reliable information under this heading also. There
were recipes for potent drugs which would cause sleep, and for still
more potent drugs which would prevent people from going to sleep, and
when the wizard came to this last he cried out eagerly, for he thought
that he had succeeded in his quest, until he read on and discovered that
the spell described was only for use on wicked Queens who had shamefully
ill-used their step-children. It is very easy to make a mistake in
magic, for it is a most complicated science.

By the time he had read through the two hundred pages devoted to the
word _Sleep_, the venerable wizard was very uneasy, but he was a
persevering person and he did not abandon his endeavours. Merlin's wise
books having failed him, he cast about for other means to learn what he
desired, and consulted his oracle.

Now his oracle was a stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling, and a
voice came from it which told him to repeat the magic formula.

The magic formula is a sentence made up of all the sounds that are left
out of ordinary speech, and it is a fearsome thing to listen to. It is
also very exhausting to say, and after the venerable wizard had repeated
it, he was obliged to rest for several hours. Then he rose again and
drew pentagons on the rocky floor of his cave, and crossed triangles and
circles bordered with all the signs of the Zodiac. And he stood in the
middle of the pentagons and the crossed triangles and the circles and
went through all sorts of strange and secret rites, but all to no
purpose.

[Illustration]

But still he would not give up trying; and he went to mysterious places
in the woods and gathered strange herbs in the dark of the moon. And,
returning home, he cast the herbs into a brazier and they burnt with
flames of many colours, giving out clouds of dense smoke and a most
horrible smell. Then, as these exercises did not bring him the result
he desired, he gazed into crystals and poured ink into the palm of his
hand, and did all the other things that he had learnt to do in all the
years since he was apprenticed to magic as a very small boy.

And just as he was going to give up the quest in despair, a thought came
into his head, and he cried aloud for joy, for he knew he had discovered
what he sought. This shows how even the most difficult things may be
attained by perseverance and patience.

At the top of his speed he hastened back to the palace and asked an
audience of the Ki