had seen anything at all, till Husain Mahamat said the prince was
speaking the exact truth. They had the garden searched for the terrible
old woman, but found nothing, and King Dantal told his son he was very
silly to be so much frightened. However, Prince Majnun would not walk
in the garden any more.

The next day Laili turned into a pretty little dog; and in this shape
she came into the palace, where Prince Majnun soon became very fond of
her. She followed him everywhere, went with him when he was out
hunting, and helped him to catch his game, and Prince Majnun fed her
with milk, or bread, or anything else he was eating, and at night the
little dog slept in his bed.

But one night the little dog disappeared, and in its stead there lay
the little old woman who had frightened him so much in the garden; and
now Prince Majnun was quite sure she was a Rakshas, or a demon, or some
such horrible thing come to eat him; and in his terror he cried out,
"What do you want? Oh, do not eat me; do not eat me!" Poor Laili
answered, "Don't you know me? I am your wife Laili, and I want to marry
you. Don't you remember how you would go through that jungle, though I
begged and begged you not to go, for I told you that harm would happen
to me, and then a fakir came and threw powder in my face, and I became
a heap of ashes. But Khuda gave me my life again, and brought me here,
after I had stayed a long, long while in the jungle crying for you, and
now I am obliged to be a little dog; but if you will marry me, I shall
not be a little dog any more." Majnun, however, said "How can I marry
an old woman like you? how can you be Laili? I am sure you are a
Rakshas or a demon come to eat me," and he was in great terror.

In the morning the old woman had turned into the little dog, and the