l lady who had
vanished so mysteriously. His face was so troubled that the governor
of the island marked it, and asked what was the matter. 'Oh! help me,
if you can,' cried the prince. 'The thought of the sufferings that the
enchanted nymph may be undergoing tortures me!'

'They are far worse than you can imagine,' gravely replied the
governor; 'but if you still possess your comb, you may yet relieve her
of them. Ah! that is well,' he continued, as the prince quickly drew
the comb from its case. 'Now follow me.'

Not only the prince, but every one else followed; and the governor led
them down a long gallery to a heavy iron door, which flew open at its
own accord. But what a sight met the prince's eyes! The lady whom he
had last beheld in peerless beauty was sitting in a chair wrapped in
flames, which were twisting like hair about her head. Her face was
swollen and red; her mouth was open as if gasping for breath. Only her
arms and neck were as lovely as ever in their whiteness.

'This is your doing,' said the governor to the prince; 'you brought
her to this when you burnt the crocodile's skin. Now try if, by
combing, you can soothe her agony.'

At the first touch of the comb the flames became suddenly
extinguished; at the second, the look of pain vanished from the face,
and it shrank into its usual size; at the third, she rose from the
chair, lovelier than she ever was before, and flung herself into the
arms of her brother Perarthrites.

* * * * *

After this there was nothing more to be done but to marry the two
couples as fast as possible. And when the wedding was over,
Perarthrites and his bride returned to Placenza, and Ferrandina and
her husband to Lombardy, and they all lived happily till they died.

(From Count Anthony Hamilton's _Fairy Tales_.)

_THE THANKSGIVING OF THE WAZIR_

Once upon a time there lived in Hindustan two kings whose countries
bordered upon each other; but, as they were rivals in wealth and
power, and one was a Hindu rajah and the other a Mohammedan badshah,
they were not good friends at all. In order, however, to escape
continual quarrels, the rajah and the badshah had drawn up an
agreement, stamped and signed, declaring that if any of their
subjects, from the least to the greatest, crossed the boundary between
the two kingdoms, he might be seized and punished.

One morning the badshah and his chief wazir, or prime minister, were
just about t