Yasmin and the Serpent Prince () is an Iranian folktale published in 1974 by author Forough Hekmat, about a human maiden who marries a youth in snakeskin, loses him due to her breaking his trust, and goes after him at his mother's home, where she is forced to perform hard tasks for her.
The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human princess marries a supernatural husband or man in animal form, loses him, and goes on a quest to find him. It is also distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch or her mother-in-law. According to scholarship, many variants of the cycle are reported to exist in Iran, and the usual form of the animal husband is that of a snake or serpent.
Summary Long time ago, in a Persian city, a merchant named Hajji Muhammad lives with his five daughters, the youngest, named Yasmin, the one he loves best of all. One day, he has to go on a journey, and asks his daughters what they want as gifts. The four elders want extravagant garments and shoes, but the youngest asks for a clustered bunch of grape-like pearls and a starred, two-pointed diamond.
Hajji Muhammad goes on his journey and, after doing his business, buys the presents for his four elder daughters, but has trouble finding Yasmin's request. His quest is interrupted by a violent storm, so he takes shelter in a castle in the middle of a plain. He enters the castle and notices that the garden is full of silver and gold trees.
This mysterious garden seems like a vision of paradise: flowers made of precious gems, stream of milk and honey flowing from the trees, and many melodies coming from the trees. He ventures deep into the garden and finds the branch of pearls and diamonds. He goes to pluck it, but a roar behind him interrupts his action. The merchant turns around and sees a large snake, of a bright green colour.
The merchant explains to the green snake that the branch is supposed to be a present for his youngest daughter, Yasmin. Noticing that the merchant seems too interested in the branch from his garden, the green snake makes a deal with him: he shall get the branch, but, in return, his youngest daughter is to be given to the serpent as his wife. The merchant is a bit alarmed by the proposal about his daughter, about any potential danger. The snake assuages his fears and they seal a written pact.
The merchant returns home with the branch, jewels and presents for his daughters. Time passes, and he forgets about his promise to the snake, until one day, a knock is heard at the door. It is the snake, come to take his wife, as promised. The merchant goes inside to tell Yasmin about his promise. Yasmin agrees that promises must be kept, but, hoping to delay - and even discourage - the snake about the marriage proposal, she says the snake must prepare a feast for 40 days, where the finest dishes and drinks are to be served, and every guest must be showered with gems.
The animal agrees with the conditions and takes a three day leave for wedding preparations. The snake returns after three days on a golden coach and takes them to the wedding feast, in the same garden where Hajji Muhammad found the pearl-and-diamond branch. Yasmin, the bride, stays silent all the time.
After the feast ends and the guests rest, the snake and Yasmin retire to a spacious apartment. Yasmin, then, breaks her silence and asks the snake about his true identity, since it cannot be a mere animal, due to his magical powers. The serpent makes her promise not to tell his secret, and, casting a spell on himself, sheds its snakeskin. He reveals that he is Prince Baharam, son of the Shah of Demons, who has come from the World of Darkness to the world of man, interested in the good qualities of human people (justice, learning, love for one another), in contrast to the wickedness and base interests of the demons.
They live as husband and wife for two years, him a snake by day and a prince by night. However, she begins to miss home, and longs to show that her husband is truly human. One day, she asks Baharam about how to destroy his snakeskin. She insists to know and he tells that the skin needs to be burned with shells of pistachio nut. She delights at the answer, but feels torn between keeping his secret and destroying the snakeskin.
Some time later, she decides to visit her family, and her husband warns her not to reveal his secret. Her sisters inquire her about her life in the snake's castle, and a gossiping aunt begins to pry more and more into her life, so much so that she reveals the snake is human underneath. Her aunt suggests she burns the snakeskin, so that he remains human at all times, and gives her some pistachio nuts.
Yasmin goes home to her husband. While Baharam is asleep, she leaves the bed, gets the snakeskin from a chest, takes it to the kitchen and burns it with the shells of pistachio nuts. The next morning, Baharam awakens and asks his wife about the snakeskin. Yasmin answers that she burned it. He despairs at the fact and tells that he needed his scaly disguise, but now he has to return to the Realm of Darkness, back to his people. Yasmin throws herself at his feet and begs for forgiveness. He chastises her, and says that, to find him again, she has to walk towards the West, for 7 years, in 7 iron suits, 7 iron shoes, and with 7 iron canes. Baharam goes to the garden, chants a spell and vanishes, and the castle and everything in it disappears along with him, leaving Yasmin lost in a desert.
Despite the hunger and thirst, Yasmin traverses the desert back to her father's house. He welcomes her and lets her grieve for her lost husband. After six months, she decides to begin her arduous quest toward the Realm of Darkness. Her father commissions the iron garments and the iron canes, and she sets out. For seven years, she walks and walks, wanders high and low, until the seventh iron dress and the seventh iron shoes are worn, and the seventh iron cane is nothing but a stump in her hands. Tired of the long journey, and not knowing if she has arrived, she lies down to sleep.
