er farewell of his
wife, and set out on his journey home. It was a long way, and he was
forced to rest often on the road, and so it happened that, one night,
when he was sleeping in a city on the banks of the great river, a huge
crocodile came silently up and made its way along a passage to the
prince's room. Fortunately one of his guards woke up as it was trying
to steal past them, and shut the crocodile up in a large hall, where a
giant watched over it, never leaving the spot except during the night,
when the crocodile slept. And this went on for more than a month.

Now, when the prince found that he was not likely to leave his father's
kingdom again, he sent for his wife, and bade the messenger tell her
that he would await her coming in the town on the banks of the great
river. This was the reason why he delayed his journey so long, and
narrowly escaped being eaten by the crocodile. During the weeks that
followed the prince amused himself as best he could, though he counted
the minutes to the arrival of the princess, and when she did come, he at
once prepared to start for the court. That very night, however, while he
was asleep, the princess noticed something strange in one of the corners
of the room. It was a dark patch, and seemed, as she looked, to grow
longer and longer, and to be moving slowly towards the cushions on
which the prince was lying. She shrank in terror, but, slight as was the
noise, the thing heard it, and raised its head to listen. Then she saw
it was the long flat head of a serpent, and the recollection of the
prophecy rushed into her mind. Without waking her husband, she glided
out of bed, and taking up a heavy bowl of milk which stood on a table,
laid it on the floor in the path of the serpent--for she knew that no
serpent in the world can resist milk. She held her breath as the snake
drew near, and watched it throw up its head again as if it was smelling
something nice, while its forky tongue darted out greedily. At length
its eyes fell upon the milk, and in an instant it was lapping it so fast
that it was a wonder the creature did not choke, for it never took
its head from the bowl as long as a drop was left in it. After that it
dropped on the ground and slept heavily. This was what the princess had
been waiting for, and catching up her husband's sword, she severed the
snake's head from its body.

The morning after this adventure the prince and princess set out for the
king's palace, but foun