ne else, and
that this was God's command to her. When Laili woke she told her
father of the angel's visit to her as she slept; but her father paid
no attention to her story. From that time she began repeating,
"Majnun, Majnun; I want Majnun," and would say nothing else. Even as
she sat and ate her food she kept saying, "Majnun, Majnun; I want
Majnun." Her father used to get quite vexed with her. "Who is this
Majnun? who ever heard of this Majnun?" he would say. "He is the man I
am to marry," said Laili. "God has ordered me to marry no one but
Majnun." And she was half mad. Meanwhile, Majnun and Husain Mahamat
came to hunt in the Phalana country; and as they were riding about,
Laili came out on her horse to eat the air, and rode behind them. All
the time she kept saying, "Majnun, Majnun; I want Majnun." The prince
heard her, and turned round. "Who is calling me?" he asked. At this
Laili looked at him, and the moment she saw him she fell deeply in
love with him, and she said to herself, "I am sure that is the Prince
Majnun that God says I am to marry." And she went home to her father
and said, "Father, I wish to marry the prince who has come to your
kingdom; for I know he is the Prince Majnun I am to marry." "Very
well, you shall have him for your husband," said Munsuk Raja. "We will
ask him to-morrow." Laili consented to wait, although she was very
impatient. As it happened, the prince left the Phalana kingdom that
night, and when Laili heard he was gone, she went quite mad. She would
not listen to a word her father, or her mother, or her servants said
to her, but went off into the jungle, and wandered from jungle to
jungle, till she got farther and farther away from her own country.
All the time she kept saying, "Majnun, Majnun; I want Majnun;" and so
she wandered about for twelve years.

At the end of the twelve years she met a fakir--he was really an
angel, but she did not know this--who asked her, "Why do you always
say, 'Majnun, Majnun; I want Majnun'?" She answered, "I am the
daughter of the king of the Phalana country, and I want to find Prince
Majnun; tell me where his kingdom is." "I think you will never get
there," said the fakir, "for it is very far from hence, and you have
to cross many rivers to reach it." But Laili said she did not care;
she must see Prince Majnun. "Well," said the fakir, "when you come to
the Bhagirathi river you will see a big fish, a Rohu; and you must get
him to carry you to Prince Maj