Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/358

 338 Miscellanea.

tion, and his youngest son made him tell him what was troubling him so, and, when he had heard it, said, " I should like to marry that youngest daughter," and so his father w^ent and proposed for her, and the match was made.

The prince, after they were married, would have nothing to do with his wife, because she wouldn't tell him what the bushels of .salt meant. One day he said, "I am going off to Soultado.''^ " Very well," said his wife, and when he was gone she took ship and got there before him. She took a house on the quay and was looking out of the window when her husband arrived. He did not know her, but thought she was a very nice-looking girl, and bowed to her. She returned his salute, and he sent up and asked if he might come and stay with her. " I shall be most pleased," she answ^ered, and he remained with her a year, and she bore him a child whom he called Soultado. When he said he was leaving, she asked him what token he would give his son, and he gave his dagger. She took ship back at once and was waiting to receive her husband when he came home. "Well," he said, " won't you tell me now what the three bushels of salt

are ? "

" I knew the reason on a time, But now away 'tis flown. Come eat and drink, O father mine, And sit upon your throne.

I have rubbed one of them in, and God has got the two others in his keeping," said she. Then the prince said he was off to Aleppo, and she, as before, took ship and w-as settled in a house on the quay by the time he arrived. It happened as before, and she bore him a son whom he called Halepi. When he was going away she asked him to give the child a token, and he gave his ring. She reached home before him again, and when he asked her to tell him about the bushels of salt she said the same verses, and, " I have rubbed two in, and God has the other in store for you." " All right," said he, " I am off to Babylon."

When he got to Babylon she had again outstripped him, and was living on the quay. She looked out of her window, and he saw her and went to stay w4th her, and she bore him a girl-child whom they called Babylonitsa, and he gave her a cavadi (kind of dress) as a token. When he got home and found his wife ' Where is this seaport ? — W. R. P.