ill you not tell me?"

"I will not, and that settles it," answered the youth, and his mother
seized him and cudgelled him well.

Then he went to his father and said to him: "Father dear, I had a dream,
but what it was I would not tell mother, nor will I tell you," and his
father also gave him a good flogging. He began to sulk and ran away from
home. He walked and walked the whole day long and, meeting a traveller,
said after greeting him: "I had a dream, but what it was I would tell
neither father nor mother and I will not tell you," Then he went on his
way till finally he came to the Emir's house and said to the Emir:
"Emir, I had a dream, but what it was I would tell neither father nor
mother, nor yet the traveller, and I will not tell you."

The Emir had him seized and thrown into the garret, where he began to
cut through the floor with a knife he managed to get from some one of
the Emir's people. He cut and cut until he made an opening over the
chamber of the Emir's daughter, who had just filled a plate with food
and gone away. The youth jumped down, emptied the plate, ate what he
wanted, and crept back into the garret. The second, third, and fourth
days he did this also, and the Emir's daughter could not think who had
taken away her meal. The next day she hid herself under the table to
watch and find out. Seeing the youth jump down and begin to eat from her
plate, she rushed out and said to him, "Who are you?"

"I had a dream, but what it was I would tell neither father nor mother,
nor the traveller, nor yet the Emir. The Emir shut me up in the garret.
Now everything depends on you; do with me what you will."

The youth looked at the maiden, and they loved each other and saw each
other every day.

The King of the West came to the King of the East to court the daughter
of the King of the East for his son. He sent an iron bar with both ends
shaped alike and asked: "Which is the top and which is the bottom? If
you can guess that, good! If not, I will carry your daughter away with
me."

The King asked everybody, but nobody could tell. The King's daughter
told her lover about it and he said: "Go tell your father the Emir to
throw the bar into a brook. The heavy end will sink. Make a hole in that
end and send the bar back to the King of the West." And it happened that
he was right, and the messengers returned to their King.

The King of the West sent three horses of the same size and color and
asked: "Which is t