restores the prince to human form. The prince explains the reason for his quest and the sons do not know, so they send him to their aunt, the Aunt of Devils.

The prince reaches the Aunt of Devils, who shelters him from her sixty man-eating sons, then restores him to human form after she makes her progeny promise not to devour him. Still not knowing where the location of the Three Oranges is, they send them to their grandaunt. Thus, the prince reaches the Grandaunt of Devils, who shelters him from her ninety man-eating sons. After they promise not to hurt him, the prince says he is after the Three Oranges, and the least of the devils says he can take him there. The youngest Dev takes the prince through a road until they reach a garden with a pond (or fountain) in it. The Dev-son takes the prince to the fountain where he sees the three oranges, and the Dev-son tells the prince "Shut your eyes, open your eyes" - and an orange appears on the water, which the prince seizes. The Dev-son repeats the command twice more and two other oranges appear on the water surface, which the prince also plucks.

The Dev-son advises the prince to only open the oranges near water, and they part ways. The prince makes a return home and decides to cut open the first fruit: out comes a lovely maiden who asks for water, but, since the prince has none with him, she vanishes. The prince walks a bit more and cuts open the second orange; out comes another maiden, more beautiful than the first one, who also asks for water. Since he has none with him, she vanishes. He then decides to withhold the third fruit when he comes near a large spring, from which he drinks. He cuts open the last fruit, and out comes the most beautiful of the three maidens, who asks for water and the prince gives her some.

On not vanishing, the prince guides the orange maiden up a tree near the spring, while he goes to a nearby town to bring a coach and a raiment. While he is away, a black-skinned Moor maidservant comes to fetch water and sees the orange maiden's visage in water, mistaking for her own. Believing herself to be beautiful, she breaks the pitchers and returns to her mistress to complain that she is too beautiful for such a menial job. Her mistress draws a mirror to the servant's face to see that she is the same dark-skinned servant as before, and the maidservant goes to draw water again. She breaks the pitchers again after seeing the maiden's visage in water, and returns to her mistress's house to be shown her true face in the mirror.

Lastly, when the maidservant starts to break the pitchers again, the orange maiden tells her from atop the tree not to do so, since the visage in water belongs to her. The Moor maidservant spots the orange maiden and bids her come down to rest a spell on her lap. The orange maiden does so, and the maidservant sticks a pin on her head, turning her into a bird that flies away, then she replaces the fruit maiden atop the tree. The prince returns with a carriage and spots the woman at the tree, now looking darker. The maidservant lies that the prince left her under the sun too much, and now her skin has darkened. The prince believes the words and takes the maidservant as his bride back home. The padishah and the court suspect that she is indeed a Moor servant, but the prince says she will return to her previous self after some rest.

Meanwhile, on the padishah's castle gardens, the Orange Bird perches on a tree and asks the gardener how fares the prince and his black bride. The gardener says they are alright, and the Orange Bird curses the tree it is perched on to wither. The bird returns on the next days and keeps asking about the prince and his false bride, and cursing the trees to wither. One day, the prince goes for a walk in the garden to avoid dealing with the black bride, and notices that the trees have withered, then complains to the gardener. The gardener mentions the incident with the Orange Bird, and the prince orders him to place bird-lime to capture the bird the next time it appears. It happens thus, and the prince catches and cages the bird, taking it to the castle.

The black servant realizes the Orange Bird is the true Orange Peri, feigns illness and bribes the physicians to prescribe the meat of such a bird. The prince notices her has such bird, and orders the cooks to kill the Orange Bird and cook it. It happens thus, and the Orange Bird is given to the false bride to eat. However, a feather of the Orange Bird falls to the floor and lodges between two planks. One day, a woman that teaches the inmates of the harem to read and write is walking down the stairs and notices the dazzling feathers, which she brings home with her. While the woman is away, the feather turns into the Orange Maiden, does chores around the house like cooking the meal and cleaning, then returns to the feathery form. The woman returns home and notices that the house is tidy and clean. On the second day, the woman goes away again, and the Orange Maiden leaves the feather, does the chores around the house, then returns to her inert form.

