ll goes smoothly until he desires to
visit his mother, supposing that he had only been in the island for two
months, whereas in fact he has been there two hundred years. Fortune,
finding he was bent on going, was more prudent than the queen of Tir na
n'Og, for she went with him on the magic horse. In their way they met
with a lean woman who had worn out a carriage-load of shoes in
travelling. She feigned to fall to the ground to see if Fortune's
husband would lift her up. But Fortune cried out to him: "Beware! that
is Death!" A little further on they met a devil in the guise of a great
lord riding a horse whose legs were worn out with much running. He also
fell from his horse. This was another trap for Fortune's husband; but
again she cried out to him: "Beware!" Then, having reached his own
neighbourhood and satisfied himself that no one knew him, and that none
even of the oldest remembered his mother, he allowed his wife to lead
him back to the Island of Happiness, where he still dwells with
her.[150]

In an Annamite saga a certain king wished to build a town on a site he
had fixed upon. All at once a tree bearing an unknown foliage and
strange flowers sprang up on the spot. It was determined to offer these
flowers to the king; and sentinels were placed to see that no one
plucked the blossoms. A rock still pointed out in the north of Annam was
the home of a race of genii. A young and lovely maiden belonging to that
race visited the tree, and was unlucky enough to touch one of the
flowers and to cause it to drop. She was at once seized by the guards,
but was released at the intercession of a certain mandarin. The
mandarin's heart was susceptible: he fell in love with her, and,
pursuing her, he was admitted into the abodes of the Immortals and
received by the maiden of his dreams. His happiness continued until the
day when it was his lady's turn to be in attendance on the queen of the
Immortals. Ere she left him she warned him against opening the back door
of the palace where they dwelt, otherwise he would be compelled to
return home, and his present abode would be forbidden to him from that
moment. He disobeyed her. On opening the door he beheld once more the
outside world, and his family came to his remembrance. The Immortals
who were within earshot drove him out, and forbade him to return. He
thought he had only been there a few days, but he could no longer find
his relatives. No one knew the name he asked for. At las