e owed it all, but, swifter than a swallow, it managed to avoid
him. In vain he described the bird to his attendants, who rushed at
his first call; in vain they sought the wonderful creature both on
horse and foot, and summoned the fowlers to their aid: the bird could
nowhere be found. The love the people bore King Peridor was so strong,
and the reward he promised was so large, that in the twinkling of an
eye every man, woman, and child had fled into the fields, and the
towns were quite empty.

All this bustle, however, ended in nothing but confusion, and, what
was worse, the King soon fell back into the same condition as he was
in before. Prince Saphir, who loved his father very dearly, was so
unhappy at this that he persuaded himself that he might succeed where
the others had failed, and at once prepared himself for a more distant
search. In spite of the opposition he met with, he rode away, followed
by his household, trusting to chance to help him. He had formed no
plan, and there was no reason that he should choose one path more than
another. His only idea was to make straight for those spots which were
the favourite haunts of birds. But in vain he examined all the hedges
and all the thickets; in vain he questioned everyone he met along the
road. The more he sought the less he found.

At last he came to one of the largest forests in all the world,
composed entirely of cedars. But in spite of the deep shadows cast by
the wide-spreading branches of the trees, the grass underneath was
soft and green, and covered with the rarest flowers. It seemed to
Saphir that this was exactly the place where the birds would choose to
live, and he determined not to quit the wood until he had examined it
from end to end. And he did more. He ordered some nets to be prepared
and painted of the same colours as the bird's plumage, thinking that
we are all easily caught by what is like ourselves. In this he had to
help him not only the fowlers by profession, but also his attendants,
who excelled in this art. For a man is not a courtier unless he can do
everything.

After searching as usual for nearly a whole day Prince Saphir began to
feel overcome with thirst. He was too tired to go any farther, when
happily he discovered a little way off a bubbling fountain of the
clearest water. Being an experienced traveller, he drew from his
pocket a little cup (without which no one should ever take a journey),
and was just about to dip it in the wa