After two days, the woman decides to investigate, leaves her door ajar and sees the Orange Maiden. The woman quickly grabs hold of the fairy and asks for explanations. The Orange Maiden tells the woman everything about the prince and how the black maidservant killed her twice. The woman promises to set everything right. Thus, she invites the prince for a meal in her house. When the Orange Maiden goes to serve the coffee with the cups, the prince sees the Orange Maiden's face and swoons at her beauty. The prince regains his consciousness and asks the woman who is this maiden, and if she can give her to him. The woman admits that the Orange Maiden belonged to him once, takes her by the hand and reunites the prince with his bride, then bids him take good care of the Orange Peri this time. The prince reunites with his true bride, executes the maidservant, and marries the Orange Peri in a forty day and forty night celebration.^[6][7][8]

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges".^[9][10][11] In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:^[12]

1. A prince is cursed by an old woman to seek the fruit princess;
2. The prince finds helpers that guide him to the princess's location;
3. The prince finds the fruits (usually three), releases the maidens inside, but only the third survives;
4. The prince leaves the princess up a tree near a spring or stream, and a slave or servant sees the princess's reflection in the water;
5. The slave or servant replaces the princess (transformation sequence);
6. The fruit princess and the prince reunite, and the false bride is punished.

In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, tale type ATU 408 corresponds to Turkish type TTV 89, "Der drei Zitronen-Mädchen" ("The Three Citron Maidens").^[13][14] Alternatively, it may also be known as Üç Turunçlar ("Three Citruses" or "Three Sour Oranges").^[15] The Turkish Catalogue registered 40 variants,^[16] being the third "most frequent folktale" after types AT 707 and AT 883A.^[17]

According to the tale description in the international index, the maiden may appear out of the titular citrus fruits, like oranges and lemons. However, she may also come out of pomegranates or other species of fruits, and even eggs.^[18][19] According to Walter Anderson's unpublished manuscript, variants with eggs instead of fruits appear in Southeastern Europe.^[20] In addition, Christine Shojaei-Kawan located the motif of the heroine emerging from the eggs in Slavic texts.^[21]

In Turkish variants, the fairy maiden is equated to the peri and, in several variants, manages to escape from the false bride in another form, such as a rose or a cypress.^[22] In most of the recorded variants, the fruits are oranges, followed by pomegranates, citrons, and cucumbers in a few of them; then apples, eggs or pumpkins (respectively in one variant each).^[23][24] In addition, according to French folklorists Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Théneze, a very frequent motif in the Turkish texts is the hero breaking the old woman's jar or jug, and the old woman, in return, cursing the hero to find the fruit maidens.^[25]

The tale type is characterized by the substitution of the fairy wife for a false bride. The usual occurrence is when the false bride (a witch or a slave) sticks a magical pin into the maiden's head or hair and she becomes a dove.^[a] In some tales, the fruit maiden regains her human form and must bribe the false bride for three nights with her beloved.^[27]

In other variants, the maiden goes through a series of transformations after her liberation from the fruit and regains a physical body.^[b] In that regard, according to Christine Shojaei-Kawan's article, Christine Goldberg divided the tale type into two forms. In the first subtype, indexed as AaTh 408A, the fruit maiden suffers the cycle of metamorphosis (fish-tree-human) - a motif Goldberg locates "from the Middle East to Italy and France"^[29] (especifically, it appears in Greece and Eastern Europe).^[30] In the second subtype, AaTh 408B, the girl is transformed into a dove by the needle.^[31]

Separated from her husband, she goes to the palace (alone or with other maidens) to tell tales to the king. She shares her story with the audience and is recognized by him.^[32]

In a Turkish tale collected in the Ankara Province with the title The Young Lord and the Cucumber Girl, a young lord takes his horse to drink water from a fountain and the animal accidentally steps on the foot of a witch. For this, she curses the young lord to burn with love for a cucumber girl. He tells his father, the bey, of his longing, and decides to ride away to find this girl. He takes shelter with a man with a long beard and his daughter. Both give instructions to the lord how he can reach the orchard with the cucumbers. He warns them to open the cucumbers near a body of water, lest the girls that come out of will die of thirst. The young lord follows the instructions and gets the cucumbers. On his way back, he opens the first two vegetables in desert places, and the girls die. He reaches a fountain next to the city and cracks open the last cucumber, giving water to the girl. The cucumber girl asks the young lord to hold a 40-day wedding celebration, then return to fetch her, since she will be waiting on top of a poplar tree. After the lord leaves, an ugly woman appears with pitchers and mistakes the image of the cucumber girl for her own reflection, and stops working, breaking the pitchers. Her family chastises her and she goes to the fountain, where she notices the girl on the tree. She convinces the girl to climb down so she would delouse the girl's hair, but she plucks a strand of white hair (the girl's vital spot) and she dies. When she dies, a sesame plant sprouts. The young lord returns and is tricked by the ugly woman, who passes herself off as the cucumber girl. As for the girl, she passes by a cycle of reincarnations: first, into a sesame plant, which is tossed in the fire; then to two pigeons, who are captured and killed; third, to a poplar tree where the birds are buried, which is cut down to make a crib for the woman's child; then to a single chip that is taken by an old woman. The cucumber girl comes out of the wooden chip to clean the woman's house, and is discovered, being adopted by her. Later, during a famine, the lord sends his horses to each house, even to the old woman's, to be taken care and fed. The cucumber girl feeds and grooms the lord's horse for a while, and, when the lord goes to get it back, he finds out the truth from the reborn cucumber girl.^[33]

