im, "May these tigers fight your demons for me?"
"Yes," said the King, who did not care in the least who killed his
demons, provided they were killed. "Then call your demons," said the
Rajah's son, "and these tigers will fight them." The King did so,
and the tigers and the demons fought and fought until the tigers had
killed the demons.

"That is good," said the King. "But you must do something else before
I give you my daughter. Up in the sky I have a kettle-drum. You must
go and beat it. If you cannot do this, I will kill you."

The Rajah's son thought of his little bed; so he went to the old
woman's house and sat on his bed. "Little bed," he said, "up in the
sky is the King's kettle-drum. I want to go to it." The bed flew up
with him, and the Rajah's son beat the drum, and the King heard him.
Still, when he came down, the King would not give him his daughter.
"You have," he said to the Prince, "done the three things I told you
to do; but you must do one thing more." "If I can, I will," said the
Rajah's son.

Then the King showed him the trunk of a tree that was lying near his
court-house. It was a very, very thick trunk. He gave the Prince a wax
hatchet, and said, "To-morrow morning you must cut this trunk in two
with this wax hatchet."

The Rajah's son went back to the old woman's house. He was very sad,
and thought that now the Rajah would certainly kill him. "I had his
oil crushed out by the ants," he said to himself. "I had his demons
killed by the tigers. My bed helped to beat this kettle-drum. But now
what can I do? How can I cut that thick tree-trunk in two with a wax
hatchet?"

At night he went on his bed to see the Princess. "To-morrow," he said
to her, "your father will kill me." "Why?" asked the Princess.

"He has told me to cut a thick tree-trunk in two with a wax hatchet.
How can I ever do that?" said the Rajah's son. "Do not be afraid,"
said the Princess; "do as I bid you, and you will cut it in two quite
easily."

Then she pulled out a hair from her head and gave it to the Prince.
"To-morrow," she said, "when no one is near you, you must say to the
tree-trunk, 'The Princess Labam commands you to let yourself be cut
in two by this hair.' Then stretch the hair down the edge of the wax
hatchet's blade."

The Prince next day did exactly as the Princess had told him; and the
minute the hair that was stretched down the edge of the hatchet blade
touched the tree-trunk it split into two pieces.

T