Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

The Treasure of Sand (Györgyi Mester)

Author: Györgyi Mester

Share this story!

The young prince had been travelling the world for years, speaking two dozen foreign languages, but he had no intention of returning home. He wanted to see more of the world before he began his wise reign in his own kingdom.

Advertisement
Continue reading

He has visited countless rich cities, seen immeasurably poor villages, climbed snow-capped peaks, befriended cannibals, survived several jungle adventures, spent months adrift on stormy oceans, hunted lions on savannahs....but he hasn't had luck with the desert.

His curiosity was not satisfied, so he visited the Arab world, with the intention of sailing alone across the desert with his servant.

Though his well-wishers warned him that it was imprudent to set out alone without a safe escort, he would not be dissuaded, and one hot morning he and his faithful servant set out for the sandy sea.

They were supposed to find an oasis within six days' walk, but on the seventh day they hadn't even seen a trace of it. By this time their drinking water had run out and the camels seemed tired. They had almost given up when the outline of palm trees and huts loomed in the distance.

At first they thought it was a mirage, but as they drew closer they saw that the trees were as real as the huts.

Advertisement
Continue reading

Everything was unusually quiet. Perhaps it was the heat, and everyone had retired into the shade, so there was no movement around the cottages, thought the Prince. They went straight to the reservoir, but to their dismay, it was bone dry!

They looked around in despair when the servant drew their attention to a huge crack that opened up the sand wall. Cool air was coming from the crack, and broken water jugs and empty canteens lay strewn about.

Stepping through the opening, the prince was surprised to find the cavity widening into a tunnel. His burning torch illuminated a long corridor.

'The locals must have been looking for water,' he thought, 'and maybe they're all in there now, chilling. But they could also be in trouble. The prince walked on with such thoughts in his head.

Suddenly he saw a human figure. He ran towards it, delighted to see that it was petrified, with a torn taris on its shoulders and small pieces of stone in piles at its feet.

There is a mystery here. But the prince was not curious not to get to the bottom of it!

Advertisement
Continue reading

He walked on, ahead, when suddenly he saw more people, two men with one arch. They must have been brothers. In the hands of one of them, a large water barrel was suspended on a tallow, but the men, not a foot further on, had turned to stone in their chins. The barrel, however, was filled to the brim with uniform, regular-shaped pieces of stone.

A woman appeared nearby. She had a large round bowl in her hand, piled with pebbles. She was rooted to the ground where she stood.

Then he came across more and more petrified locals, dragging large crates or rolling water containers filled with gravel in front of them.

He was already deep in the tunnel when he heard a squeak. Beside the petrified figure of an old man, a small boy cowered. He was clutching a water glass in his hand, sniffling and ....ing.

The prince took the child in his arms, who slowly calmed down and told him what had happened.

The reservoir that sustains the oasis has indeed dried up. Locals searched for water and found a crack in the sand wall. First they widened it, then they found the tunnel. Everyone was thirsty and they pushed each other through the gap, which had been widened into a gateway.

The tunnel opened into a small cave where, to their amazement, they found a pool full of crystal clear, cool water.

But they had barely dived in when someone exclaimed: the bottom of the pool under the water is covered with gems, it sparkles so much!

No one thought of thirst any more, only of the treasure to be had. Like madmen, they plunged into the water, and everyone wanted to take a dip - in the gems.

In the spouts, in the water barrels, in the aprons, in the jugs, in the bags, all precious stones!

The water in the pool became murky at first, then slowly drained away somewhere. No one noticed this at the time, they just hurried out of the cave, loaded down with treasure.

But no sooner had they reached the halfway point than the gems turned to gravel, the bottoms of the barrels, crates and bags were torn from their heavy weight, and the men themselves were petrified.

Advertisement
Continue reading

His father was greedy too, he filled his pockets with treasures, he even turned to stone. With him, however, he only drew from the water, so the magic didn't work on him.

The prince and his servant first carried the carved stones they had found in the water barrel back to the pool, and then collected them one by one from each petrified figure. They also picked up pieces of gravel scattered in the tunnel.

As more and more stones covered the bottom of the pool, they began to colour and sparkle, and the clear, cooling spring water began to bubble up again.

The prince and the servant drew water for themselves. After they had quenched their thirst, they sprinkled water on all the petrified figures, and they came to life.

They collected the discarded canteens, replaced the broken jugs with new ones, and filled them all with ... water.

No one wanted the gem anymore, because they knew the cave would not let them take the treasure, and would take revenge on the thieves. In the meantime, they also realised that they had become rich after all, for they had found water, and in the desert, what greater treasure could there be than life-giving water!

The prince made it safely across the desert, but when he told them what had happened to him, they didn't believe him, they just huddled behind him: the heat was getting to him, he was going crazy with Arab wonder, and he was telling stories like Sheherezade...

Leave a Comment

You cannot copy content of this page

×