e was very ill. He
remembered all that he had told the princess and accused her of having
made a plot against his life. He seized his great ax to kill the
princess.

In the meantime the prince had pulled the feather which his third
brother-in-law had given him and cried, "Help me, O King of the
Pigeons." Immediately a great flock of pigeons appeared attacking the
pigeon and tearing it to pieces.

[Illustration: Immediately a great flock of pigeons appeared]

Just as the beast had caught the princess and was about to slay her,
the prince took the egg from within the slain pigeon. He at once broke
the egg and blew out the candle. At that moment the beast fell dead,
and the princess escaped unharmed.

The prince carried the giant princess home to her father's kingdom and
the king made a great _festa_ which lasted many days. There was
rejoicing throughout the whole kingdom because of the death of the
beast and because of the safety of the lovely princess. The prince was
praised throughout the kingdom and there is talk of him even unto this
very day.

The prince had cut off the head of the great beast and the tip of its
tail. The head he had given to the king, but the tip of the tail he
kept for himself. The beast was so enormous that just the tip of its
tail made a great ring large enough to encircle the prince's body. One
day, just in fun, he twined the tip of the beast's tail around his
waist. He immediately grew and grew until he became a giant himself,
almost as tall as the king of the land of giants, and several leagues
taller than the princess. It is not strange that a man who became a
giant among giants should be famous even until now.

X

THE QUEST OF CLEVERNESS

Once long ago there lived a king who had a stupid son. His father sent
him to school for many years hoping that he might learn something
there. His teachers all gave him up as hopelessly stupid, and with one
accord they said, "It is no use trying to teach this lad out of books.
It is just a waste of our valuable time."

At length the king called together all the wisest men of his kingdom
to consult with them as to the best way to make the prince wise and
clever. They talked the matter over for a year and a day. It was the
unanimous opinion of the wise men of the kingdom that the lad should
be sent on a journey through many lands. In this way he might learn
many of the things which his teachers had not been able to teach him
out of books