In a Turkish tale from Gaziantep with the title Çoban ile Gari ("The Shepherd and the Woman"), a shepherd lives in a village and grazes his sheep in the mountains. One day, he meets an old woman on the road near a cucumber field. He asks for a cucumber, which the old woman advises him to open in a distant place with no one around. The shepherd leaves and goes to eat his meal in a barren place, then cuts open the cucumber: out comes a beautiful girl that asks for water. Since he has none with him, she dies. He returns to the old woman and asks for another cucumber. This time, he goes near a lake to give water to the girl, but finds the lake has dried up. He cuts the second cucumber, releases a second maiden that asks for water, but dies after not getting any to drink. Lastly, he returns a third time to the cucumber seller, who gives him a third vegetable and tells him it is the last one. The shepherd goes near a stream and cuts open the third cucumber, giving water to the maiden he releases from it. He thinks that taking the maiden to his home village will make people think that he is beneath her, and builds a house atop a poplar tree for her to live in. The shepherd tells the cucumber girl he will come in the evenings to give her food and water, which he does. The maiden's beauty is reflected in the stream near the poplar tree. Sometime later, the water in the village runs out, and a villagewoman sends her ugly and ill-tempered daughter to fetch water. The ugly girl goes near the poplar tree and finds the cucumber maiden's visage in water, says she herself is beautiful, but notices the cucumber maiden atop the tree. She grabs her hair and goes up the house, steals her hair, and sticks a needle in the cucumber maiden, turning into a dove. The shepherd returns and sees the cucumber maiden, but does not understand how she came to be in that state. He says he wants to marry her and takes her to his village, while the dove follows them. The ugly girl asks the shepherd to kill the dove and cook it. It happens thus, and from its ashes a tree sprouts, causing even more annoyance to the false bride. The ugly girl becomes pregnant and wants the tree made into a cradle for their baby. A cradle is made, but it keeps pinching her baby, so she wants it burned. They burn it in a poor old woman's oven. The old woman takes a splinter and sticks it in the wall. After she leaves, the cucumber maiden returns to human from do sweep the house and cook meals. The old woman finds the cucumber maiden and lives with her. Later, some people come to sell horses in the village, and the cucumber maiden asks the old woman for one. Despite noticing they have no money, the cucumber maiden says she will take care of things. The old woman buys a lame looking horse and brings it home, which the cucumber maiden feed by turning dishwater into barley. The horse grows healthier and becomes a fine racehorse. The shepherd notices the horse's new state and asks the old woman about who was responsible for grooming a fine horse, and the old woman admits that her granddaughter did it. The shepherd asks to meet her granddaughter and finds the cucumber maiden. He recognizes her and cries that he found her. She tells him the whole story. The ugly girl is asked if she prefers forty mules or forty swords, and she answers: forty mules. Thus, she is tied to a horse and let loose. The shepherd marries the cucumber maiden.^[34]

