me in three days, thou art a dead man." Then the King's son fell a-thinking till he bethought him of the three scales, and he had no sooner burnt them than the little fish stood before him and said: "What dost thou command, O my Sultan?"—"The ring of the World's most beauteous Damsel hath been cast into the sea, and I want it back again," said the prince. Then the fish sought for the ring but couldn't find it; it dived down a second time and still it couldn't find it; a third time it descended right down into the seventh ocean, drew up a fish, cut it open, and there was the ring. So the youth gave the ring to the Padishah, and the Padishah gave it to his daughter.
Now there was a cave near the palace full of gravel and grain. "My second task," said the Padishah, "is that thou dost separate the grain from the gravel." Then the youth entered the cave, took out the ant's wing and burned it, whereupon the whole cave was swarming with ants, and they set to work upon the grain in hot haste. The day was now nearly over, and the same evening the youth sent word to the Padishah that the second task also was accomplished.
"The third task still remains," said the Padishah, "and then thou mayest have my daughter." With that he sent for a maid-servant, had her head cut off straightway, and then said to the youth: "Thus shall