After a whole day and night, she wakes up and notices she is in a meadow, full of animals of a black colour. Even the trees and flowers are black, and light does not seem to reach that land. She asks a passing man with black horns on his head whose meadow it is. The horned man says it belongs to Prince Baharam, the son of the Shah of Demons. She goes to drink a bit of the black water, and sees a slave-girl coming to get water.
The slave-girl says she is fetching water for her master, the prince. Yasmin sees a nearby castle made of black stone, and has an idea: she asks for the slave-girl to drink a bit of the water, and drops her wedding ring in it. Inside the castle, the slave-girl drops the water on Prince Baharam's hands and the ring falls out of the jug. He recognizes it and asks the slave-girl if anyone was outside. She says a woman is resting by a tree when she left to fetch water. Baharam goes outside and finds his wife Yasmin. They embrace, after seven long years, and rejoice in each other's presence. Baharam warns her of the danger the demons pose, and suggests he changes her appearance to keep her safe, until they find a chance to escape.
Baharam turns her into a golden needle and brings her home with him to the castle. Despite the magic disguise, the prince's stepmother smells a "Child of Adam" (a human) in their castle. Afraid of being found out, Baharam changes the needle into a broom, then into a piece of wood, and lastly into a spray of flowers to throw her off the human's scent, but to no avail. He then decides to introduce Yasmin to his stepmother, the Queen of Demons, as a weary traveller from the world of man. The queen of demons begrudgingly accepts her as a guest.
The next day, the Queen of Demons gives two pieces of cloth to Yasmin, and orders her to wash the white one black and the black one into white. Baharam chants a spell to change the colours. The next task is for her to fill seven clays jars with a sieve - her husband casts a spell on the sieve to fill the holes. The third task is for her to separate a heap of mixed seeds (wheat, rice, lentils, millet, poppy and vetch) - Baharam summons a swarm of ants to separate the grains.
The last task is for Yasmin to go to the stepmother's sister and get from her the "Give-and-Take-Box". Baharam advises her to compliment a thorny branch by saying it is a rosebush; to compliment a dirty river by saying it is rosewater; to give the animals their correct fodder (straw for the donkeys, bones to the dogs), open all closed doors and shut all open ones in his step-aunt's house, get the box and do not open it, and escape. Yasmin follows the instructions to the letter, gets a little black box from the step-aunt, and hurries back to the castle of the Queen of Demons. The step-aunt commands the doors, the dogs, the donkeys, the river and the thorns to stop her, but, due to her kind actions, she leaves unscathed.
Now at a safe distance, she tries to peer into the box. The lid opens up and a swarm of flies escape from it. Baharam appears to her, casts a spell and the flies go back to the box. On their journey back to the castle, Baharam tells her that his stepmother planned his wedding to his cousin, and the castle will be swarmed with demons that will kill Yasmin, so they must hurry and escape that night. He then asks her to get them a bag of needles, a box of salt and a jar of water.
That night, the demons are coming to the castle to Baharam's wedding. At midnight, Baharam excuses himself and goes to see Yasmin. They sneak out to the stables and ride his horse away from the castle. The next morning, the Queen of Demons discovers the pair's flight and commands an army of giants to go after them.
Baharam and Yasmin are riding on the prince's black horse and hear the approach of the giants. Yasmin throws the bag of needles behind them, which turn into a forest of thorns to deter the giants. Next, they throw the box of salt, turning the desert into a sea of salt. Lastly, they pour out the contents of the water jug, and a vast sea appears between them and the coming giants. The pursuers try to cross the sea to get them, but sink and drown in it.
Now safe at last, the prince and Yasmin ride to the city where her father trades as a merchant, and spend the rest of their lives in happiness. Yasmin and Baharam have three children: Mehr ('Love'), Raasti ('Truth'), and Aashti ('Peace').Folk tales of ancient Persia. Retold by Forough Hekmat with the collaboration of Yann Lovelock. Illustrated by Muhammad Bahrami. Delmar, N.Y., Caravan Books, 1974. pp. 1-24.
Analysis Tale type
The compilers compared the Iranian tale to Armenian tale Habrmani and to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche,Folk tales of ancient Persia. Retold by Forough Hekmat with the collaboration of Yann Lovelock. Illustrated by Muhammad Bahrami. Delmar, N.Y., Caravan Books, 1974. pp. xiii-xiv and footnote nr. 3. stories that belong to the international cycle of the "Animal Bridegroom". According to Inge Höpfner, Iran registers many ("vielen") variants of the cycle.Höpfner, Inge. Märchen aus Persien. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2014 . p. 124. .