In a Turkish tale collected in Pazaryolu with the title Garpuzdan Çıhan Gız ("The Girl Who Came Out of the Watermelon"), a sultan has an only son. One day, he is in the market and buys three watermelons from a watermelon seller. The seller sells them the fruits, but advises him not to cut the fruits in a dry place. The prince takes the watermelons and goes on his way. At a distance, he ponders about the seller's warnings and concludes that the fruits are juicy already, so he decides to cut one. Out comes a world-beautiful girl that asks for water, but dies of thirst for not getting any to drink. The prince opens another watermelon and out comes yet another girl that asks for water, so she dies of thirsty. The prince decides to save the last fruit when he is near water. Thus, he reaches a water body, cuts open the third watermelon and gives water to the maiden that is released. He falls in love with the watermelon maiden, but notices that he cannot bring her in this state, so he guides her atop a cypress tree while he goes back to the palace to fetch instruments to welcome her properly. After the prince leaves, a gypsy girl goes to draw water from the stream and spots her atop the tree. The watermelon maiden asks the tree to bend so that the gypsy joins her atop the tree to talk. They trade clothes, and the gypsy girl hits the maiden's head and tosses her down the tree, then replaces the true watermelon maiden amidst the foliage. As for the true watermelon maiden, she turns into two pigeons that fly away. The prince returns and notices his bride looks ugly and one-eyed, so the gypsy girl lies that the Moon shone and turned one eye white, and the Sun's rays turned one yellow and blinded her. Still, he takes her as his bride. The pigeons fly to the sultan's garden, asks about the prince and the false bride, and orders the trees where they perch on to wither. The gardener notices that whenever the birds appear and talk, the trees begin to wither, which keeps happening for days, as the trees nearly wither. He tells the sultan about it, and they make a plan to stop the birds' doing: the next time they appear, they capture the birds and cage them, then deliver the cage to the prince. The prince dotes on the birds, to the false bride's annoyance, so she spins a lie that she is pregnant and wishes to eat the birds. The prince allows the birds to be killed, and the false bride, who knows that the pigeons are a form of the watermelon maiden, orders the cooks to be careful not to spill their blood. However, two drops of blood fall on the ground, and two cypress trees sprout. The false bride wants the trees felled down and made into a threshold for her and a cradle for her baby. Still, the threshold grabs her and she wants both burnt in a tandoor. While the objects burn to cinders, an old woman pokes the ashes and finds a needle, which she pins in her head. The false bride notices the old woman did something to her head, and the woman lies that she was just scratching her head. She tosses the needle in the corner of her house and goes back to the sultan's mansion. When the woman returns home, she finds the house tidied and cleaned. She investigates and finds a maiden folding the clothes and washing the dishes. Before she has a chance to return to needle form, the old woman grabs her. The stranger says she is a human being, the prince's (or Beyoglu's) true wife that the gypsy girl tricked, tossed into the lake and tricked the prince into thinking she was her. One day, the sultan is gathering people to sew clothes for the soldiers, and the watermelon maiden asks the old woman to being her some cloth for her so sew and stitch. The old woman brings the materials, and the watermelon maiden spins a beautiful garment. Next, the sultan's horses disperse to the people, and the watermelon maiden wants the old woman to bring one for them. She brings a lame horse which the watermelon maiden grooms and feeds, by creating a stable with her foot and grass and hay with the other foot. The horse grows from emaciated to a fine stallion, and the fruit maiden whispers in the horse's ear for it to lie down until she returns. The prince's soldiers come to retrieve the horses, but they cannot dislodge it. The prince himself goes to retrieve the horse, but he also fails. The old woman brings her adopted daughter, the fruit maiden, who orders the horse to move, mentioning the harm its owner caused her. The prince notices something about the maiden, and the old woman explains everything: she is his true bride whom he brought home. The prince goes to confront the false bride and asks if she prefer a sword or a horse: she chooses the horse, thinking she will ride it in triumph, but she is tied to one that is let loose in the mountains and tears her to pieces. The prince then marries the true maiden that came out of the watermelon.^[35]

