choosing, gathering and arranging them upon
the carpet. When they had put together all there was room for, the
king sat down, and pointing to a large diamond shining at a little
distance, said to the fisherman, "There is yet a more splendid one by
the stream yonder; run, my son-in-law, and bring it here, it would be
a pity to leave it."

The man went for it, while the king, taking advantage of his absence
to pronounce the magic words, seated himself on the carpet, which
lifted itself up, and floating like an air-car above the forest and
under the clouds, descended by one of the palace windows.

His joy knew no bounds, for he now found himself not only free from
his enemies and rid of the embarrassing presence of the fisherman, but
also the possessor of the richest and most beautiful collection of
diamonds in the world;--by his orders they were put away in the caves
of the royal treasure-house, and with them the magic ring and the
flying carpet.

Meantime the fisherman had returned with the diamond, and had stood
aghast to see the carpet vanishing away in the distance.

Wounded at the ingratitude and indignant at the perversity of a prince
for whom he had done so much, he burst into tears.

And, indeed, he had good reason to weep. For he had but to look at the
enormous height of the polished rocks to be convinced of the
impossibility of climbing them. The vegetation, too, was so scanty
that it could only provide him with food for a very short time. He saw
but two courses open to him: either to die from starvation, or to be
devoured by the monstrous serpents that crawled about in great
numbers. Night was now coming on, and the poor fellow was obliged to
plan some way of escaping the frightful reptiles which were leaving
their hiding-places. At last he climbed up a tree, the highest he
could find, and there, with his magic cap on and his club in his hand,
passed the night without even closing his eyes.

Next morning when the sun rose the serpents went back to their holes,
and the fisherman got down from his tree feeling stiff with cold and
very hungry. For some time he walked about the valley in search of
food, turning over the diamonds now so useless to him. There he found
a few worthless mushrooms, and with such poor food as berries and
sorrel leaves, and the water of the valley stream for drink, he lived
for some days.

One night when he went to sleep it happened that his cap came off and
fell to the ground, w