Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/45

 Rh the stairs of the palace, her father was then sitting at table. She gave a rap at the door, and asked if they required a maid to dress the queen. The king, who was sitting down, imagined that he heard the voice of his daughter, and on rising, as he was very weak, he fell and broke his head. The princess, in great distress, said, deliberately and slowly, "Oh, pin! help me here." That moment the voice appeared to her, which was the lover in enchantment, and he said to her, "What is the matter?" The princess told him what ailed her father. The voice then said, "It is better that you should come away with me;" and he took her through the air. When the princess arrived at the palace she received news that her father had died.

One day the prince said to her, "Remember, that to-morrow is to be the day of our marriage." "Then to-morrow it will be twenty years since I came here?" asked the princess. "Yes, that is so," replied the prince. After this he ordered all the kings to be invited, whilst the father of the princess was also asked, and came. The father had hardly set his eyes upon the princess when he said, "Is this the way you have repaid me, you ungrateful girl? On your account I broke my head, and you left me and went away." "Yes, my father," said the princess, "I came away because I did not wish to break the prince's enchantment, and you had already seen the pin, and you broke your head on purpose, so that I should remain longer than the two days, and the spell should be broken." The father said that it was not so; and then he gave her a walnut. "Here you have this walnut, do not break it open before your husband." The princess replied, "I shall neither break it open, nor shall I eat it." The father, much annoyed, hurriedly went away from the palace. After the marriage the prince ordered another palace to be built in another spot. The princess had the walnut which her father gave her always well guarded; but when everything was taken away from the palace they were in, to remove to the other one newly