set the wicked Raja's head straight on his shoulders, and she
squeezed the wound in her finger till a little blood-medicine came out
of it. Then she smeared this over the place where her knife had
passed, and just as she saw the Raja opening his eyes, she began to
run, and she ran, and ran so fast, that she outran the Raja, who tried
to catch her; and she sprang up on the horse behind her husband, and
they rode so fast, so fast, till they reached King Dantal's palace.

There Prince Majnun told everything to his father, who was horrified
and angry. "How lucky for you that you have such a wife," he said.
"Why did you not do what she told you? But for her, you would be now
dead." Then he made a great feast out of gratitude for his son's
safety, and gave many, many rupees to the fakirs. And he made so much
of Laili. He loved her dearly; he could not do enough for her. Then he
built a splendid palace for her and his son, with a great deal of
ground about it, and lovely gardens, and gave them great wealth, and
heaps of servants to wait on them. But he would not allow any but
their servants to enter their gardens and palace, and he would not
allow Majnun to go out of them, nor Laili; "for," said King Dantal,
"Laili is so beautiful, that perhaps some one may kill my son to take
her away."

Told by Dunkni.

[Decoration]

XV.

HOW KING BURTAL BECAME A FAKIR.

Once there was a great king called Burtal, and he had a hundred and
sixty wives, but he had no children, which made him sad. One day he
said to his wives, "I am going to a very distant jungle which is full
of antelopes, to hunt them." "Very well," they answered, "go." So he
went. In that jungle lived neither tigers nor men, but only antelopes.
When King Burtal reached the jungle, some of the antelopes came to him
and said, "Pray don't kill the black antelope, for he is our Raja, and
we have no other antelope like him among us; but try to kill any of
the others--the brown or the yellow antelopes--that you choose." Now,
the king was not a kind man, and he said, "I will kill your black
antelope, and no other." So he shot him dead. When the other antelopes
saw this they began to scream and cry with sorrow. But the dead
antelope's wife said to them, "There is a holy man, a fakir, in the
jungle. Let us take the dead body to him and ask him to bring our Raja
to life." And King Burtal laughed at them and said, "How can any man
bring a dead antelope to life?" But