thrust it into the ground. “It is with this knife of magic,” said
she, “that you must cut off the black eagle’s head.” Then the
witch-princess gathered up some sand in her hand, and flung it into
the raven’s face. “Resume,” cried she, “your own shape!” And in an
instant the prince was himself again. The next thing the sister
of the queen did was to draw a circle upon the ground around the
prince, the old man, and herself. On the circle she marked strange
figures here and there. Then, all three standing close together,
she began her conjurations, uttering strange words--now under her
breath, and now clear and loud.
Presently the sky darkened, and it began to thunder and rumble.
Darker it grew and darker, and the thunder crashed and roared. The
earth trembled under their feet, and the trees swayed hither and
thither as though tossed by a tempest. Then suddenly the uproar
ceased and all grew as still as death, the clouds rolled away,
and in a moment the sun shone out once more, and all was calm and
serene as it had been before. But still the princess muttered her
conjurations, and as the prince and the old man looked they
beheld a speck that grew larger and larger, until they saw that
it was an eagle as black as night that was coming swiftly flying
through the sky. Then the queen’s sister also saw it and ceased
from her spells. She drew a little cap of feathers from her bosom
with trembling hands. “Remember,” said she to the prince; and, so
saying, clapped the feather cap upon her head. In an instant she
herself became an eagle--pied, black and white--and, spreading her
wings, leaped into the air.
[Illustration]
For a while the two eagles circled around and around; but at last
they dashed against one another, and, grappling with their talons,
tumbled over and over until they struck the ground close to the two
who stood looking.
Then the prince snatched the knife from the ground and ran to where
they lay struggling. “Which was I to kill?” said he to the old man.
“Are they not birds of a feather?” cried the foster-father. “Kill
them both, for then only shall we all be safe.”
The prince needed no second telling to see the wisdom of what the
old man said. In an instant he struck off the heads of both the
eagles, and thus put an end to both sorceresses, the lesser as
well as the greater. They buried both of the eagles in the garden
without telling any one of what had happened. So soon as that was
done the old man bade the prince tell him all that had befallen
him, and the prince did so.
“Aye! aye!” said the old man, “I see it all as clear as day. The
black dogs are the young men who have supped with the queen; the
statue is the good princess; and the basin of water is the water of
life, which has the power of taking away magic. Come; let us make
haste to bring help to all those poor unfortunates who have been
lying under the queen’s spells.”
The prince needed no urging to do that. They hurried to the palace;
they crossed the garden to the stone wall. There they found the
stone upon which the prince had set the black cross. He pressed his
hand upon it, and it opened to him like a door. They descended the
steps, and went through the passageway, until they came out upon
the sea-shore. The black dogs came leaping towards them; but this
time it was to fawn upon them, and to lick their hands and faces.
The prince turned the great stone mill till the brazen boat came
flying towards the shore. They entered it, and so crossed the water
and came to the other side. They did not tarry in the garden, but
went straight to the snow-white palace and to the great vaulted
chamber where was the statue. “Yes,” said the old man, “it is the
youngest princess, sure enough.”
The prince said nothing, but he dipped up some of the water in his
palm and dashed it upon the statue. “If you are the princess, take
your true shape again,” said he. Before the words had left his lips
the statue became flesh and blood, and the princess stepped down
from where she stood, and the prince thought that he had never seen
any one so beautiful as she. “You have brought me back to life,”
said she, “and whatever I shall have shall be yours as well as
mine.”
Then they all set their faces homeward again, and the prince took
with him a cupful of the water of life.
When they reached the farther shore the black dogs came running to
meet them. The prince sprinkled the water he carried upon them, and
as soon as it touched them that instant they were black dogs no
longer, but the tall, noble young men that the sorceress queen had
bewitched. There, as the old man had hoped, he found his own three
sons, and kissed them with the tears running down his face.
But when the people of that land learned that their youngest
princess, and the one whom they loved, had come back again, and
that the two sorceresses would trouble them no longer, they
shouted and shouted for joy. All the town was hung with flags and
illuminated, the fountains ran with wine, and nothing was heard but
sounds of rejoicing. In the midst of it all the prince married the
princess, and so became the king of that country.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
And now to go back again to the beginning.
