sun. There he found a little
old woman, who asked him, 'What are you doing here? Go away. Have you
not heard that my son feeds upon Christians?' But he said no, and that
he would not go, for he was so miserable that it was all one to him
whether he died or not; that he had lost everything, and especially a
splendid palace like none other in the whole world, for it had laths of
gold and tiles of diamond, and all the furniture was of silver and gold.
And that he had sought it far and long, and in all the earth there was
no man more unhappy. So the old woman's heart melted, and she agreed to
hide him.

When the Sun arrived, he declared that he smelt Christian flesh, and he
meant to have it for his dinner. But his mother told him such a pitiful
story of the miserable wretch who had lost everything, and had come from
far to ask his help, that at last he promised to see him.

So the young man came out from his hiding-place and begged the sun to
tell him if in the course of his travels he had not seen somewhere a
palace that had not its like in the whole world, for its laths were of
gold and its tiles of diamond, and all the furniture in silver and gold.

And the sun said no, but that perhaps the wind had seen it, for he
entered everywhere, and saw things that no one else ever saw, and if
anyone knew where it was, it was certainly the wind.

Then the poor young man again set forth as well as his horse could take
him, begging his living as he went, and, somehow or other, he ended by
reaching the home of the wind. He found there a little old woman busily
occupied in filling great barrels with water. She asked him what had put
it into his head to come there, for her son ate everything he saw, and
that he would shortly arrive quite mad, and that the young man had
better look out. But he answered that he was so unhappy that he had
ceased to mind anything, even being eaten, and then he told her that he
had been robbed of a palace that had not its equal in all the world, and
of all that was in it, and that he had even left his wife, and was
wandering over the world until he found it. And that it was the sun who
had sent him to consult the wind. So she hid him under the staircase,
and soon they heard the south wind arrive, shaking the house to its
foundations. Thirsty as he was, he did not wait to drink, but he told
his mother that he smelt the blood of a Christian man, and that she had
better bring him out at once and make him rea