he took from a cabinet a little box which
contained her picture, and gave it to him saying:

'As you will not stay with us, prince, accept this box, which will
sometimes recall us to your memory. If you are tired of travelling
before you come to the Land of Immortality, open this box and look at
my picture, and you will be borne along either on earth or in the air,
quick as thought, or swift as the whirlwind.'

The prince thanked her for her gift, which he placed in his tunic, and
sorrowfully bade the eagle and his daughter farewell.

Never was any present in the world as useful as that little box, and
many times did he bless the kind thought of the princess. One evening it
had carried him to the top of a high mountain, where he saw a man with a
bald head, busily engaged in digging up spadefuls of earth and throwing
them in a basket. When the basket was full he took it away and returned
with an empty one, which he likewise filled. The prince stood and
watched him for a little, till the bald-headed man looked up and said to
him: 'Dear brother, what surprises you so much?'

'I was wondering why you were filling the basket,' replied the prince.

'Oh!' replied the man, 'I am condemned to do this, for neither I nor any
of my family can die till I have dug away the whole of this mountain and
made it level with the plain. But, come, it is almost dark, and I shall
work no longer.' And he plucked a leaf from a tree close by, and from a
rough digger he was changed into a stately bald-headed king. 'Come home
with me,' he added; 'you must be tired and hungry, and my daughter will
have supper ready for us.' The prince accepted gladly, and they went
back to the palace, where the bald-headed king's daughter, who was still
more beautiful than the other princess, welcomed them at the door and
led the way into a large hall and to a table covered with silver dishes.
While they were eating, the bald-headed king asked the prince how he had
happened to wander so far, and the young man told him all about it, and
how he was seeking the Land of Immortality. 'You have found it already,'
answered the king, 'for, as I said, neither I nor my family can die
till I have levelled this great mountain; and that will take full eight
hundred years longer. Stay here with us and marry my daughter. Eight
hundred years is surely long enough to live.'

'Oh, certainly,' answered the prince; 'but, all the same, I would rather
go and seek the land where ther