In a Turkish Cypriot tale published by Saim Sakaoğlu with the title Hıyarcı Kızı ("The Cucumber Girl"), a padishah has no children, so his wife asks a neighbour how they can have one. The neighbour tells the queen to make a vow with God, which the queen does: she will build fountains of oil and honey. In time, a son is born to them. One night, the queen has a dream: a voice tells her to fulfill her vow. The queen then orders the building of two canals, one with oil and another with honey. People flock to fetch oil and honey for themselves, including the neighbour lady. The old woman fetches some oil and honey with eggshells, but the prince tosses a stone at her and breaks her recipients. Enraged, the old woman curses the prince to suffer for the Cucumber Girl. Some time later, the prince decides to search for the cucumber Girl, and departs. He meets a man on the road who directs him to a cucumber patch, and advises him to pluck three cucumbers, one white, another yellow, and the third green, cut each open and shout for the "cucumber girl". The prince goes to the cucumber patch and fetches the vegetables; he opens the first one and finds nothing inside. The same thing happens to the second one. After he cuts open the third one and calls out for the cucumber girl, a maiden appears to him. He places her on his horse and both ride away. They reach a stream where he leaves the cucumber girl, while he goes to hunt some birds. The cucumber girl climbs up a tree. A servant from a nearby house comes to draw water from the stream and sees the girl's reflection in the water, mistaking it for her own, so she returns to her master's house to refuse to work anymore. The master expels the servant and she goes back to the stream, where she spots the girl atop the tree. She convinces the girl to come down and sticks a magic pin on her head, turning her into a dove, then takes her place. The prince returns and sees the servant, who lies that the sun darkened her skin and made her lips grow. Still, the prince takes the servant back home and marries her. As for the true cucumber girl, she, as a dove, flies to the palace and asks the king what the prince and the servant are doing, then blesses his sleep and curses the servant's, then wishes for the trees in the garden to dry up. In time, the prince notices the trees in the garden are drying up and learns of the strange bird that flies in. The prince captures the bird and locks it up in a cage. The servant realizes the bird will reveal the secret and bribes a doctor to prescribe the bird's meat as cure for a feigned illness. The bird is killed and cooked, its body thrown in the sea, but a drop of the bird's blood survives and falls to the ground, where a cypress tree sprouts. The servant orders the tree to be burnt down. An old woman comes and asks for the cypress splinters as firewood, which she brings home. She tries to cut the branch, when a voice comes from inside it. The old man cuts open the firewood and releases the cucumber maiden, whom she adopts. Later, the prince arranges for the marriage with the servant, and the cucumber girl attends. The false bride (the servant) cannot string a pearl necklace, and the cucumber girl does with ease, while recounting her story. The false bride realizes the newcomer is the real cucumber girl and expels her. The prince sends a messenger to the old woman's house and learns of the whole story, marrying the true cucumber girl. He returns to the palace and asks the servant which she prefers: a sword or a horse? The false bride chooses the horse; the prince places her on a horse and banishes her.^[36]

In a Turkish Cypriot tale titled Üç Turunçlar Güzelı ("Three Orange Beauties"), collected from informant named Aliye Akçaylı, a sultan is childless to he prays to Allah for one, and in return he will build two fountains, one of oil and another of honey. For this, he has a son, and builds the fountains of oil and honey, but raises the prince in secrecy. One day, he sees people coming to fetch oil and honey, including an old woman. He breaks the old woman's jugs, and she tells him she hopes he finds the orange beauties. The prince grows up and decides to look for the orange beauties he heard about in his childhood. He depaats and finds an old man, who tells him that the dev has already caught the tree of the orange beauties, and he should give up. The prince insists on his quest and asks for directions. He reaches a stream and drinks three times from it, says five prayers and drinks three times more, then exchanges the fodder between two animals (hay for a donkey, bones for a dog), gives her some clothes to cover a naked woman cleaning up an oven, lifts a fallen door and places on the ground another door, plucks three oranges when the dev is asleep and rushes from the dev's resting place. The dev awakes and commands his servants to stop the prince, but they stay their hand due to his kind actions. On the road, the prince cuts open the first orange, releasing a maiden that asks for water and bread, but dies since the prince has none with him. He decides to save one of the other oranges when he goes to a pool. He approaches a village, fills up a bottle with some water, buys some bread and cuts open the second orange. He releases another maiden he gives some water and bread, and tells her to stay there while he goes back with instruments (drums and zurna) to welcome her with pomp, but the orange maiden decides to climb up a tree to wait for him. While he goes away, a local woman sends her maidservant to fetch water, but sees the maiden's visage in water, mistakes it for her own, and gives up doing the task she was ordered to do. The maidservant complains to her mistress about being too beautiful to work, but is scolded and sent with another jug. She sees the orange maiden atop the tree, pulls up her hair and sicks a need in her, then replaces her. The prince returns with his father and sees that his bride-to-be looks different. The maidservant, now posing as the orange maiden, lies that she was hidden in the fruit so long that the sun burned her skin, but she will return to white eventually. The prince takes the false orange maiden as his bride and marries her. Meanwhile, the true orange maiden, now turned into a bird, flies in to the palace. The false bride asks for the bird to be captured and cooked for her, but the prince declines her request, admiring the bird's plumage. Still, the bird is killed and its bones are thrown behind a door; a tree sprouts where they fall. The tree scratches the false bride, who wants the tree felled down. A woodcutter cuts down the tree, and a old woman comes in to ask for some of the wood as kindle for her bathhouse. She brings home some with them, and the pieces of wood begin to talk that they are being burned. Sometime later, the sultan invites people to tell stories, including the old woman who owns the bathhouse. The old woman says she has no good story to tell, but knows someone who does. She brings in the orange maiden to the palace, and the orange maiden asks for the doors to be locked so she tells her tale, narrating the prince story and about how she became a bird, perched on the trees in the garden, asked about the prince and the maidservant, and cursed the trees to wither. The prince realizes the truth of the orange maiden's words and confronts the false bride, asking her is she prefer a sword or a horse. The maidservant says that swords are for her enemies, so she wants a horse. Thus, she is tied to a horse that is let loose as her punishment and is torn to pieces.^[37]

