ound.

The Princess held up the feather, and the Fire Bird bowed its head
slowly three times. Then it suddenly turned round as if to fly away, but
looked back at her, and raised its wings, and fluffed out the soft,
glistening feathers in the hollow of its back. Arching its head round,
it began to act as if it were preparing a nest for her between its
wings, and the Princess saw plainly that it was only waiting for her to
seat herself there before flying away. The Bird knew what she wanted;
she was sure of that. So she mounted between the wings, and nestled down
on a soft feather bed of dazzling golden light, warm and comfortable.
Then, with a long, jubilant cry the Bird rose in the air, and, craning
its neck westward, flashed through space at a terrific rate.

Very soon they overtook the setting sun, passed it, and left it sinking
on the horizon as they went on into the purlieus of the Land of Night
and Silence, which lies beyond the great round shoulder of the world.
And here the Fire Bird blazed along, leaving a trail of light in its
wake and throwing a radiance on the hills and forests over which it
passed; until it came, by way of the Valley-which-has-no-Borders, to the
Forest-without-an-End.

Here the Bird swooped downwards and alighted before a black-mouthed
cave. He crouched while the Princess dismounted. As she did so, the Bird
plucked two fresh feathers from its wing with its beak and held them out
to her. They shed a brilliant light, and she, seeing at once that they
would serve as lamps, took them, one in each hand, and advanced into the
gloomy cave.

She had not gone far when she heard a voice crooning a witch song, and,
peering round the edge of a rock, she espied her sister seated beside a
cauldron, beneath which was a freezing fire fed with blocks of frozen
brine.

From the witch song her sister was singing, the Princess learned that
her lover's heart was in the cauldron. She listened while the Sorceress
sang:

_'Seethe! Seethe! Heart of her lover,
Beating in tune with mine.
Never the two their love can recover,
Never their arms entwine.
Freeze! Freeze! Heart in this cauldron,
Seared by the frozen brine!'_

[Illustration: THE FIRE BIRD

With a scream the Princess rushed forward, and before her wicked sister
could prevent her, she had upset her cauldron with a crash.

_See page 168_]

With a scream the Princess rushed forward, and, before her wicked sister
coul