Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/551

 Collectanea. 509

until he reached a kiosk and a palace. Then he said to himself, — " Why should I go and lose my life ! I will stay here and serve in this house and live."

The second brother took the middle road, and went, and went, until he crossed a mountain. There he saw a palace which shone like the sun. He dismounted and tied his horse. He entered a park. A green bench stood near by, and he went and sat there. Immediately a gigantic Arab came rushing towards him, and, giving him a blow with his club, felled him to the ground and turned him into a round stone which rolled under the bench.

Now let us come to the youngest brother. He mounted his horse and took the lower road. One after the other he reached river, thicket, wolf, lamb, and gate, and did all that the hermit had told him to do. When he entered the park, he saw a most beautiful maiden reclining upon a couch. The Thousand-noted Nightingale had come out of its cage and stood upon the maiden's breast singing its sweetest notes, and had put the maiden to sleep. Then the Prince caught the Nightingale, and stooped and im- printed a kiss upon the maiden's brow ; then he set out upon his return.

When the maiden awoke from her sleep, she saw that the Thousand-noted Nightingale was gone. She knew it had been stolen, and she cried, — " Gate, stop him ! " The gate replied, — " God be with him. He opened my closed door and closed my open door." " Wolf, Lamb, stop him," she cried. "God be with him! He gave the grass to the lamb, and the meat to the wolf," they answered. " Thicket, stop him," she cried. "God be with him ! You made me to be full of briars ; he made me become the flower of immortality." " River, stop him," she cried. " Why should I stop him ? You made me salt and slimy ; he made me become the water of life. Let him go ! God be with him ! " The maiden was at the end of her resources. So she mounted her steed and gave chase. Let us leave her for the present.

The Prince met the hermit once more ; he saluted him, and said, — " Here is your Thousand-noted Nightingale." Then he inquired about his brothers. The hermit told him that they had