In a Turkish Cypriot tale titled Hüsn-ü Yusuf, collected from informant Tünay Onat, a sultan's son is very spoiled. One day, an old woman comes to draw water and he tosses a stone to break her jug. The old woman complains, but tells the prince he should seek the daughter of Hüsn-ü Yusuf when he is older. The prince grows up and his father tries to arrange a wedding for the prince, but he declines any potential bride, saying he will depart in search of Hüsn-ü Yusuf's daughter. The sultan fears for his son, since such a maiden is in the power of a giant (dev). Still, the prince departs and meets an old scholar on the road, who warns him about the danger of the giant, but advises him to enter the dev's garden, plucks three "yusufs" (which the collector rectifies to "mandalin" or mandarin oranges), and escape. The prince does as instructed and steals three fruits, then flees, and the dev roars in rage, but cannot do anything. On the road, the prince cuts open the first mandarin orange, and out comes a maiden asking for water, who dies since the prince has no water to give her. He rides three days more, and his curiosity impels him to open the second fruit: out comes another maiden that asks for water, but dies a well. Lastly, the prince decides to save the last mandarin for when he arrives at his village. He finally arrives at his home village and tosses the last remaining fruit into a pond: a beautiful naked maiden emerges. She is shocked at first with her surroundings, but the prince embraces and comforts her. Noticing her nakedness, he guides her atop a tree to wait for him while he goes brings back clothes and drums and a zurna to welcome her. She covers herself with a sackclothe and he leaves. After he leaves, a local woman sends her dark-haired daughter to fetch water in the pond and sees the mandarin maiden's visage in water, thinking it to be her own. She breaks the jug and returns home, then lies to her mother that she accidentally broke her jug, so her mother gives another. The girl returns to the pond and goes to break the second jug, when the mandarin maiden pleads her to stop her actions. The dark-haired girl sights the mandarin maiden atop the tree and joins her atop it. The mandarin maiden explains she is Hüsn-u Yusuf's daughter whom the prince brought home, and the girl tricks the other to comb her hair, and sticks a pin in her head, turning into a pigeon. The girl replaces the mandarin maiden. The prince returns and notices she looks different, and the girl lies that she suffered from the sun and loneliness, and her lips swelled. Still, the prince takes her home as his bride, while the pigeon follows them. The prince marries the false bride in a three day celebration. The false bride feigns illness and asks to eat the white dove that pesters them. The doctor tells the prince about it, who refuses to kill this bird in particular, but the doctor insists that the dove is killed to restore the sick princess's health. It happens thus, and a rose tree sprouts where the dove was killed. The bush blooms red fragrant roses for the prince, and scratches the false bride, who wants the plant burnt down. Later, during winter, a female neighbour takes the remaining wood home with him to kindle. Suddenly, the woman's son tells his mother that there is a voice coming from the piece of wood, so they close the doors and windows to check: the mandarin maiden comes out of it, to the family's surprise. The maiden retells them her whole story, and decide to invite the sultan and the prince, but make arrangements so that the prince sees her. They invite the sultan, the prince and the false bride to their house for a meeting, and the prince recognizes the mandarin maiden, then asks the false bride if she wants a horse. The false bride says that she would like the horse for a ride, and the prince ties her to one to she is torn to pieces. The prince then marries the true mandarin maiden in a forty day and forty night celebration.^[38]

• The Orange and Citron Princess
• The Maiden of the Tree of Raranj and Taranj
• The Pomegranate Girl