care of her father only, and had lived with no other companion than the members of her own family and the camels and horses of the encampment.  And as she stood in her poor dress before the king, he saw that she was much more beautiful than any one whom he had seen before; and he questioned her, only to find that she was very intelligent; and she was not at all afraid or ashamed of standing before the king, but looked about her with large wondering eyes, like the eyes of a child; and whoever met that innocent gaze, felt a great joy in his heart, and could not tell why.  And when the king had the mirror brought, and the reflection of the girl was thrown upon it, the mirror became much brighter than before, and shone like a great moon.

There was the maid whom the Spirit-king wished for.  The king easily obtained her 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.”