leaf, and she said, 'He heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself heard
you!'
'Heard me!' said the Butterfly. 'Of course he did. I meant him to hear
me.'
'And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?'
'Well,' said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly, 'between
you and me, my dear--of course I don't blame him, because his Palace
must have cost a great deal and the oranges are just ripening,--he asked
me not to stamp, and I promised I wouldn't.'
'Gracious!' said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud
laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad
little Butterfly.
Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind the tree among the red lilies
and smiled to herself, for she had heard all this talk. She thought, 'If
I am wise I can yet save my Lord from the persecutions of these
quarrelsome Queens,' and she held out her finger and whispered softly to
the Butterfly's Wife, 'Little woman, come here.' Up flew the Butterfly's
Wife, very frightened, and clung to Balkis's white hand.
Balkis bent her beautiful head down and whispered, 'Little woman, do
you believe what your husband has just said?'
The Butterfly's Wife looked at Balkis, and saw the most beautiful
Queen's eyes shining like deep pools with starlight on them, and she
picked up her courage with both wings and said, 'O Queen, be lovely for
ever. _You_ know what men-folk are like.'
And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to her lips
to hide a smile and said, 'Little sister, _I_ know.'
'They get angry,' said the Butterfly's Wife, fanning herself quickly,
'over nothing at all, but we must humour them, O Queen. They never mean
half they say. If it pleases my husband to believe that I believe he can
make Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace disappear by stamping his foot, I'm
sure _I_ don't care. He'll forget all about it to-morrow.'
'Little sister,' said Balkis, 'you are quite right; but next time he
begins to boast, take him at his word. Ask him to stamp, and see what
will happen. _We_ know what men-folk are like, don't we? He'll be very
much ashamed.'
Away flew the Butterfly's Wife to her husband, and in five minutes they
were quarrelling worse than ever.
'Remember!' said the Butterfly. 'Remember what I can do if I stamp my
foot.'
'I don't believe you one little bit,' said the Butterfly's Wife. 'I
should very much like to see it done. Suppose you stamp now.'
'I promised Suleiman-bin-Daoud that I wouldn't,' said the Butterfly,
'and I don't want to break my promise.'
'It wouldn't matter if you did,' said his wife. 'You couldn't bend a
blade of grass with your stamping. I dare you to do it,' she said.
'Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!'
Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sitting under the camphor-tree, heard every word of
this, and he laughed as he had never laughed in his life before. He
forgot all about his Queens; he forgot all about the Animal that came
out of the sea; he forgot about showing off. He just laughed with joy,
and Balkis, on the other side of the tree, smiled because her own true
love was so joyful.
Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, came whirling back under
the shadow of the camphor-tree and said to Suleiman, 'She wants me to
stamp! She wants to see what will happen, O Suleiman-bin-Daoud! You know
I can't do it, and now she'll never believe a word I say. She'll laugh
at me to the end of my days!'
'No, little brother,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'she will never laugh at
you again,' and he turned the ring on his finger--just for the little
Butterfly's sake, not for the sake of showing off,--and, lo and behold,
four huge Djinns came out of the earth!
'Slaves,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'when this gentleman on my finger'
(that was where the impudent Butterfly was sitting) 'stamps his left
front forefoot you will make my Palace and these gardens disappear in a
clap of thunder. When he stamps again you will bring them back
carefully.'
'Now, little brother,' he said, 'go back to your wife and stamp all
you've a mind to.'
Away flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was crying, 'I dare you to do
it! I dare you to do it! Stamp! Stamp now! Stamp!' Balkis saw the four
vast Djinns stoop down to the four corners of the gardens with the
Palace in the middle, and she clapped her hands softly and said, 'At
last Suleiman-bin-Daoud will do for the sake of a Butterfly what he
ought to have done long ago for his own sake, and the quarrelsome Queens
will be frightened!'
Then the Butterfly stamped. The Djinns jerked the Palace and the gardens
a thousand miles into the air: there was a most awful thunder-clap, and
everything grew inky-black. The Butterfly's Wife fluttered about in the
dark, crying, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'm so sorry I spoke. Only bring the
gardens back, my dear darling husband, and I'll never contradict again.'
The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as his wife, and
Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed so much that it was several minutes before he
found breath enough to whisper to the Butterfly, 'Stamp again, little
brother. Give me back my Palace, most great magician.'
'Yes, give him back his Palace,' said the Butterfly's Wife, still flying
about in the dark like a moth. 'Give him back his Palace, and don't
let's have any more horrid magic.'
'Well, my dear,' said the Butterfly as bravely as he could, 'you see
what your nagging has led to. Of course it doesn't make any difference
to _me_--I'm used to this kind of thing--but as a favour to you and to
Suleiman-bin-Daoud I don't mind putting things right.'
[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the four gull-winged Djinns
lifting up Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace the very minute after the
Butterfly had stamped. The Palace and the gardens and everything came up
in one piece like a board, and they left a big hole in the ground all
full of dust and smoke. If you look in the corner, close to the thing
that looks like a lion, you will see Suleiman-bin-Daoud with his magic
stick and the two Butterflies behind him. The thing that looks like a
lion is really a lion carved in stone, and the thing that looks like a
milk-can is really a piece of a temple or a house or something.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud stood there so as to be out of the way of the dust
and the smoke when the Djinns lifted up the Palace. I don't know the
Djinns' names. They were servants of Suleiman-bin-Daoud's magic ring,
and they changed about every day. They were just common gull-winged
Djinns.
The thing at the bottom is a picture of a very friendly Djinn called
Akraig. He used to feed the little fishes in the sea three times a day,
and his wings were made of pure copper. I put him in to show you what a
nice Djinn is like. He did not help to lift the Palace. He was busy
feeding little fishes in the Arabian Sea when it happened.]
