“O my son, though these statues of girls are indeed beyond all praise, there is yet a seventh statue incomparably more precious and beautiful which I could not obtain before I died.  It is now your duty, O my son, to obtain that statue, that it may be placed upon the seventh pedestal.  Go, therefore, and ask my favourite slave, who is still alive, how you are to obtain it.”  Then the young king went in all haste to that old slave, who had been his father’s confidant, and showed him the letter.  And the old man said, “Even now, O master, I will go with you to find that statue.  But it is in one of the three islands in which the genii dwell; and it is necessary, above all things, that you do not fear, and that you obey my instructions in all things.  Also, remember that if you make a promise to the Spirits of that land, the promise must be kept.”

And they proceeded upon their journey through a great wilderness, in which “nothing existed but grass and the presence of God.”  I can not try now to tell you about the wonderful things that happened to them, nor about the marvellous boat, rowed by a boatman having upon his shoulders the head of an elephant.  Suffice it to say that at last they reached the palace of the king of the Spirits; and the king came to meet them in the form of a beautiful old man with a long white beard.  And he said to the young king, “My son, I will gladly help you, as I helped your father; and I will give you that seventh statue of diamond which you desire.  But I must ask for a gift in return.  You must bring to me here a young girl of about sixteen years old; and she must be very intelligent; and she must be a true maiden, not only as to her body, but as to her soul, and heart, and all her thoughts.”  The young king thought that was a very easy thing to find, but the king of the Spirits assured him that it was not, and further told him this, “My son, no mortal man is wise enough to know by his own wisdom the purity that is in the heart of a young girl.  Only by the help of this magical mirror, which I now lend you, will you be able to know.  Look at the reflection of any maiden in this mirror, and then, if her heart is perfectly good and pure, the mirror will remain bright.  But if there be any fault in her, the mirror will grow dim.  Go now, and do my bidding.”

You can imagine, of course, what happened next.  Returning to his kingdom, the young king had brought before him many beautiful girls, the daughters of the noblest and highest in all the cities of the land.  But in no case did the mirror remain perfectly clear when the ghostly test was applied.  For three years in vain the king sought; then in despair he for the first time turned his attention to the common people.  And there came before him on the very first day a rude man of the desert, who said, “I know of just such a girl as you want.”  Then he went forth and presently returned with a simple girl from the desert, who had been brought up in the