The end of the Six Hundred and Seventy-eight Night.

Then said she:  I have heard, O auspicious King, that the Princess Perizadah was sore grieved at so sudden a blow and said to herself, “Ah!  Woe is me and well-away!  How bitter will be living without the love of such brothers whose youthtide was sacrificed for me!  ’Tis but right that I share their fate whate’er be my lot; else what shall I have to say on the Day of Doom and the Resurrection of the Dead and the Judgment of Mankind?” Wherefore next morning, without further let or stay, she donned disguise of man’s attire; and, warning her women and slaves that she would be absent on an errand for a term of days during which they would be in charge of the house and goods, she mounted her hackney and set out alone and unattended.  Now, inasmuch as she was skilled in horsemanship and had been wont to accompany her brothers when hunting and hawking, she was better fitted than other women to bear the toils and travails of travel.  So on the twentieth day she arrived safe and sound at the hermitage-hut where, seeing the same Shaykh, she took seat beside him and after salaaming to him and greeting him she asked him, “O holy father, suffer me to rest and refresh myself awhile in this site of good omen; then deign point out to me, I pray thee, the direction of the place, at no far distance herefrom, wherein are found a certain Speaking-Bird and a Singing-Tree and a Golden-Water.  An thou wilt tell me I shall deem this the greatest of favour.”  Replied the Darwaysh, “Thy voice revealeth to me that thou art a woman and no man, albeit attired in male’s apparel.  Well I wot the stead whereof thou speakest and which containeth the marvellous things thou hast named.  But say me, what is thy purpose in asking me?” The Princess made reply, “I have been told many a tale anent these rare and wondrous things, and I would fain get possession of them and bear them to my home and make them its choicest adornments.”  And said the Fakir, “O my daughter, in very truth these matters are exceeding rare and admirable:  right fit are they for fair ones like thyself to win and take back with thee, but thou hast little inkling of the dangers manifold and dire that encompass them.  Better far were it for thee to cast away this vain thought and go back by the road thou camest.”  Replied the Princess, “O holy father and far-famed anchorite, I come from a distant land whereto I will nevermore return, except after winning my wish; no, never!  I pray thee tell me the nature of those dangers and what they be, that hearing thereof my heart may judge if I have or have not the strength and the spirit to meet them.”  Then the Shaykh described to the Princess all the risks of the road as erst he had informed Princes Bahman and Parwez; and he ended with saying, “The dangers will display themselves as soon as thou shalt begin to climb the hill-head where is the home of the Speaking-Bird.  Then, if thou be fortunate enough to seize him, he