round him. He had
warded it off with his sword, and at dawn, when he was becoming quite
worn out, the wasp had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

The King, who never doubted the truth of this tale, bade his son go to
rest at once and recover from the fatigues of the night; but he himself
went and ordered many feasts to be held in honour of the preservation of
the wonderful fruit.

The whole capital was in a stir, and everyone shared in the King's joy;
the Prince alone took no part in the festivities.

While the King was at a banquet, Iwanich took some purses of gold, and
mounting the quickest horse in the royal stable, he sped off like the
wind without a single soul being any the wiser.

It was only on the next day that they missed him; the King was very
distressed at his disappearance, and sent search-parties all over the
kingdom to look for him, but in vain; and after six months they gave him
up as dead, and in another six months they had forgotten all about him.
But in the meantime the Prince, with the help of his ring, had had a
most successful journey, and no evil had befallen him.

At the end of three months he came to the entrance of a huge forest,
which looked as if it had never been trodden by human foot before, and
which seemed to stretch out indefinitely. The Prince was about to enter
the wood by a little path he had discovered, when he heard a voice
shouting to him: 'Hold, youth! Whither are you going?'

Iwanich turned round, and saw a tall, gaunt-looking man, clad in
miserable rags, leaning on a crooked staff and seated at the foot of
an oak tree, which was so much the same colour as himself that it was
little wonder the Prince had ridden past the tree without noticing him.

'Where else should I be going,' he said, 'than through the wood?'

'Through the wood?' said the old man in amazement. 'It's easily seen
that you have heard nothing of this forest, that you rush so blindly to
meet your doom. Well, listen to me before you ride any further; let me
tell you that this wood hides in its depths a countless number of the
fiercest tigers, hyenas, wolves, bears, and snakes, and all sorts of
other monsters. If I were to cut you and your horse up into tiny morsels
and throw them to the beasts, there wouldn't be one bit for each hundred
of them. Take my advice, therefore, and if you wish to save your life
follow some other path.'

The Prince was rather taken aback by the old man's words, and conside