A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

The prince in “The Three Orange-Peris” first encounters a Mother of Devils as tall as a minaret, with one leg on each of two mountains, long arms and hurricane-like breath. She says his respectful greeting has saved him from being eaten. To protect him from her forty sons, she transforms him into a water pitcher, then restores him after they promise affection towards a human brother. The sons’ man-eating is separately shown by human remains falling from their teeth as they clean them with wooden stakes.

This household sends him to the sons’ aunt, who has sixty sons. She conceals him as a piece of crockery and similarly introduces him into the family. Her sons then take him to their great-aunt, mother of ninety, who turns him into a broom before obtaining her sons’ oath not to harm him. The youngest of that final household knows the way and guides the prince to the oranges, warning him about their need for water.

The account distinguishes three households and three temporary forms; the first mother’s gigantic anatomy is not repeated for the other two. Their adopted human kinship does not make the prince their biological child. Although the English narrator uses Christian-sounding language about devils, these are the specific supernatural helpers of a Turkish tale translated through Hungarian, not evidence identifying the figures with a single universal demon genealogy.

Three distinct householdsForty, sixty and ninety sonsProtective object transformationsAdoptive hospitality
01

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale and attached greeting footnotes read, with full edition preface.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

    Ignácz Kúnos (collector); R. Nisbet Bain (translator from Hungarian) · 1901

    “The Three Orange-Peris,” pp. 12–29; footnotes 4–5. London: A. H. Bullen. Preface dated July 1896 states use of Kúnos’s first Hungarian edition, 1889.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete English tale, footnotes and edition frame read

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

Ignácz Kúnos / R. Nisbet Bain; London: A. H. Bullen, 1901. The Three Orange-Peris, pp. 12–29; footnotes 4–5

Full cache kunos-bain-2.txt, 23066 characters. Complete three devil households, three oranges, bird killing/feather survival, domestic revelation, reunion/punishment ending read. Notes4–5 merely translate greetings. Anatomy scoped to first mother; first two peris vanish, not stated killed. No original-language collation or artwork verification claimed.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain 1901, The Three Orange-PerisResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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