Page:Researches respecting the Book of Sindibad and Portuguese Folk-Tales.djvu/64

approached the table, he heard a voice which said, "Eat and lie down on the bed which you see there, and in the morning rise and take with you what you will find on that table, which is what your daughter asked you for; but at the end of three days you must bring her here." The man was very pleased to be able to take home what his daughter had asked him for, but at the same time was distressed at what the voice had said it required him to do. He threw himself on the bed, and on the following morning he arose, went straight to the table, and found upon it the slice of roach off a green meadow. He took it up and went home; the moment he arrived his daughters surrounded him: "Father, what have you brought us? let us see what it is;" the father gave them what he had brought them. The third daughter, the one he loved most, did not ask him for anything, but simply if he was well. The father answered her, "My daughter, I come back both happy and sad! Here you have what you asked me for." "Oh! father, I asked you for this because it was a thing which did not exist; but why do you come back sad?" "Because I must take you at the end of three days to the place where this was given to me." He recounted all that had occurred to him in the place, and what the voice had told him to do. When the daughter heard all she replied, "Do not distress yourself, father, for I shall go, and whatever God wills, will happen." And so it happened that at the end of three days the father took her to the enchanted palace It was all illuminated and in a blaze of light; the table was laid, and two beds had been prepared. As they entered they heard a voice saying, "Eat and remain with your daughter three days that she may not feel frightened." The man remained the three days in the palace, and at the end went away leaving the daughter alone! The voice spoke to her every day but no form was seen. At the end of a few days the girl heard a bird singing in the garden. The voice said to her, "Do you hear that bird sing?" "Yes, I