w, one night, when the three years had almost passed, Prince
Fire-fade thought of his home, and what had happened there, and heaved
one deep sigh.

Princess Pearl was grieved, and told her father, saying: "We have been
so happy these three years, and he never sighed before, but, last
night, he heaved one deep sigh. What can the meaning of it be?" So the
Sea-king asked the Prince to tell him what ailed him, and also what
had been the reason of his coming to that land. Then Prince Fire-fade
told the Sea-king all the story of the lost fish-hook, and how his
elder brother had behaved.

The Sea-king at once called together all the fishes of the sea, great
and small, and asked: "Has any fish taken this fish-hook?" So all the
fishes said: "The _tai_[9] has been complaining of something sticking
in his throat, and hurting him when he eats, so perhaps he has taken
the hook."

[Footnote 9: A kind of fish.]

So they made the _tai_ open his mouth, and looked in his throat, and
there, sure enough, was the fish-hook. Then the hook was washed and
given to Prince Fire-fade. The Sea-king also gave him two jewels. One
was called the tide-flowing jewel, and the other was called the
tide-ebbing jewel. And he said then to the Prince: "Go home now to
your own land, and take back the fish-hook to your brother. In this
way you shall plague him. If he plant rice-fields in the upland, make
you your rice-fields in the valley; and if he make rice-fields in the
valley, do you make your rice-fields in the upland. I will rule the
water so that it may do good to you, but harm to him. If Prince
Fire-flash should be angry with you for this, and try to kill you,
then put out the tide-flowing jewel, and the tide will come up to
drown him. But if he is sorry, and asks pardon, then put out the
tide-ebbing jewel, and the tide will go back, and let him live."

Then the Sea-king called all the crocodiles, and said: "His Highness
Prince Fire-fade is going to the upper world; which of you will take
him there quickly, and bring me back word?" And one crocodile a fathom
long, answered: "I will take him to the upper world, and come back in
a day."

"Do so, then," said the Sea-king, "and be sure that you do not
frighten him as you are crossing the middle of the sea." He then
seated the Prince upon the crocodile's head, and saw him off.

The crocodile brought him safe home, in one day, as he had promised.
When the crocodile was going to start back again, Pri