e Princess cannot be dead
since she never was born; and you are perfectly sound and well."

"What! Is it not true that you became in turn an eagle, an elephant,
an ass, a doctor, and a magpie, to protect me from ill?"

"It is all a dream, sir. Our ideas are no more under our control when
sleeping than when awake. The Almighty sent that string of ideas
through your head, as it would seem, to give you some lesson which you
may lay to heart."

"You are making game of me," said Rustem. "How long have I been
sleeping?"

"Sir, you have only slept one hour."

"Well, I cannot understand it," said Rustem.

But perhaps he took the lesson to heart, and learned to doubt whether
all he wished for was right and good for him.

_Steelpacha_[6]

Once upon a time there was an Emperor who had three sons and three
daughters. As he was very old, his last hour drew nigh. He therefore
called his children to his bedside and laid earnest command upon his
sons to give their sisters, without hesitation, to the first suitors
who asked for them in marriage. "Marry them off," he said to the sons,
"or my curse will be upon you!" These were his last words.

[Footnote 6: From "The Russian Grandmother's Wonder Tales," copyright,
1906, by Charles Scribner's Sons.]

After his death, day passed quietly after day for a while. Then one
evening there came a loud knocking at the door. The whole palace began
to rock amid a wild roaring, howling, crashing; the castle was bathed
in a sea of flame. Every heart was terrified, and trembling took
possession of every soul.

Suddenly a voice cried, "Open the door, ye princes!"

Up spoke the Emperor's eldest son, "Do not open!" And the second said,
"On no account open!" But the youngest said, "Then I will open the
door myself."

He sprang up and drew the bolts. Hardly was the door opened when a
fearful Being rushed in, the outline of whose form was hidden in
encircling flames.

"I am come," he exclaimed, "to take your eldest sister for my wife,
and that at once. So give a short answer--yes or no; I insist upon
it!"

Said the eldest brother, "I will not give her to you. Why should I,
when I know neither who nor whence you are? You come here by night,
demand my sister's hand upon the instant, and I do not even hear which
way I am to turn when I wish to visit her."

Said the second brother, "Nor do I permit you to take away my sister
thus in the dead of night."

But the youngest interposed,