Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/44

 beneath a pyramid of sand; and when I come to puff it away, the sun will bleach their bones, and travellers will see that others have been there before them: a fact which is seldom believed in the desert, short of some tangible proof.”

“Then you have done nothing but mischief!” said his mother. “Into the bag with you!” And before he had time to perceive it, she had taken the South Wind round the waist, and popped him into the bag. He wriggled about on the ground, but she sat upon him, and then he was forced to lie still.

“Your sons are a set of lively boys!” said the prince.

“Yes,” answered she; “and I know how to correct them. Here comes the fourth.”

This was the East Wind, who was dressed like a Chinese.

“Oh! you come from that neighbourhood, do you?” said his mother. “I thought you had been to the Garden of the World?”

“I am going there to-morrow,” said the East Wind. “To-morrow it will be a hundred years since I was there. I have just returned from China, where I danced round the porcelain tower till all the bells were set a-jingling. The government officers were being beaten in the street; the bamboo stick was broken across their shoulders; and these were people belonging to the several degrees from the first to the ninth. They cried out: ‘Many thanks, my fatherly benefactor!’ But the words did not come from their hearts, so I made the bells jingle, and sang: ‘Tsing! tsang! tsu!’”

“You are a wanton boy!” said the old woman. “It is well you are going to-morrow to the Garden of the World, for that always improves your mind. Pray drink abundantly from the fountain of wisdom, and take a small phial and bring it home full for me.”

“I will,” said the East Wind. “But why have you put my brother from the South into the bag? Take him out again; I want him to tell me about the phœnix, for the princess in the Garden of the World always asks after him when I pay her my visit every hundredth year. Open the bag, there’s a dear mammy, and I'll give you two pocketfuls of tea-leaves, all green and fresh, just as I plucked them from the bush on the spot where it grew.”

“Well, for the sake of the tea, and because you are mammy’s own boy, I will open the bag.”

This she accordingly did, and out crept the South Wind, looking rather foolish, because the strange prince had witnessed his disgrace.

“There is a palm-tree leaf for the princess,” said the South Wind. “The old phœnix, the only bird of his sort in the wide world, gave me this leaf. He has traced upon it with his beak the whole history of his life during the hundred years that form its span. She may, therefore, be now enabled to read how the phœnix set fire to his nest, and sat upon it as it was burning, like the widow of a Hindoo. How the dried twigs did crackle! and what a smoke there was! At length out burst the flames; the old phœnix was burnt to ashes, but an egg lay glowing hot in the fire. It burst with a loud report, and the young bird flew out; and now he is king over all the other birds, and the only phœnix in the world. He has bitten a hole in the leaf which I gave you, and that is his way of sending his duty to the princess.”

“Now let us eat something,” said the mother of the Winds. And they all sat down to partake of the roast deer. The prince sat beside the East Wind; therefore, they soon became good friends.

“And pray what kind of a princess may she be whom you are talking so much about, and where lies the Garden of the World ?

“Ho, ho!” said the East Wind. “What! have you a mind to go there? Well, you can fly over with me to-morrow; though I must tell you no mortal ever visited it before. It is inhabited by a fairy queen, and in it lies the Island of Happiness, a lovely spot, where death never intrudes.