The story of Afiong the proud princess starts with a wealthy and influential king who lives in a kingdom far away. The king had a gorgeous daughter Afiong who was already of a marriageable age. Several young men across the country expressed interest in Afiong and asked for her hand in marriage.
However, Afiong refused the marriage proposal of all the guys who asked her for her hand in marriage. Even old rich men asked for her hand in marriage and she used to insult them that they were old and ugly. Afiong was vain and proud.
Despite the pressures of her parent, the princess refused to marry anyone from her kingdom. She wanted to marry a prince from a faraway kingdom. She swore that her prince would be the world’s most attractive man.
Afiong boasts that her prince would be perfect and strong and he would also be capable of loving her. The princess disobeyed her parents and they were displeased. One faithful day, there was disruption within the village. The people wondered what could be happening and soon after the news reached the palace.
In the market, a very handsome man outshone everyone with his superior looks. This news reached Afiong and so she rushed to the marker to see the handsome man. Behold, the man was the most handsome man that Afiong had ever seen.
After inviting him to her palace, she welcomed the prince with delight. Upon arriving, Afiong introduced them to the king and queen. Initially, the parents refused because they didn’t want their daughter to marry a stranger, however, they agreed at last.
For two days, the attractive prince resided at Afiong’s palace and told her how much he wanted to marry her. He wanted to take Afiong back to his country which was far. After hearing this, Afiong agreed as the prince was a very handsome man.
However, her parents had second thoughts about this and they tried to persuade her not to agree. Afiong was determined to marry the prince despite this not stopping her. So, both Afiong and her prince started their journey to the prince’s country far away. This made the king and queen quite sad.
After Afiong and the prince walked for days, they crossed a border which was between the human land and the land of the spirit. After they crossed the border, strange things started happening. The man demanded the prince’s legs first, then his head, and finally his body, leaving the prince with only a skull.
This terrified the princess and she couldn’t understand what happened to her prince. The prince laughed at Afiong and told her that he was now in his natural state. He explained how he borrowed all the body parts from several spirits so that he would be able to go into the human world and marry her.
All he had was the skull. When Afiong tried to flee, the skull prevented her from doing so. He took Afiong to his home and when they arrived, she saw his mother who was very old and wasn’t strong enough to do any work. The princess tried her best to do some chores.
She would help the old woman to cook, gather firewood, and fetch water. This made the old woman very grateful and fond of the princess. One faithful day, the old woman felt sorry for the princess and she planned to help her.
The old woman promised Afiong that she would send her back to her country if and only if she would obey her parents. Afiong agreed to do this. Then the old woman called the best hairdresser in town, which happened to be a spider. Afiong’s hair was styled in the newest fashion by the spider.
Afiong was also given anklets by the elderly woman, among other things. The old woman then used her power to command the breeze to carry Afiong back to her kingdom. Afterward, the breeze carried Afiong back to her home.
When her parent saw her, they were delighted because they had given up on finding her after some months. There was a feast and celebration in the kingdom which lasted for eight days. After this, the king passed a law in the land that parents shouldn’t let their children marry strangers who come from a different country.
Afiong consented when a prince from the nearby village came to beg for her hand in marriage. She married the prince and they lived together for many years and had children.
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