traight on to me with the
fruit, and do not look behind you. If you do, you will become stone,
and your horse too, and they will take the bel-fruit back to its
tree."

The prince promised to do all the fakir bade him. He rode for a week,
and then he came to the fairies' country. He blew the earth the fakir
had given him away from his palm all along his fingers, just as he had
been told, and then he became invisible. He rode through the great
garden to the plain. There he saw the bel-tree, and the one fruit
hanging all alone. He threw the fakir's stick at it, and caught it in
a corner of his shawl as it fell, but then he was no longer invisible.
All the fairies and demons could see him, and they came running after
him as he rode quickly away, and called to him. He looked behind at
them, and instantly he and his horse became stone; and the bel-fruit
went back to its tree and hung itself up.

For one week the fakir sat in his jungle, waiting for the King's son.
But the moment he was turned into stone, the fakir knew of it, and he
set off at once for the fairies' country. He walked all through it,
but neither the fairies nor demons could touch him. He went straight
to the great plain, and there he saw the King's son sitting on his
horse, and both he and the horse were stone.

This made the fakir very sad; and he said to God, "What will the
father and mother do, now that their son is changed into a stone?" And
he prayed to God and said, "If it be God's pleasure, may this King's
son be alive once more." Then he cut his little finger on the inside
from the tip to the palm, and smeared the prince's forehead with the
blood that came from it. He rubbed some blood on the horse too, all
the time praying to God to give the prince his life again. The King's
son and his horse were alive once more. The fakir took the prince back
to his jungle, and said to him, "Listen. I told you not to look behind
you, and you disobeyed me and so were turned to stone. Had I not come
to save you, you would always have remained stone."

The fakir kept the prince with him in the jungle for one whole week.
Then he gave him his stick and some earth he picked up from the ground
on which they were standing, and said, "Now you must go to the
fairies' country again, and throw my stick at the bel-fruit, and catch
it in a corner of your shawl as you did before. But mind, mind you do
not look behind you this time. If you do you will be turned to stone,
and y