Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/38

 The Queen there was a virgin who had assigned the care of the kingdom to one of her counselors. My uncle presented the Mirror to this virgin and spoke to her about all its virtues, which, however, he could not demonstrate outside his own kingdom.

In the main city of that country which was located near the coast, a great straight open Hand appeared each day at sunrise above the sea, which remained until sunset at the spot where it had arisen. At the onset of the night the Hand would approach the shoreline, and take a man into the sea with it; and this occurred continually. So, up to that time a large number of men in that country had been lost. This caused the people to be very sad and sorrowful and they decided to take the Mirror to the shoreline in front of the Hand, believing that, perchance it could solve the problem. And from placing the Mirror in front of the Hand, they gathered this benefit, that whereas before the Hand had taken one man per day, it no longer took a man but a horse or an ox. Now my father had a strong desire to recover the Mirror since his kingdom had lost its previous happiness and he sent one of his ambassadors to the Queen to offer her a great treasure if she was willing to send the Mirror back to him. The ambassador used various reasons to persuade her; especially by demonstrating to her that the Mirror could not bring any benefi to her country while his kingdom would regain its previous state and tranquility.