song voice, "and then the Nightingale will sing."

The Sultan immediately sent for his two sons. They came but still the
bird was silent.

"See now," the Sultan said, "my two sons are here and yet the bird is
silent."

But the Dervish would only repeat:

"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the
Nightingale will sing."

The next day a youth in rags whom nobody knew entered the mosque to pray
and instantly the Nightingale began to sing.

A messenger was sent running to the Sultan with the news that the
Nightingale was singing. The Sultan hurried to the mosque but by the
time he got there the beggar youth was gone and the Nightingale had
stopped singing.

"Now that I'm here," cried the Sultan, "why does the bird not sing?"

The Dervish, swaying his body gently back and forth, made answer as
before:

"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the
Nightingale will sing."

Thereafter every day when the beggar youth came to the mosque to pray
the Nightingale sang, and always when the Sultan approached the beggar
walked away and the bird stopped singing. At last people began
whispering:

"Strange that the Nightingale should sing only when that beggar youth is
near! And yet the Dervish says it will not sing unless he who found it
comes to the mosque! What can he mean?"

Report of the beggar youth reached the ears of the Sultan and he went to
the Dervish and questioned him.

"Why do you say that the Nightingale Gisar will not sing unless he who
found him comes to the mosque? Lo, here are my two sons who found him
and the bird remains silent, yet people tell me that when a certain
beggar comes to the mosque he sings. Why does he not sing when I and my
two sons come to pray?"

And always the Dervish made the same answer in the same sing-song voice:

"Let him who found the Nightingale come to the mosque and then the
Nightingale will sing."

Soon a terrifying rumor spread through the land that a great Warrior
Princess called Flower o' the World was coming with a mighty army to
make war on the Sultan and to destroy his city. Her army far outnumbered
the Sultan's and when she encamped in a broad valley over against the
city the Sultan's people, seeing her mighty hosts, were filled with
dread and besought their ruler to make peace with the Princess at any
cost. So the Sultan called his heralds and sent them to her and through
them he said:

"Demand of me what you will