and did not chatter any more that
night. The prince was very much surprised at the birds knowing who he
was, and all about his dislike to his brothers' wives.

The next morning he rode home; and there he stayed all day, and would
not talk. His wife asked him, "What is the matter with you? Why are
you so silent?" "My head aches," he answered: "I am ill." But towards
evening he felt he must go back to the empty palace on the great
plain, so he said to his wife, "I am going out to eat the air for a
little while." Then he got on his horse and rode off to the palace.

As soon as he had laid himself down in the verandah, the parrot and
the _maina_ perched near him; and the parrot told the _maina_ how the
prince had heard of the Bel-Princess; and all about his long journey
in search of her, and how he found the bel-fruit, and how he was
turned to stone. Then he stopped chattering, and the birds said
nothing more to each other that night.

In the morning the King's son rode home, and was as silent and grave
as he had been before. He told his wife his head ached when she asked
him whether he was ill.

That night he again slept in the verandah of the strange palace, and
heard a little more of his story from the birds.

The next day he was still silent and grave, and his wife was very
uneasy. "I am sure the Bel-Princess is alive," she said to herself,
"and that he goes every night to see her." Then she asked him, "Why do
you go out every evening? Why do you not stay at home?" "I am not
well," he answered, "so I go to my mother's house" (the prince had a
little house of his own in his father's compound). "I will not sleep
at home again till I am well."

That night he lay down to sleep again in the verandah of the great
empty palace, and heard the parrot tell the _maina_ all that happened
to the prince up to the time that he fell asleep in his father's
garden with the beautiful Bel-Princess sitting beside him.

On the fifth night the prince lay down to sleep again in the verandah
of the palace on the great plain, and watched eagerly for the little
birds to begin their talk. This night the parrot told how the wicked
woman had come and taken the Bel-Princess's clothes, and thrown her
down the well; how the princess became a lotus-flower which the wicked
wife broke to bits; how the bits of the lotus-flower turned into a
bel-fruit which she threw away; how out of the fruit came a tiny
girl-baby that the gardener adopted; how th