that these were but idle fables which their grandfathers had heard from their great-grandfathers.
"But how is that possible?" replied Boy Beautiful; "'twas but the other day that I passed by" and he told them all he knew. Then they laughed at him as at one who raves or talks in his sleep; but he rode away wrathfully without noticing that his beard and the hair of his head had grown white.
When he came to the domain of Gheonoea he put the same questions and received the same answers. He could not understand how the whole region could have utterly changed in a few days, and again he rode away, full of anger, with a white beard that now reached down to his girdle and with legs that began to tremble beneath him.
At length he came to the empire of his father. Here there were new men and new dwellings, and the old ones had so altered that he scarce knew them.
So he came to the palace where he had first seen the light of day. As he dismounted the horse kissed his hand and said: "Fare thee well, my master! I return from whence I came. But if thou also wouldst return, mount again and we'll be off instantly."
"Nay," he replied, "fare thee well, I also will return soon."
Then the horse flew away like a dart.
But when Boy Beautiful beheld the palace all in
