power away for a punishment.

['Cabinet des Fees.']

Udea and Her Seven Brothers

Once upon a time there was a man and his wife who had seven boys. The
children lived in the open air and grew big and strong, and the six
eldest spent part of every day hunting wild beasts. The youngest did not
care so much about sport, and he often stayed with his mother.

One morning, however, as the whole seven were going out for a long
expedition, they said to their aunt, 'Dear aunt, if a baby sister comes
into the world to-day, wave a white handkerchief, and we will return
immediately; but if it is only a boy, just brandish a sickle, and we
will go on with what we are doing.'

Now the baby when it arrived really proved to be a girl, but as the aunt
could not bear the boys, she thought it was a good opportunity to get
rid of them. So she waved the sickle. And when the seven brothers saw
the sign they said, 'Now we have nothing to go back for,' and plunged
deeper into the desert.

The little girl soon grew to be a big girl, and she was called by all
her friends (though she did not know it) 'Udea, who had driven her seven
brothers into strange lands.'

One day, when she had been quarrelling with her playmates, the oldest
among them said to her, 'It is a pity you were born, as ever since, your
brothers have been obliged to roam about the world.'

Udea did not answer, but went home to her mother and asked her, 'Have I
really got brothers?'

'Yes,' replied her mother, 'seven of them. But they went away the day
you were born, and I have never heard of them since.'

Then the girl said, 'I will go and look for them till I find them.'

'My dear child,' answered her mother, 'it is fifteen years since they
left, and no man has seen them. How will you know which way to go?'

'Oh, I will follow them, north and south, east and west, and though I
may travel far, yet some day I will find them.'

Then her mother said no more, but gave her a camel and some food, and a
negro and his wife to take care of her, and she fastened a cowrie shell
round the camel's neck for a charm, and bade her daughter go in peace.

During the first day the party journeyed on without any adventures, but
the second morning the negro said to the girl, 'Get down, and let the
negress ride instead of you.'

'Mother,' cried Udea.

'What is it?' asked her mother.

'Barka wants me to dismount from my camel.'

'Leave her alone, Barka,' commanded the mother