g declared he was
hungry, and called for food. After the third day he was quite well,
only very weak from his long illness. On the fourth day he got up and
sat upon his throne, and then sent messengers to fetch the physician
who had cured him. When Imani appeared everyone marvelled that so
young a man should be so clever a doctor; and the king wanted to give
him immense presents of money and of all kinds of precious things. At
first Imani would take nothing, but at last she said that, if she must
be rewarded, she would ask for the king's signet ring and his
handkerchief. So, as she would take nothing more, the king gave her
his signet ring and his handkerchief, and she departed and travelled
back to her own country as fast as she could.

A little while after her return, when she had related to the fakir all
her adventures, they sent for Subbar Khan by means of the magic fan;
and when he appeared they asked him why he had stayed away for so
long. Then he told them all about his illness, and how he had been
cured, and when he had finished the princess rose up and, opening a
cabinet, brought out the ring and handkerchief, and said, laughing:

'Are these the rewards you gave to your doctor?'

At that the king looked, and he recognised her, and understood in a
moment all that had happened; and he jumped up and put the magic fan
in his pocket, and declared that no one should send him away to his
own country any more unless Imani would come with him and be his wife.
And so it was settled, and the old fakir and Imani went to the city of
Dur, where Imani was married to the king and lived happily ever after.

(Punjabi story.)

_THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE MAIA_

Once upon a time there lived a woman who had a pretty cottage and
garden right in the middle of a forest. All through the summer she was
quite happy tending her flowers and listening to the birds singing in
the trees, but in the winter, when snow lay on the ground and wolves
came howling about the door, she felt very lonely and frightened. 'If
I only had a child to speak to, however small, what a comfort it would
be!' she said to herself. And the heavier the snow fell the oftener
she repeated the words. And at last a day arrived when she could bear
the silence and solitude no longer, and set off to walk to the nearest
village to beg someone to sell her or lend her a child.

The snow was very deep, and reached above her ankles, and it took her
almost a