"The country of the little people is in the west, where the sun goes
down.
"Once upon a time a company of Persian merchants were making a journey,
when by a strange mishap they lost their way and came to the land of
the little people. They were at first surprised, and then delighted,
for they discovered that the country was not only densely populated
with these little people, who were not more than three feet high, but
that it was rich in all kinds of precious stones and rare and valuable
materials.
"They discovered also that during the season of planting and
harvesting, they were in constant terror lest the great multitude of
cranes, which are without number in that region, should swoop down upon
them and eat both them and their crops. They soon learned, however,
that the little people were under the protecting care of the Roman
Empire, whose interest in them was great, and her arm mighty, and they
were thus guarded from all evil influences as well as from all danger.
Nor was this a wholly unselfish interest on the part of the Roman
power, for the little people repaid her with rich presents of the most
costly gems,--pearls, diamonds, rubies and other precious stones."
I need not say I was beginning to be surprised at the number of tales
the old woman told which corresponded to those I had been accustomed to
read and hear in my childhood, nor was my surprise lessened when at his
request she told him how