After the youngest prince had been driven away from home, and the
old king had divided the kingdom betwixt the other two, things
went for a while smoothly and joyfully. But by little and little
the king was put to one side until he became as nothing in his own
land. At last hot words passed between the father and the two sons,
and the end of the matter was that the king was driven from the
land to shift for himself.
Now, after the youngest prince had married and had become king of
that other land, he bethought himself of his father and his mother,
and longed to see them again. So he set forth and travelled towards
his old home. In his journeying he came to a lonely house at the
edge of a great forest, and there night came upon him. He sent one
of the many of those who rode with him to ask whether he could not
find lodging there for the time, and who should answer the summons
but the king, his father, dressed in the coarse clothing of a
forester. The old king did not know his own son in the kingly young
king who sat upon his snow-white horse. He bade the visitor to
enter, and he and the old queen served their son and bowed before
him.
[Illustration]
The next morning the young king rode back to his own land, and then
sent attendants with horses and splendid clothes, and bade them
bring his father and mother to his own home.
He had a noble feast set for them, with everything befitting the
entertainment of a king, but he ordered that not a grain of salt
should season it.
So the father and the mother sat down to the feast with their son
and his queen, but all the time they did not know him. The old king
tasted the food and tasted the food, but he could not eat of it.
“Do you not feel hungry?” said the young king.
“Alas,” said his father, “I crave your majesty’s pardon, but there
is no salt in the food.”
“And so is life lacking of savor without love,” said the young
king; “and yet because I loved you as salt you disowned me and cast
me out into the world.”
Therewith he could contain himself no longer, but with the tears
running down his cheeks kissed his father and his mother; and they
knew him, and kissed him again.
Afterwards the young king went with a great army into the country
of his elder brothers, and, overcoming them, set his father upon
his throne again. If ever the two got back their crowns you may
be sure that they wore them more modestly than they did the first
time.
* * * * *
_So the Fisherman who had one time unbottled the Genie whom Solomon
the Wise had stoppered up concluded his story, and all of the good
folk who were there began clapping their shadowy hands._
_“Aye, aye,” said old Bidpai, “there is much truth in
what you say, for it is verily so that that which men
call--love--is--the--salt--of--”_ * * *
_His voice had been fading away thinner and thinner and smaller and
smaller--now it was like the shadow of a voice; now it trembled and
quivered out into silence and was gone._
* * * * *
_And with the voice of old Bidpai the pleasant Land of Twilight was
also gone. As a breath fades away from a mirror, so had it faded
and vanished into nothingness._
* * * * *
_I opened my eyes._
_There was a yellow light--it came from the evening lamp. There
were people of flesh and blood around--my own dear people--and
they were talking together. There was the library with the rows
of books looking silently out from their shelves. There was the
fire of hickory logs crackling and snapping in the fireplace, and
throwing a wavering, yellow light on the wall._
_Had I been asleep? No; I had been in Twilight Land._
_And now the pleasant Twilight Land had gone. It had faded out, and
I was back again in the work-a-day world._
_There I was sitting in my chair; and, what was more, it was time
for the children to go to bed._
THE END
Transcribers Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Hyphenation used inconsistently was not changed:
Both “anteroom” and “ante-room” are used in the text.
Both “byways” and “by-ways” are used in the text.
Both “livelong” and “live-long” are used in the text.
Both “merrymaking” and “merry-making” are used in the text.
Both “passageway(s)” and “passage-way(s)” are used in the text.
Apparent printing errors in hyphenation and spelling were repaired:
page 117: “door-way” changed to “doorway” (through an arch doorway
into a garden)
page 358: “twelve-month” changed to “twelvemonth” (had I known that
in a twelvemonth it would all come tumbling down)
page 384: missing “e” added (All Things are as Fate wills.)
page 437: “ana” changed to “and” (His voice had been fading away
thinner and thinner)