After the week had passed, the prince provided the king and his party with all manner of food and drink to see them through to the end of their long journey home.  He also sent along three guides to show them the way and bring them safely to their kingdom.  The daughter begged her father to return with her sisters for a visit so she could see them after such a long and sad separation.  The old king agreed, promising to fulfill her request as soon as possible.  Then he went off to his homeland and his daughter remained happily with her husband, the prince.

The king who tested his daughters’ love for him was unable to recognize real love, which is not automatic even with the advantages of a royal court.  When he did not hear the answer he wanted, he banished his youngest daughter from the castle and left her to die.  When she was rescued by a simple peasant, she finally saw true affection.  Rather than ride off into the sunset with Prince Charming, she provided for the kind peasants who saved her.

The irony here is that the king had to suffer the unjust punishment ordered for the princess before he could appreciate what love was.  Only after he was lost in the desert and near death did he feel real pain.  The help provided by the kind prince and his own daughter, whom he failed to recognize, turned the pain and agony into tears of joy.  The daughter still loved her father, despite all he had done, and at last the father was able to appreciate that love.  And, one might add, it was all over something as common as salt.

Three tales do not do justice to a whole culture, but each tale can be appreciated for its own sake.  Each story here ends on a positive theme, a happy ending even if the in-between was not so pleasant.  This, of course, gives therapeutic value to the entertainment.  Life will be hard, unfair, dangerous, and frustrating, but perseverance will be for the best.  In a land where such hardship is a fact of life, folk tales make life a bit easier.

Daniel Martin Varisco is an anthropologist and consultant in international development. He is a member of the board of directors of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies and was principal author of the Social and Institutional Profile of North Yemen for the U.S. Agency for international Development.