proper lodgment. So he
struck upon the drums, and at once summoned an officer who took him to
King Quimus.

When the king saw how very young the prince looked, and that he was
still drinking of the fountain of wonder, he said: 'O youth! leave
aside this fancy which my daughter has conceived in the pride of her
beauty. No one can answer her riddle, and she has done to death many
men who had had no pleasure in life nor tasted its charms. God forbid
that your spring also should be ravaged by the autumn winds of
martyrdom.' All his urgency, however, had no effect in making the
prince withdraw. At length it was settled between them that three days
should be given to pleasant hospitality and that then should follow
what had to be said and done. Then the prince went to his own quarters
and was treated as became his station.

King Quimus now sent for his daughter and for her mother, Gul-rukh,[6]
and talked to them. He said to Mihr-afruz: 'Listen to me, you cruel
flirt! Why do you persist in this folly? Now there has come to ask
your hand a prince of the east, so handsome that the very sun grows
modest before the splendour of his face; he is rich, and he has
brought gold and jewels, all for you, if you will marry him. A better
husband you will not find.'

But all the arguments of father and mother were wasted, for her only
answer was: 'O my father! I have sworn to myself that I will not
marry, even if a thousand years go by, unless someone answers my
riddle, and that I will give myself to that man only who does answer
it.'

The three days passed; then the riddle was asked: 'What did the rose
do to the cypress?' The prince had an eloquent tongue, which could
split a hair, and without hesitation he replied to her with a verse:
'Only the Omnipotent has knowledge of secrets; if any man says, "I
know" do not believe him.'

Then a servant fetched in the polluted, blue-eyed headsman, who asked:
'Whose sun of life has come near its setting?' took the prince by the
arm, placed him upon the cloth of execution, and then, all merciless
and stony-hearted, cut his head from his body and hung it on the
battlements.

[Illustration: MIHR-AFRUZ & PRINCE TAHMASP]

The news of the death of Prince Tahmasp plunged his father into
despair and stupefaction. He mourned for him in black raiment for
forty days; and then, a few days later, his second son, Prince Qamas,
extracted from him leave to go too; and he, also, was put to death.
One son