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'Ah! said the pigeon, 'I could cure her, for no matter what the disease is, any one who eats my droppings will become well instantly. When dawn came, the demon, the serpent, and the pigeon each went off to his own haunt without noticing Prince Half-a-son.
So they felt round, and when they came upon the six brothers, the demon ate them up one after another. So that was an end of them, and Prince Half-a-son had the best of it, in spite of his only being half-a-boy. Once upon a time there lived a mother and a daughter who worshipped the Sun.
But all Half-a-son had to do was to say, 'Pull, rope, pull! and the rope wound itself up immediately. No sooner had he reached the surface once more than he set off to the neighbouring city, and proclaimed that he was a physician come to heal the King's daughter of her dreadful disease. 'Have a care! have a care! cried the watchmen at the gate. 'If you fail, your head will be the forfeit.
'Half-a-son got rich by falling in, they said; 'let us try if we too cannot find some treasure, So they threw themselves into the well. As soon as it was dark, the demon, the serpent, and the pigeon came home together. 'Some thief has been here! cried the pigeon, 'for my droppings are gone! Let us feel round, and see if he is here still.
When they became very importunate, he threw over a few of the unripe and sour melons; whereupon his brothers became so enraged that they ran to the owner of the field and told him that half-a-boy was making sad havoc amongst his fruit. Then they watched him catch poor Prince Half-a-son, who of course could not run very fast, and tie him to a tree, after which they went away laughing.
By and by they came to a plum tree, where the fruit grew far out on slender branches that would only bear the weight of half-a-boy. 'Throw us down some! cried the whole brothers, as they saw Half-a-son with his half-mouth full. 'Remember the sweets! retorted the prince.
Now the result of this was, that when, some months afterwards, the six elder Queens each bore a son, the youngest Queen had only half-a-son and that was what they called him at once, just half-a-son, nothing more: he had one eye, one ear, one arm, one leg; in fact, looked at sideways, he was as handsome a young prince as you would wish to see, but frontways it was as plain as a pikestaff that he was only half-a-prince.
'That is an end of little Half-a-son! they said to themselves, and ran away laughing. Now in the well there lived a one-eyed demon, a pigeon, and a serpent, and when it was dark these three returned home and began to talk amongst themselves, while Prince Half-a-son, who clung to the wall like a limpet, and took up no room at all, listened and held his breath.
Then they ran away laughing; but Prince Half-a-son called out, 'Break, rope, break! my companions have gone on, and before they had gone out of sight he rejoined his brothers, who could not understand how this miserable half-a-boy outwitted them. Being determined to be revenged on him, they waited until he began to draw water from a well, where they stopped to drink, and then they pushed him in.
He laid the treasures at the King's feet, and told the whole story, how, through no fault of his own, he was only half-a-son, and how unkindly his brothers had behaved to him. Then the marriage festivities went on, and the wicked brothers crept away in disgrace. They went to the well, full of envy and covetousness.
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