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Page 71
"I should very much like to try," the Khoja kept thinking; "I should
exceedingly like to sit for once between those horns."
The notion haunted him, and he kept saying to himself, "I certainly
should like it, just for once."
One day the cow came before the house, and after a while lay down.
"The opportunity has arrived," cried the Khoja, and running out, he
seated himself between the cow's horns. "It is just as I thought," said
he; but as he spoke the cow got up, and tossed the Khoja violently to
the ground.
The Khoja was stunned, and when his wife hastened to the spot she found
him lying senseless. After some time he opened his eyes, and perceived
his wife weeping near him.
"O wife!" said the Khoja, "weep not; I am not less fortunate than other
men. I have suffered for it, but I have had my desire."
_Tale_ 52.--The Khoja and the Incompetent Barber.
On one occasion the Khoja was shaved by a most incompetent barber. At
every stroke the man cut his head with the razor, and kept sticking on
bits of cotton to stop the bleeding.
At last the Khoja lost patience.
"That will do," said he, jumping up: "you've sown cotton on half my
head, I'll keep the other half for flax;" and he ran out of the shop
with his head half shaved.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: A _Khoja_ is a religious teacher, and sometimes a
school-master also.]
THE SNARLING PRINCESS.
(_Freely adapted from the German._)
[Illustration]
Ever so long ago there lived a certain king, at whose court great
rejoicings were held for the birth of a child. But this joy was soon
turned to sorrow, when the young queen died, and left her infant
daughter motherless. As the body of the young queen lay in state,
wrapped in a shroud of gold all embroidered with flowers, and with so
sweet a smile upon her face that she looked like one who dreams happy
dreams in sleep, the sorrowing king took the child in his arms, and
kneeling by the bier vowed never to marry again, but to make his wife's
only child the heir of his crown and kingdom. This promise he faithfully
fulfilled, and remaining a widower, he devoted his life to the
upbringing of his daughter.
It is true that the young princess had a fairy godmother--a distant
cousin of the deceased queen--but the king could not endure that any one
but himself should have a voice in the management of his child, and the
fairy godmother, who was accustomed to the utmost deference to her
opinions, very soon quitted the court in a huff, and left the king as
supreme in the nursery as he was in the council-chamber.
[Illustration]
When the precious baby was washed, this was done with no common care.
The bath itself was made of gold, and the two chief physicians of the
kingdom assisted the king by their counsels. When hot water of crystal
clearness had been poured into the bath, the more celebrated of the two
physicians dipped the tip of his little finger in, and looking
inquiringly at his colleague, said "_Hum_." On which the physician of
lesser degree dipped in his little finger and said "_Hem_." And after
this the water always proved to be of the right temperature, and did the
young princess no harm whatever. The king himself on these occasions
always dropped--with much state--a few drops of exquisite scent into the
bath, from a golden flask studded with diamonds. The chief
lady-in-waiting brought the baby, wrapped in gorgeous robes, and put it
into the bath. The court doctors laid their fingers on their noses, and
looked very important, whilst the king--who was short-sighted--put on
his spectacles to enjoy the sight of the little princess, who gambolled
in the water like a fish. The rest of her toilette was carried out with
no less formality, and as the same scrupulous care watched over every
incident of her daily life, the child grew every day more healthy and
beautiful.
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