shall do thee service." But she answered him not. Then he went to the Princesses and for a while entertained them, but sorrow overcame him, and he wept because of his love for the beautiful maid. "What is the reason of thy tears? Which of us hath vexed thee that thou art thus troubled?" asked the Princesses. And the youngest said: "He hath caught a bird from the air, and would have you help him tame her." And to him she said: "Do thou tell them, for I cannot face them with these words." So she related the story of his entering the forbidden chamber, of the birds' visit to the fountain, of their feathered raiment, of their transformation into damsels, of his love for the most beautiful of these, and of how he carried her off. "Where is she?" they asked. "With him in such a chamber," quoth she. "Describe her to us." Upon which the youngest Princess gave a glowing description of the exquisite charms of the royal captive. Then they turned to Hasan, and said: "Show her to us." So he led them to the beautiful damsel, to whom they did honor, and said: "Indeed, he loveth thee with a passionate love, and seeketh thee in marriage, wherefore he came to thee in person. And he telleth us he hath burned thy feather raiment, or we had taken it from him." Then the wedding ceremony was performed, and the bridal feast celebrated as beseemeth kings' daughters.
And the honeymoon lasted forty days, and was a time of joy and feasting and delight, and the king's daughter became reconciled, and forgot her kith and kin. And at
