f 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,