Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/133

 Rh king replies: "How so?" She answers: "There was once a king, and he had a son, whom he loved exceedingly. The son of the king addresses the tutor (philosopher): 'Beg my father to allow me to go to the hunt.' And the tutor begged permission of the king. The king replied to the philosopher: 'If you go with him, I will let him go.' So the tutor accompanied the prince. They hit upon a wild ass, and the tutor cries: 'Chase this wild ass, that thou mayest hunt it to thy heart's content.' And the youth pursued the wild ass. But as soon as he had moved away from his tutor, he knew not whither he was going. He espied a certain path and went along it. On going down, he found on the way a maiden who was weeping, and he said unto her: 'What ails thee, that thou weepest?' Whereupon she replies unto him: 'I am the daughter of king so-and-so; I was riding on an elephant, and fell off without perceiving it. I don't know whither I am to go, for I have been running until I am now exhausted.' When the youth saw such was the case, he mounted the maiden behind him, riding along until she had brought him to a ruin. She then addresses him: 'I have some business to transact; I would descend and enter this ruin.' He followed her, and found out that she was a demon (daughter of Lilith); and he heard her voice saying to her two companions: 'Behold, I am bringing to you a beautiful youth mounted upon a horse;' they rejoining: 'Bear him to such and such a ruin.' As soon as the prince heard this thing, he turned and came to the place where the demon had left him; she came out towards him, and the youth began to tremble through fear. She addresses him: 'What is the matter with you, that you are all of a tremble?' and he replies: 'I was thinking of one of my companions, of whom I was very much afraid.' She rejoins: 'Wherefore do you not pacify him by means of money, which you say you possess?' He replies: 'He will not be pacified.' Then she says: 'Petition God against him, as if you were speaking to the king, and he will