drums burst. Now he could hear nothing at
all of the good, the true, and the beautiful, for his hearing was to
have been the bridge by which he crossed. He became silent and
suspicious, trusted no one at last, not even himself, and, no longer
hoping to find and bring home the costly jewel, he gave it up, and
gave himself up; and that was the worst of all. The birds who winged
their flight towards the east brought tidings of this, till the news
reached the castle in the Tree of the Sun.

"_I_ will try now!" said the third brother. "I have a sharp _nose_!"

Now that was not said in very good taste; but it was his way, and one
must take him as he was. He had a happy temper, and was a poet, a real
poet: he could sing many things that he could not say, and many things
struck him far earlier than they occurred to others. "I can smell
fire!" he said; and he attributed to the sense of smelling, which he
possessed in a high degree, a great power in the region of the
beautiful. "Every fragrant spot in the realm of the beautiful has its
frequenters," he said. "One man feels at home in the atmosphere of the
tavern, among the flaring tallow candles, where the smell of spirits
mingles with the fumes of bad tobacco. Another prefers sitting among
the overpowering scent of jessamine, or scenting himself with strong
clove oil. This man seeks out the fresh sea breeze, while that one
climbs to the highest mountain top and looks down upon the busy little
life beneath." Thus he spake. It seemed to him as if he had already
been out in the world, as if he had already associated with men and
known them. But this experience arose from within himself: it was the
poet within him, the gift of Heaven, and bestowed on him in his
cradle.

He bade farewell to his paternal roof in the Tree of the Sun, and
departed on foot through the pleasant scenery of home. Arrived at its
confines, he mounted on the back of an ostrich, which runs faster
than a horse; and afterwards, when he fell in with the wild swans, he
swung himself on the strongest of them, for he loved change; and away
he flew over the sea to distant lands with great forests, deep lakes,
mighty mountains, and proud cities; and wherever he came it seemed as
if sunshine travelled with him across the fields, for every flower,
every bush, every tree exhaled a new fragrance, in the consciousness
that a friend and protector was in the neighbourhood, who understood
them and knew their value. The cri