"Well, for the sake of the tea, and because you are my own
boy, I will open the bag."
She did so, and the South Wind crept out, looking quite
cast down, because the prince had seen his disgrace.
"There is a palm-leaf for the princess," he said. "The old
phoenix, the only one in the world, gave it to me himself. He has
scratched on it with his beak the whole of his history during the
hundred years he has lived. She can there read how the old phoenix
set fire to his own nest, and sat upon it while it was burning,
like a Hindoo widow. The dry twigs around the nest crackled and
smoked till the flames burst forth and consumed the phoenix to
ashes. Amidst the fire lay an egg, red hot, which presently burst
with a loud report, and out flew a young bird. He is the only
phoenix in the
