elf." And so saying, he drew his sword. She replied,
"Stay, stay, and I will tell you the whole truth; the day before you
were born I had a little baby, but it died; and my servants took it to
the bottom of the garden to bury it, and there they found a beautiful
woman lying as dead, and beside her a living infant. You were that
child. They brought you to the palace, and I adopted you as my son,
and left my baby in your stead." "What became of my mother?" he asked.
"I cannot tell," answered the Ranee; "for, two days afterward, when I
sent to the same place, she and the baby had both disappeared, and I
have never since heard of her."

The young Prince, on hearing this, said, "There is in the head Malee's
house a beautiful lady, whom the Malee's wife found in the jungle,
fourteen years ago; that must be my mother. Let her be received here
this very day with all honour, for that is the only reparation that
can now be made to her."

The Ranee consented, and the young Prince went down to the Malee's
house himself to fetch his mother to the palace.

With him he took a great retinue of people, and a beautiful palanquin
for her to go in, covered with rich trappings; also costly things for
her to wear, and many jewels and presents for the good Malee's wife.

When Panch-Phul Ranee had put on her son's gifts, and come out of the
Malee's poor cottage to meet him, all the people said there had never
been so royal-looking a queen. As gold and clear crystal are lovely,
as mother-of-pearl is exquisitely fair and delicate-looking, so
beautiful, so fair, so delicate appeared Panch-Phul Ranee.

Her son conducted her with much pomp and state to the palace, and did
all in his power to honour her; and there she lived long, very
happily, and beloved by all.

One day the young Prince begged her to tell him again, from the
beginning, the story of her life, and as much as she knew of his
father's life; and so she did. And after that, he said to her, "Be no
longer sad, dear mother, regarding my father's fate; for I will send
into all lands to gather tidings of him, and maybe in the end we shall
find him." And he sent people out to hunt for the Rajah all over the
kingdom, and in all neighbouring countries--to the north, to the
south, to the east and to the west--but they found him not.

At last, after four years of unsuccessful search, when there seemed no
hope of ever learning what had become of him, Panch-Phul Ranee's son
came to see her,