ou will for ever remain stone. Ride straight back to me with the
fruit, and take care never to look behind you once till you get to
me."

So the King's son went again to the fairies' country, and all happened
as before, till he had caught the fruit in his shawl. But then he rode
straight back to the fakir without looking behind him, although the
fairies and demons ran after him and called to him the whole way.

He rode so fast they could not catch him, and when he came to the
fakir, the fakir turned him into a fly and thus hid him. Up came all
the fairies and demons and said to the fakir, "There is a thief in
your hut." "A thief! Where is the thief?" said the fakir. "Look
everywhere for him, and take him away if you can find him." Then they
searched and searched everywhere, but could not find the prince; so at
last they went away.

When they had all gone, the fakir took the little fly and turned it
back into a King's son. A few days afterwards he said to the prince,
"Now you have found what you wanted; you have the Bel-Princess you
came to seek. So go back to your father and mother." "Very well," said
the prince. Then he got his horse all ready for the journey, took the
bel-fruit, and made many salaams to the fakir, who said to him, "Now,
listen. Take care not to open the fruit on the road. Wait till you are
in your father's house with your father and mother, and then open it.
If you do not do exactly as I tell you, evil will happen to you; so
mind you only open the fruit in your father's house. Out of it will
come the Bel-Princess."

The prince set out on his journey, and rode on and on for six months
till he came to his father's country, and then to his father's garden.
There he sat down to rest by a well under a clump of great trees. He
said to himself, "Now that I am in my father's country, and in my
father's garden, I will sit and rest in this cool shade; and when I am
rested I will go up to the palace." He bathed his face and his hands
in the well, and drank some of its water. Then he thought, "Surely,
now that I am in my father's country and in his garden, I need not
wait till I get to his palace to open my bel-fruit. What harm can
happen if I do open it here?"

So he broke it open, in spite of all the fakir had told him, and out
of it came such a beautiful girl. She was more beautiful than any
princess that ever was seen--so beautiful that the King's son fainted
when he saw her. The princess fanned him, an