punchkin fakir wandered through the palace, and saw many beautiful things there, till at last he reached the room where balna sat singing beside her little boy's cradle. the magician thought her more beautiful than all the other beautiful things he had seen, insomuch that he asked her to go home with him and to marry him. but she said, "my husband, i fear, is dead, but my little boy is still quite young; i will stay here and teach him to grow up a clever man, and when he is grown up he shall go out into the world, and try and learn tidings of his father. heaven forbid that i should ever leave him, or marry you."