rapidly. They went down in it, horse and man, and the Prince made sure he should be drowned.
He arrived, however, fortunately, at the abode of the worthy Biroquoi, who was celebrating the marriage of his daughter with one of the richest and deepest rivers in the country. All the aquatic deities were assembled in the Grotto. The Tritons and the Syrens performed the most agreeable music, and the River Biroquie, lightly attired, danced the Hay[1] with the Seine, the Thames, the Euphrates, and the Ganges, who had certainly come a long way to be merry together.
Criquetin, who knew good manners, halted very respectfully at the entrance of the Grotto, and the Prince, who knew better manners even than his horse, making a profound bow, inquired if a mortal like himself might be permitted to make his appearance in so splendid a party.
Biroquoi replied, in an affable tone, that he did them both honour and pleasure. "I have expected you for some days, my lord," continued he; "I am interested in your fate, and that of the Infanta who is dear to me. You must release her from the fatal spot in which the vindictive Fanferluche has imprisoned her. It is in a bottle." "Ah, what do I hear!" cried the Prince; "the Infanta is in a bottle?" "Yes," said the sage old man; "she suffers much; but I warn you, my lord, that it is not easy to conquer the giants and the dragons that guard it, unless you follow my counsels. You must leave your good steed here, and mount on a winged dolphin that I have for some time been breaking in for you." He had the dolphin brought out, saddled and bridled, who vaulted and curveted so cleverly that Criquetin was jealous of him.
Biroquoi and his friends made haste to arm the Prince. They gave him a brilliant cuirass of the scales of golden carps, and placed on his head the shell of a huge snail, which was overshadowed with the tail of a large cod raised in the form of an aigrette; a naiad girt him with an eel, from which depended a tremendous sword made out of a long fish-bone; and lastly they gave him the shell of a great tortoise for a shield; and, thus armed, there was not the smallest gudgeon
- ↑ "Les Olivettes." A dance, the figure of which was formed by couples turning hand-in-hand after each other, round three fixed points. It was called the Hay in England.
