t with
gold. The eyes he set with precious stones, while the teeth he filed
till they were shaped like pearls, and strung like a necklace.

As soon as the King came back from his journey he paid a visit to
Wayland, who produced the drinking cups which he said were made of some
curious shells washed up in a gale.

After some days had passed, some sailors found the princes' boat, which
had drifted into the open sea. Their bodies, of course, were not to be
found, and the King ordered a splendid funeral feast to be prepared.

On this occasion the new drinking cups were filled with mead, and,
besides her necklace, Banvilda wore the ring which her father had taken
long ago from Wayland's house.

As was the custom, the feast lasted long, and the guests drank deeply
and grew merry. But at midnight their gaiety suddenly came to an end.
The King was drinking from the cup of mead, when he felt a violent pain
in his head and let the vessel fall. The hues of the armlets that the
Queen wore became so strange and dreadful that her eyes suffered agony
from looking at em, and she tore them from her arms; while Banvilda was
seized with such severe toothache that she could sit at table no
longer. The guests at once took leave, but it was not till the sun
rose that the pains of their hosts went away.

PART XII.

In the torture of toothache which she had endured during the night,
Banvilda had dashed her arm against the wall, and had broken some of
the ornaments off the ring.

She feared to tell her father, who would be sure to punish her, and was
in despair how to get the ring mended, when she caught sight of the
island on which Wayland's tower stood. "If I had not mocked at him he
might have helped me now," thought she.

No other way seemed to offer itself, and in the evening she loosened a
boat and began to row to the tower. On the way she met an old merman
with a long beard, floating on the waves who warned her not to go on;
but she paid no heed, and only rowed the faster.

[Illustration: The merman warns Banvilda in vain]

She entered the tower by a false key, and, holding the ring out to
Wayland, begged him to mend it as fast as possible, so that she might
return before she was missed. Wayland answered her with courtesy, and
promised to do his best, but said that she would have to blow the
bellows to keep the forge fire alight. "How comes it that these
bellows are sprinkled with blood?" asked Banvilda.

"It is