himself in the twenty-four. The damsel, he said, might stay with him, and walk about here the whole day, but towards evening she must hide herself; for if the forty Peris came and saw her with him they would not leave her alive. To-morrow, he said, he would show her his mother's palace, where they would live in peace, and he would be with her for two hours out of the twenty-four.
So the next day the Padishah of the Peris took the damsel and showed her his mother's palace. "When thou goest there," said the Padishah, "bid them have compassion on thee, and receive thee in memory of Bahtiyar Bey, and when my mother hears my name she will not refuse thy request."
So the damsel went up to the house and knocked at the door. An old woman came and opened it, and when she saw the damsel and heard her son's name, she burst into tears and took her in. There the damsel stayed a long time, and every day the little bird came to visit her, until a son was born to the daughter of the Sultan. But the old woman never knew that her son came to the house, nor that the damsel had been brought to bed.
One day the little bird came, flew upon the window-*sill, and said: "Oh, my Sultana, what is my little seedling doing?"—"No harm hath happened to our little seedling," replied she, "but he awaits the coming of
