Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/42

 20 The prince went further on and he found another door, and pushing it open he there saw an hermitage and a hermit. He asked the hermit the way to the queen's room, and the hermit answered him,

At this the prince commenced to recollect that he had heard that before. He went on further and he came to another door, and inside he found that there was a river and the eel. That moment he recollected everything that had been dismissed from his mind, and falling upon his knees he begged the girl's pardon for his forgetfulness of her. The girl transformed herself back into her natural state, married the prince, and they lived happily ever after.

V.—.

There was once a king who had a daughter whom he dearly loved. The princess had the habit of combing herself, and on being ready dressed would go to the garden for a flower to place in her hair. But when she was there she invariably heard a voice which said, "When will you have your troubles, when you are young or when you are old?" This happened several times, and the princess, full of curiosity and tired of hearing always the same question, went one day into the palace and said to her maid of honour, "Do you know what has happened to me the