Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/93

 Rh situated! Neither do I know." The king now said: "Oh! Maria do Pau, every time that I have been at the feast I have seen such a pretty maiden. If the one I saw yesterday was beautiful, the one of to-day is perfectly lovely, and much more charming than the first." Next day as the king was on the point of going out the princess said to his majesty: "Oh! my liege, let me go to the feast, that I may see the maiden that is so beautiful!" The king replied: "God, preserve me! What would be the result if I were to present you before that maiden?" After which he asked her to give him his walking-stick, and as he was going out he struck her with it. He went to the feast, and when there the princess presented herself before him in the robe of many colours. If on the previous days she appeared most beautiful, on this day of the feast she looked perfectly ravishing, and more interesting than ever. The king fixed his eyes upon her so as not to lose sight of her, as he wished to see her go out, and follow her to where she lived, as it was the last day of the feast. But the king missed seeing her depart after all, and he could find her nowhere. He went to the guards and asked them what she had said, but the guards replied that she had come from the land of the walking-stick. The king returned to the palace and inquired of his maid where the land of the walking-stick could be found; but she replied: "Oh! my liege, that I should know where the land of the walking-stick is situated. Does not my liege know?—neither do I." The king again asked her: "Do you really not know? To-day I again saw the same girl who is so beautiful; but I begin to think it cannot be the same one every time, because at one time she says that she comes from the land of the boot, next time that she is from the land of the towel, and lastly she says she is from the land of the walking-stick.

The princess repaired to her room, washed and combed herself, and dressed herself in the robe she had on on the first day of the feast. The king went to look through the key-hole to