THE BIRTH OF HATIMTAI

The rich king of Yemen was a good ruler. He looked after his people very well and his people loved him. Yet he was sad because he had no children.

The unhappy king often said to his wife, "We have everything. God has given us fame and money, yet we are not happy because we don't have a child."

The king and the queen prayed to God every day. Then one day, one of the queen's maids came running to the king. She told him that the queen was soon going to become a mother. The king was overjoyed on hearing the good news.

He took off his costly necklace and gave it to the queen's maid as a reward for bringing the good news.

After a few months, the queen gave birth to a son. The king was extremely happy.

The baby boy was very cute and sweet. The king loved to hold him in his arms.

He told all his people to celebrate the birth of his son, who would be the ruler of Yemen after him.

The baby prince was named Hatimtai. For a whole week, all the people celebrated the birth of Prince Hatimtai.

The king thanked God for blessing them with a child. He distributed lots of money and gifts to the needy people in his kingdom.

Everybody was happy. The king then called some fortune-tellers to foretell the future of the newborn baby.

They said that Hatim would grow up to be a tall, handsome and brave man. People would love him, and he would be famous all over the world for his kindness.

This made the king very happy, and he rewarded those fortune-tellers with gifts and money.

The King ordered his courtiers, "Tell the people of Yemen to send all the boys born on the same day as Prince Hatimtai to the palace. These boys will be brought up like princes in the palace along with Hatim.

The people of Yemen were very excited when they heard this news.

All the parents were happy that their sons would be brought up in the royal palace as princes.

They started coming to the palace one after the other with their sons.

When the courtiers began counting the babies, they found that six thousand more boys had been born on the same day as Hatimtai.

All the six thousand boys were to be brought up in the palace.

Each child was to be looked after by a separate nurse, so many nurses were appointed to look after Prince Hatimtai and those six thousand boys.

There was a lot a lot of confusion when so many boys were brought to the palace.

All the people became busy in making the babies comfortable in teh palace.

The cries of those six thousand babies filled the palace, and this made the king and the queen very happy.

The king and the queen thought that till Prince Hatimtai was born, they could not hear the cry of a single child, and now they could hear the cries and gurgles of so many children in the palace.