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the Princess of China 135

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surprises me by bringing with you a man whom I do not know,
and by whom my religion forbids me to let myself be seen.’

‘Daughter,’ replied the king, ‘you need not be scandalised, it
is only one of my emirs who is come to demand you in marriage.’

‘It is not, I perceive, the person that you have already given
me, and whose faith is plighted by the ring 1 wear, replied the
princess; ‘be not offended that I will never marry any other.’

The emir expected the princess would have said or done some
extravagant thing, and was not a little disappointed when he heard
her talk so calmly and rationally ; for then he understood what
was really the matter. He dared not explain himself to the king,
who would not have suffered the princess to give her hand to any
other than the person to whom he wished to give her with his own
hand. He therefore threw himself at his majesty’s feet, and said,
‘ After what I have heard and observed, sir, it will be to no purpose
for me to think of curing the princess, since I have no remedies
suited to her malady;for which reason I humbly submit my life to
your majesty’s pleasure.’ The king, enraged at his incapacity and
the trouble he had given him, caused him immediately to
be beheaded.

Some days afterwards, his majesty, unwilling to have it said that
he had neglected his daughter’s cure, ‘put forth a proclamation in his
capital, to the effect that if there were any physician, astrologer,
‘or magician, who would undertake to restore the princess to her
senses, he need only come, and he should be employed, on
condition of losing his head if he miscarried. He had the same
published in the other principal cities and towns of his dominions,
and in the courts of the princes his neighbours.

The first that presented himself was an astrologer and magician,
whom the king caused to be conducted to the princess’s. prison.
The astrologer drew forth out of a .bag he carried under ‘his
arm ‘an astrolabe, a small sphere, . a chafing dish, ‘several sorts of