me with me to my palace, and live
with me always." "No," said the prince, "that I cannot do. I cannot go
to your palace. I only came here to fetch my mother; and now that I
have found her, I will take her with me to my father-in-law's palace.
I have married a King's daughter, and we live with her father." "But
now that I have found you, I cannot let you go," said his father. "You
and your wife must come and live with your mother and me in my
palace." "That we will never do," said the prince, "unless you will
kill your four wicked wives with your own hand. If you will do that,
we will come and live with you."

So the King killed his wives, and then he and his wife, the gardener's
daughter, and the prince and his wife, all went to live in the King's
palace, and lived there happily together for ever after; and the King
thanked God for giving him such a beautiful son, and for ridding him
of his four wicked wives.

Katar did not return to the fairies' country, but stayed always with
the young prince, and never left him.

Told by Muniya.

[Decoration]

XXI.

THE BEL-PRINCESS.

In a country lived a King who had seven sons. Six of these sons
married, but the seventh and youngest son would not marry; and,
moreover, he disliked his six sisters-in-law, and could not bear to
take food from their hands. One day, they got very angry with him for
disliking them, and they said to him, taunting him, "We think that you
will marry a Bel-Princess."

"A Bel-Princess," said the young prince to himself. "What is a
Bel-Princess? and where is one to be found? I will go and look for
one." But the next day he thought, "How can I find a Bel-Princess? I
don't know where to seek for her."

At last one day he saddled and bridled one of his father's beautiful
horses. Then he put on his grand clothes, took his sword and gun, and
said good-bye to his father and mother, and set out on his search.
They cried very much at parting with him.

He rode from his father's country for a long, long way. At length,
when he had journeyed for six months, he found himself in a great
jungle, through which he went for many nights and days, until he at
last came to where a fakir lay sleeping. The young prince thought, "I
will watch by this fakir till he wakes. Perhaps he can help me." So he
stayed with the fakir for one whole month; and all that time he took
care of him and watched by him, and kept his hut clean.

This fakir used to sleep for