Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/346

 338 Sun himself lives there, and was just then about to go to bed. He wishes him good-evening properly, and begs pardon for disturbing him so late.

"Pray what is your business, my son?" the Sun asked him.

He tells him that he is looking for such and such a major-domo.

"Oh, my dear son", answered the Sun, "I travel round the world, but only from east to west, and he whom you seek does not go that way, or I should certainly have seen him. But see, not far from here lives the King of the Winds; his sons travel over all parts of the world, he will certainly know about your major-domo."

The prince thanked him for the good advice, wished the Sun a peaceful good-night, and with that he went to the King of the Winds. But he, too, only said that neither he nor his sons had seen any such major-domo, and he must certainly have crept into some place such as the wind itself very seldom wanders into. Perhaps the King of the Mice would be able to direct him.

He went to the King of the Mice. The King of the Mice immediately summoned all the mice there were, and inquired whether they had not seen such and such a major-domo.

"Might their eyes fall out if they had seen him," so answered they every one.

The prince was just going to turn back very sadly, when there hobbled forward a lame mouse. The King of the Mice asks him, too, whether he had not seen a major-domo.

"Why, to be sure I have seen him", answered the lame mouse; "I have just come from there; but he lives underground, in a stone cave, and in such a small hole that even I can scarcely get in."

The prince was delighted, and asked the mouse only to take him to the cave, and they will soon contrive something when they are there. They came to the cave, and there they began to consult what they were to do now.