THE OLD MAN AND THE HIND. [5

I destined for my son. In short, you shall perceive how I can
acknowledge the important service you do me. I agree also to
that which regards my wife ; a person who has been capable of
so criminal an action is worthy of punishment. I abandon her
to you, do what you please with her; I only entreat you to
spare her life.” “J will treat her, then,” she said, “in the same
manner as she has treated your son.” To this I gave my con-
sent, provided she first restored my son to me.

The damsel then took a vessel full of water, and pronouncing
over it some words I did not understand, she thus addressed
herself to the calf: “O calf, if thou hast been created by the
all-powerful Sovereign of the world, as thou now appearest, re-
tain that form; but if thou art a man, and hast been changed
by enchantment into a calf, resume, by permission of thy divine
Creator, thy natural figure!” In saying this, she threw the
water over him, and he instantly regained his own form.

“My child! my dear child,” I immediately exclaimed, and
embraced him with a transport I could not restrain ; “it is the
Almighty who hath sent this damsel to us, to destroy the hor-
rible charm with which you were surrounded, and to avenge the
evil which has been done to you and your mother. I am sure
your gratitude will induce you to accept her for a wife, as I have
already promised for you.” He joyfully consented ; but before
they were united the damsel changed my wife into this hind,
which you see here. I wished her to have this form in pre:
ference to any other more unpleasant, that we might see her,
without repugnance, in our family.

Since this, my son has become a widower, and is now travel-
ling. Many years have passed since I have heard anything of
him; I have therefore now set out with a view to gain some
information; and as I did not like to trust my wife to the care
of any one during my search, I thought proper to carry her
along with me. This is the history of myself and this hind: can
anything be more wonderful? “TI agree with you,” said the
Genius, “ and in consequence, I grant a third of my pardon to
this merchant.”

As soon as the first old man had finished his history, the
second, who led the two black dogs, said to the Genius, “I will
relate to you what has happened to me and these two dogs
which vou see; and I am sure you will find my history still more