.

All the maids then crowded about them and said: "Punica is so young
and inexperienced! You must not bear her any ill-will! To-morrow she
shall go to you switch in hand, and receive her punishment!"

But the eighteen aunts would not listen to them and went off.
Thereupon the maids also said farewell, scattered among the
flower-beds and disappeared. The scholar sat for a long time lost in
dreamy yearning.

On the following evening the maids all came back again.

"We all live in your garden," they told him. "Every year we are
tormented by naughty winds, and therefore we have always asked the
eighteen aunts to protect us. But yesterday Punica insulted them, and
now we fear they will help us no more. But we know that you have
always been well disposed toward us, for which we are heartily
grateful. And now we have a great favor to ask, that every New Year's
day you make a small scarlet flag, paint the sun, moon and five
planets on it, and set it up in the eastern part of the garden. Then
we sisters will be left in peace and will be protected from all evil.
But since New Year's day has passed for this year, we beg that you
will set up the flag on the twenty-first of this month. For the East
Wind is coming and the flag will protect us against him!"

The scholar readily promised to do as they wished, and the maids all
said with a single voice: "We thank you for your great kindness and
will repay it!" Then they departed and a sweet fragrance filled the
entire garden.

The scholar, however, made a red flag as described, and when early in
the morning of the day in question the East Wind really did begin to
blow, he quickly set it up in the garden.

Suddenly a wild storm broke out, one that caused the forests to bend,
and broke the trees. The flowers in the garden alone did not move.

Then the scholar noticed that Salix was the willow; Prunophora the
plum; Persica the peach, and the saucy Punica the Pomegranate, whose
powerful blossoms the wind cannot tear. The eighteen zephyr-aunts,
however, were the spirits of the winds.

In the evening the flower-elves all came and brought the scholar
radiant flowers as a gift of thanks.

"You have saved us," they said, "and we have nothing else we can give
you. If you eat these flowers you will live long and avoid old age.
And if you, in turn, will protect us every year, then we sisters, too,
will live long."

The scholar did as they told him and ate the flowers. And his figure