r the city of Black. He arrived there at ten o'clock at night,
and the gate of the city was closed; for there was a law there, that,
after the bell had rung ten, no person could enter the city. So he had
to sleep outside the walls. Then the very same ghost that had spoken
to him in his palace appeared to him, and said, "Go back to your
palace, prince, and there in the cellar you will find the treasure
I spoke of." The moment he heard the voice, the prince got up and
returned to his own city. When his mother saw him, she said to him,
"Did you find what you were looking for?"--"Mother, the very same
ghost told me that the treasure is buried in the cellar of the palace."

"I have told you that dreams are never true," she said. "The ghost must
be joking you. You see, you have gone to a faraway land in vain. Banish
all thoughts of that treasure, and continue ruling your kingdom well,
and you will be very much better off."

At first the prince followed his mother's counsel, and tried to rid his
mind of the thought of the treasure; but the ghost haunted him in his
sleep, day and night, reminding him of the gold and diamonds. Early one
morning, without the knowledge of his mother, he took a pointed iron
bar and went down into the cellar of the palace. There he dug where
the treasure was supposed to be. He dug and dug to find the coveted
gold and diamonds. He remained there several hours, and had excavated
a hole some three metres deep, but had found no sign of the hidden
wealth. Just as he was about to give up, his bar struck something hard
which produced a metallic sound. He went on digging until finally he
uncovered an iron platform in the form of a square. It was locked with
a padlock, and the key was in the lock. He lifted the platform, and
to his great surprise and wonder found a low ladder made of diamond
bars, leading down into a small apartment all shining bright as if
it were day. Here he found two columns of diamond bars, each a foot
in thickness and a metre in height, whose brightness shot through all
the corners like sunbeams. This subterranean chamber immediately led
to another in which there was a big safe about five feet in height
and three feet wide. He opened the safe, and from out of it flowed
gold coins like water in torrents from a cliff. His eyes were dazzled
by their brightness; and he was so startled at the inexhaustible flow
of money, that he said to himself, "Are these gold coins and diamonds
real, or