402 
F. H. MALYON ON 
so many fairies and watchmen on guard , here should be the clothes of some other 
person. 
To her sentinels she said, “ Keep not such watch again : to-night I will even 
keep watch myself.” 
So they all went, and she remained keeping watch herself. When the night was 
advanced, Laughing-Flower fell asleep At this time came the prince. He ex- 
changed his robe for hers. Then, when morning came, the Princess Laughing- 
Flower arose. 
“ I have seen no one ! ” she marvelled, “ yet again this has happened! ” 
The third night she again continued, herself, to keep watch and ward ; and she 
made a cut in her little finger, and rubbed salt into it, so that sleep that evening 
should not come to her. When the night had drawn on, she beheld the prince 
emerging from the ground beneath her bed ; and when the eyes of the two met, they 
were robbed of consciousness. The princess was the first to recover; she strove to lift 
him on to her own couch. She chafed his face and temples. 
The prince recovered himself, and then they fell to talking. And they found 
their conversation a pleasure. The princess asked him, “How is it that you 
have come ? ’ ’ 
“In search of you I came,” declared the prince; and then he told her of his 
adventures on the way. 
The princess said, “ To carry me off is very difficult. Yet will God make it easy 
to you, for that I am your helper. These are the conditions my father has made, — 
first, there shall be a fight between dogs : one will be yours, and one will be my 
father’s, which latter is very powerful. If your fortune hold good your dog will 
win, and you will gain the day. The second trial is this, — in an open plain they will 
erect a bar of iron which no one can break unless a lock from my hair (be with him). 
Such a lock, if I give it you, bind round the handle of your axe, and strike at the 
bar: which will then break. The third trial is this,— they will sow a large 
quantity of mustard-seed on the ground , and they will then plough the soil ; all this 
mustard must you collect.” 
After the} 7 had thus spoken together, the prince took his leave, and returned by 
way of the mine, to his own house. 
When morning came, he sent word to the King of the Fairies, saying, “I am 
prince of such-and-such a country: and I am come for the hand of your daughter.” 
The king sent a reply, “It is well. Fulfil the conditions I set; then certainly 
will I bestow on you my daughter.” 
Then he gave him details of the conditions, — that upon a certain day should be 
the fight between dogs. 
Thereupon the prince in question made his lioness’s cub to resemble a dog as 
far as possible : and awaited the time fixed for the battle. When the day came, the 
Fairy-King’s dog dealt the first wound; but finally, after a long struggle, it befell 
that the prince’s animal killed the hound of the Fairy-King. 
So did the prince gain the first of his successes. Next day came the test of the 
