Part 6 (2/2)

”And how did it feel when you came back to life again?”

”Just as when one awakes on a clear morning after a deep and pleasant slumber.”

”To-morrow shall we go back to Persia?”

”Yes,” answered Lindagull. ”But the good woman and her son have had a share in saving the poor captive Lindagull. We will take them with us and they shall have a palace in Ispahan.”

”No; many, many thanks,” answered Pimpedora; ”I like my reindeer tent in Lapland better.”

”Are there snow and reindeer in Persia?” asked Pimpepanturi.

”Snow is found only on the highest mountains,” said the princess; ”and instead of reindeer we have horses, antelopes, and gazelles.”

”No, thank you heartily, then,” said Pimpepanturi. ”You can go with pleasure, and marry whom you wish. Nowhere in the world is there to be found so good a land as Lapland!”

It was of no use trying to dispute that question with the Laplanders, so the prince and princess set out the following day without them. Before departing they presented the Lapp woman and her son with their gold-embroidered clothes and with many jewels; receiving in return gifts of Lappish garments made from reindeer skin.

The Lapp woman put the costly Persian robes carefully away in birch bark, and rejoiced because with them she could buy a whole field of grain.

Shah Nadir sat alone in Ispahan's golden palace and groaned with grief.

He could not forget his lost daughter. His wicked and ungrateful sons had raised a rebellion against him, and were marching with a large army toward the capital to cast their father from the throne.

While affairs were at this juncture the Grand Vizier announced that a young foreign couple, dressed in reindeer skin and followed by a dog, wished to prostrate themselves at the king's feet.

Shah Nadir never refused audience to a stranger,--(perhaps such a traveler would know something of his dear lost child!)--and so the two foreigners were led into his presence.

The young man cast himself down before the feet of the Shah; but the young woman, without ado, threw her arms around his neck; at which proceeding the Grand Vizier's beard became green with consternation!

But Shah Nadir, under her Lappish hood of reindeer skin, recognized his child so long sought and so hopelessly bewailed. ”Allah! Allah!” cried he in joy; ”now I am willing to die!”

”No, my lord king,” broke out Prince Abderraman. ”Now shall you live to rejoice with us, and to win back your kingdom again.”

When Shah Nadir learned about his daughter's captivity and of the loyal service which the prince had shown her, he immediately proclaimed Prince Abderraman successor to his throne, promised him the Princess Lindagull in marriage, and sent him in command of the fifty thousand knights with gold saddles to fight the rebellious army.

It was not long before the prince won a glorious battle, took the rebel sons prisoners, and came back victorious to the rejoicing people of Ispahan.

Then was the wedding of Prince Abderraman and Princess Lindagull celebrated with great state (but without a wild beast fight!) and they lived long and happily after. But one day every year,--and that was the thirty-first of August, the date of Princess Lindagull's deliverance,--the royal pair showed themselves (to the great wonderment of magnificent Persia) in the Lapps' outlandish clothes of reindeer skin, so that in their prosperity they should not forget the great escape and blessing of the past.

In his old age, Shah Nadir had happy little grandchildren to sit upon his knee. The wicked sons ended their careers as swineherds for old King Bom Bali in Turan. The dog, Valledivau, lived to be thirty years old and died of the toothache (!); his skin was stuffed and kept in great honor.

But about Pimpedora, and Pimpepanturi who bore for a season the proud name of Morus Pandorus von Pikkulukulikuck'ulu, nothing has since been heard in Persia. Probably they have never found a better land on the earth's broad expanse than Lapland.

--_Z. Topelius_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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