Page:The sleeping beauty (IA sleepingbeauty00evanrich).pdf/48

 that he had succeeded in his quest, until he read on and discovered that the spell described was only for use on wicked Queens who had shamefully ill-used their step-children. It is very easy to make a mistake in magic, for it is a most complicated science.

By the time he had read through the two hundred pages devoted to the word Sleep, the venerable wizard was very uneasy, but he was a persevering person and he did not abandon his endeavours. Merlin’s wise books having failed him, he cast about for other means to learn what he desired, and consulted his oracle.

Now his oracle was a stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling, and a voice came from it which told him to repeat the magic formula.

The magic formula is a sentence made up of all the sounds that are left out of ordinary speech, and it is a fearsome thing to listen to. It is also very exhausting to say, and after the venerable wizard had repeated it, he was obliged to rest for several hours. Then he rose again and drew pentagons on the rocky floor of his cave, and crossed triangles and circles bordered with all the signs of the Zodiac. And he stood in the middle of the pentagons and the crossed triangles and the circles and went through all sorts of strange and secret rites, but all to no purpose.

But still he would not give up trying; and he went to mysterious places in the woods and gathered strange herbs in the dark of the moon. And, returning home, he cast the herbs into a brazier and they burnt with flames of many colours, giving out clouds of dense smoke and a most horrible smell. Then, as these exercises did not bring