th my wife the Queen and one little
daughter, the Princess Maya, who is now seventeen years old. We too
were given a bag of food and some water, but naturally I began to
search for other food to eat when that was gone.

"I found that all the trees upon this island were fruit trees of
different kinds and bore the most tempting and luscious fruits. There
was also a well of clear water in the middle of the island, all neatly
stoned around, which was fed by a small shallow stream flowing from the
hill at the north side. You can imagine my relief. I had no fears of
starvation anyway.

"We immediately began eating the fruit, and found it so delicious and
satisfying that we threw the biscuits into the sea. What was my alarm
in two days' time to find that I was growing stupid. I could not get
enough sleep. The Queen was the same, and as for the Princess, when
she was not eating fruit she was sleeping. We thought it must be the
sea air, but on the third day we could hardly open our eyes at all, and
as soon as we had eaten some fruit for breakfast we fell sound asleep,
and when I woke I looked around in vain for my wife and little daughter.

"They were nowhere to be seen. Only beside me were a grey dove and a
white one sitting on a branch sound asleep. Then on looking down I saw
that I too was sitting on the branch, and that I was a brown dove, and
I knew immediately that this was the work of the Evil Magician of
Despair, and that it was through eating the charmed fruit that we had
become changed into birds.

"It was not long before we found that there were many others here, who
like ourselves had been sent out of their country. And to make it more
horrible I discovered that the longer they stayed and the more fruit
they ate the more stupid they became. Some of the older ones could not
remember anything at all, and did nothing all day long but eat, drink
and sleep.

"I do not eat more than will keep me alive, and I try to keep the Queen
and our daughter from eating much too, knowing that we also are in
danger of losing our minds. I have gone about imploring the others on
the island to be careful, in hope of our being at some future time able
to escape, but to very little purpose. Of course they must eat the
fruit or starve, and most of them prefer losing their minds to going
hungry."

Prince Daimur listened to the tale with a shiver, for he did not in the
least want to be enchanted and lose his mind.

"Have