A Fatal Slip
Prince Agib hears the tale of a boy confined to an underground chamber for forty days, and dismisses it as superstition.
Prince Agib hears the tale of a boy confined to an underground chamber for forty days, and dismisses it as superstition.
Prince Agib has toppled a vast brass statue of a horseman upon the Black Mountain, a labour for which he has been rewarded with the ship he needs to find his way home. Stopping off on a remote island, he sees a boy being led into an underground chamber, and when the coast is clear, Agib follows him in, eager to hear his story.
abridged
“ONE day [said the boy] my father dreamed that a son would be born to him, and he consulted all the wise men in the kingdom as to the future of the infant. One and all they said the same thing. When the statue of the brass horse on the top of the mountain of adamant is thrown into the sea by Agib, the son of Cassib, then beware, for fifty days later your son shall fall by his hand!
“It was only yesterday that the news reached him that ten days previously the statue of brass had been thrown into the sea, and he at once set about hiding me in this underground chamber, promising to fetch me out when the forty days have passed.* For myself, I have no fears, as Prince Agib is not likely to come here to look for me.”
I listened to his story with an inward laugh as to the absurdity of my ever wishing to cause the death of this harmless boy.
This is a classic story-telling theme, the quest to nullify a prophecy. See also The Tragedy of King Oedipus.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why was the boy shut in an underground cave for forty days?
His father feared for the boy’s life.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A boy was led into a cave. Agib saw him. He was curious.