Once there was a great king who ruled over all the countries of the world. He possessed wonderful art, and was able to do with men whatever he pleased. One time he was especially grieved over the harsh words and angry thoughts of his people, and he caused a proclamation to be made among all the kingdoms of the world, declaring that for every angry or fretful word that men should speak a black spot should come upon their faces.
The decree went into effect at once, and the results were most astonishing and pitiful. The people, though they tried, could not change their natures, for they had been talking hatefully and indulging in angry thoughts for too many years. Some whose tongues were especially spiteful found their faces all covered with little pin points of black, as if they were tattooed. Others, more ugly than spiteful, looked in their mirrors and beheld great smooches of black covering now an eye and now a cheek, and in others a chin, or a nose, but most often the lips.
The most fearful disfigurement of all was upon those who became deeply passionate, so that their hearts were filled with thoughts of murder. Inky blackness came upon their faces, however fair they were before, and rapidly spread as the angry words poured out of their mouths, until their whole faces were black as ebony.
There were others, on the contrary, whose hearts were not very passionate, but were filled with gloom, so that they were sullen and morose, and upon them the charm acted like a veil of darkness, spreading over their features slowly but surely, as if they were in a shadow.
When the people of the world saw, by looking in their mirrors and in one another’s faces, what a fate had come upon them, they were seized with a terrible fear. They flew to their toilet basins and rubbed and scrubbed, using all kinds of soap and ointments, but in vain; and many of them became still more angry when they discovered this,—angry with themselves, but most of all with the great king. And the angrier they grew, the blacker became their faces.
At length all the people of the world came together at the great king’s court, their lamentations and their prayers making a mighty clamor. The king came out to them, and told them, speaking lovingly, how through all those years before his proclamation their angry words and spiteful thoughts had been making spots upon their souls as black and ugly as those they now saw upon their faces. All of this the people well knew, but had cared nothing about it. They were just now beginning to care when they saw their faces spoiled.
And the king told them that there was only one way by which their faces could be made fair and beautiful again. If each of them truly repented of all his harshness and passion, and did the best he could to see what was good in others, and to get in himself a bright and sunny temper, then, in time, the black spots would disappear.
And so it was that, filled with shame, all the people of the world went back to their homes, and went to work to whiten their faces again. It took many, many months, and it was the most difficult of tasks, but after some years, so faithfully did they work that there were few indeed in all the world that had not become fair in face as the angels, and cheery and sunny as a day in June.