So he stamped once more, and that instant the Djinns let down the Palace
and the gardens, without even a bump. The sun shone on the dark-green
orange leaves; the fountains played among the pink Egyptian lilies; the
birds went on singing, and the Butterfly's Wife lay on her side under
the camphor-tree waggling her wings and panting, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'll
be good!'
Suleiman-bin-Daoud could hardly speak for laughing. He leaned back all
weak and hiccoughy, and shook his finger at the Butterfly and said, 'O
great wizard, what is the sense of returning to me my Palace if at the
same time you slay me with mirth!'
Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine hundred and ninety-nine
Queens ran out of the Palace shrieking and shouting and calling for
their babies. They hurried down the great marble steps below the
fountain, one hundred abreast, and the Most Wise Balkis went statelily
forward to meet them and said, 'What is your trouble, O Queens?'
They stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted, '_What_
is our trouble? We were living peacefully in our golden palace, as is
our custom, when upon a sudden the Palace disappeared, and we were left
sitting in a thick and noisome darkness; and it thundered, and Djinns
and Afrits moved about in the darkness! _That_ is our trouble, O Head
Queen, and we are most extremely troubled on account of that trouble,
for it was a troublesome trouble, unlike any trouble we have known.'
Then Balkis the Most Beautiful Queen--Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Very Best
Beloved--Queen that was of Sheba and Sabie and the Rivers of the Gold of
the South--from the Desert of Zinn to the Towers of Zimbabwe--Balkis,
almost as wise as the Most Wise Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself, said, 'It is
nothing, O Queens! A Butterfly has made complaint against his wife
because she quarrelled with him, and it has pleased our Lord
Suleiman-bin-Daoud to teach her a lesson in low-speaking and humbleness,
for that is counted a virtue among the wives of the butterflies.'
Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queen--the daughter of a Pharaoh--and she
said, 'Our Palace cannot be plucked up by the roots like a leek for the
sake of a little insect. No! Suleiman-bin-Daoud must be dead, and what
we heard and saw was the earth thundering and darkening at the news.'
Then Balkis beckoned that bold Queen without looking at her, and said to
her and to the others, 'Come and see.'
They came down the marble steps, one hundred abreast, and beneath his
camphor-tree, still weak with laughing, they saw the Most Wise King
Suleiman-bin-Daoud rocking back and forth with a Butterfly on either
hand, and they heard him say, 'O wife of my brother in the air, remember
after this, to please your husband in all things, lest he be provoked to
stamp his foot yet again; for he has said that he is used to this magic,
and he is most eminently a great magician--one who steals away the very
Palace of Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!' And he
kissed them on the wings, and they flew away.
Then all the Queens except Balkis--the Most Beautiful and Splendid
Balkis, who stood apart smiling--fell flat on their faces, for they
said, 'If these things are done when a Butterfly is displeased with his
wife, what shall be done to us who have vexed our King with our
loud-speaking and open quarrelling through many days?'
Then they put their veils over their heads, and they put their hands
over their mouths, and they tiptoed back to the Palace most mousy-quiet.
Then Balkis--The Most Beautiful and Excellent Balkis--went forward
through the red lilies into the shade of the camphor-tree and laid her
hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud's shoulder and said, 'O my Lord and
Treasure of my Soul, rejoice, for we have taught the Queens of Egypt and
Ethiopia and Abyssinia and Persia and India and China with a great and a
memorable teaching.'
And Suleiman-bin-Daoud, still looking after the Butterflies where they
played in the sunlight, said, 'O my Lady and Jewel of my Felicity, when
did this happen? For I have been jesting with a Butterfly ever since I
came into the garden.' And he told Balkis what he had done.
Balkis--The tender and Most Lovely Balkis--said, 'O my Lord and Regent
of my Existence, I hid behind the camphor-tree and saw it all. It was I
who told the Butterfly's Wife to ask the Butterfly to stamp, because I
hoped that for the sake of the jest my Lord would make some great magic
and that the Queens would see it and be frightened.' And she told him
what the Queens had said and seen and thought.
Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud rose up from his seat under the camphor-tree,
and stretched his arms and rejoiced and said, 'O my Lady and Sweetener
of my Days, know that if I had made a magic against my Queens for the
sake of pride or anger, as I made that feast for all the animals, I
should certainly have been put to shame. But by means of your wisdom I
made the magic for the sake of a jest and for the sake of a little
Butterfly, and--behold--it has also delivered me from the vexations of
my vexatious wives! Tell me, therefore, O my Lady and Heart of my Heart,
how did you come to be so wise?'
And Balkis the Queen, beautiful and tall, looked up into
Suleiman-bin-Daoud's eyes and put her head a little on one side, just
like the Butterfly, and said, 'First, O my Lord, because I loved you;
and secondly, O my Lord, because I know what women-folk are.'
Then they went up to the Palace and lived happily ever afterwards.
But wasn't it clever of Balkis?
THERE was never a Queen like Balkis,
From here to the wide world's end;
But Balkis talked to a butterfly
As you would talk to a friend.
There was never a King like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.
_She_ was Queen of Sabaea--
And _he_ was Asia's Lord--
But they both of 'em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad!
[Illustration]
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 157, "waiving" changed to "waving" (Tegumai, waving his)
Page 159, caption "19" was added to illustration.
Page 198, "you" changed to "your" (Wipe your feet)
Page 211, "Your" changed to "You" (You are neither a)
Page 213, "ths" changed to "the" (and the Woman heard him)
Page 225, word "is" added to text (but this is not one)
Page 244, "Pharoah" changed to "Pharaoh" (daughter of a Pharaoh)
Page 278, "Sueliman" changed to "Suleiman" (Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud
rose up)