Page:The Orient Pearls.djvu/93

Rh Accompanied by his brothers and his bride, together With the swans and the magic pan, the Prince started on the magic horse for his own country; but on the way it grew dark, and, the brothers feigning hunger and thirst, the party alighted from the horse, and, sitting down by a well, partook of a sumptuous dinner from the magic frying pan. After it was over, the Prince bent down to draw water for the party, when one of his brothers, envious of his good-luck, cut off his head with one stroke of his sword, the trunk turning right over and falling into the well in a standing posture, with the legs apart and pressing against the sides of the well, while the head was snapped up by a flying Peri. The brothers then proceeded to seize the magic horse, the Princess, and the swans; but away flew the swans and the horse, with the Princess on its back, into the air, and kept hovering over the well, the scene of the tragedy.

Balked of their prey, the brothers had nothing left but to return home with empty hands.

At day-break a traveller came to the well, and, lowering his rope to draw some water, saw to his horror a headless body. Scared out of his senses, he did not dare to take a second look, but flew from the place as fast as his legs would carry him.

Soon afterwards there came rustling through the air a Peri, carrying a head in one hand and a bowl of ambrosia in the other. She lifted the body out of the well, and, putting the head on to it, brought it back to life by sprinkling some ambrosia on it, and then flew away.

The Prince got up with a start, as if he had been awakened from his sleep, and at the same moment the horse, the Princess, and the swans came down from