Page:Turkish fairy tales and folk tales (1901).djvu/148

 didst thou find thy way hither? Wert thou not afraid of the long journey?"

The youth told what had happened to him, and asked the Anka whether he could help him to get to the Wind-Demon.

"It is no easy matter," said the bird; "but even if thou couldst get to him, I would counsel thee to let it alone and stay rather among us."

"Not I," replied the resolute youth; "I will either release my wife or perish there!" Then the Anka saw that he could not turn him from his purpose, and began to explain to him all about the palace of the Wind-Demon. "He is now asleep," said the Anka, "and thou mayest be able to carry off thy wife; but if he should awake and see thee, he will without doubt grind thee to atoms. Guard against him thou cannot, for eye cannot see and fire cannot harm him, so look well to thyself!"

So next day the youth set out on his journey, and when he had gone on and on for a long, long time, he saw before him a vast palace that had neither door nor chimney, nor length nor breadth. It was the palace of the Wind-Demon. His wife chanced just then to be sitting at the window, and when she saw her husband she leaped clean out of the window to him. The King's son caught his wife in his arms, and there were no bounds to their joy and their