from her parents; but he did not tell her what he intended to
do with her. Now it was his duty to give her to the Spirits; but there was
a condition he found very hard to fulfil. By the terms of his promise he
was not allowed to kiss her, to caress her, or even to see her, except
veiled after the manner of the country. Only by the mirror had he been
able to know how fair she was. And the voyage was long; and on the way,
the girl, who thought she was going to be this king's bride, became
sincerely attached to him, after the manner of a child with a brother; and
he also in his heart became much attached to her. But it was his duty to
give her up. At last they reached the palace of the Spirit-king; and the
figure of the old man came forth and said, "My son, you have done well and
kept your promise. This maiden is all that I could have wished for; and I
accept her. Now when you go back to your palace, you will find on the
seventh pedestal the statue of the diamond which your father desired you
to obtain." And, with these words, the Spirit-king vanished, taking with
him the girl, who uttered a great and piercing cry to heaven at having
been thus deceived. Very sorrowfully the young king then began his journey
home. All along the way he kept regretting that girl, and regretting the
cruelty which he had practised in deceiving her and her parents. And he
began to say to himself, "Accursed be the gift of the king of the Spirits!
Of what worth to me is a woman of diamond any more than a woman of stone?
What is there in all the world half so beautiful or half so precious as a
living girl such as I discovered? Fool that I was to give her up for the
sake of a statue!" But he tried to console himself by remembering that he
had obeyed his dead father's wish.

Still, he could not console himself. Reaching his palace, he went to his
secret chamber to weep alone, and he wept night and day, in spite of the
efforts of his ministers to comfort him. But at last one of them said, "O
my king, in the hall beneath your garden there has appeared a wonderful
statue upon the seventh pedestal; perchance if you go to see it, your
heart will become more joyful."

Then with great reluctance the king properly dressed himself, and went to
the subterranean hall.

There indeed was the statue, the gift of the Spirit-king; and very
beautiful it was. But it was not made of diamond, and it looked so
strangely like the girl whom he had lost, that the king's he