Transcribed from the 1889 J. W. Arrowsmith edition by David Price,
PRINCE PRIGIO
by
ANDREW LANG
author of
“the mark of cain, “the gold of fairnilee”
etc.
Twenty-seven Illustrations by Gordon Browne
1889
BRISTOL
J. W. Arrowsmith, Quay Street
london
Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 4 Stationers’ Hall Court
All rights reserved
p. iPRINCE PRIGIO
is
Dedicated
to
ALMA
THYRA
EDITH
ROSALIND
NORNA
CECILY
AND VIOLET
p. iiPREFACE.
In compiling the following History from the Archives of Pantouflia, the Editor has incurred several obligations to the Learned. The Return of Benson (chapter xii.) is the fruit of the research of the late Mr. Allen Quatermain, while the final wish of Prince Prigio was suggested by the invention or erudition of a Lady.
A study of the Firedrake in South Africa—where heis called the Nanaboulélé, a difficult word—has been published in French (translated from the Basuto language) by M. Paul Sébillot, in the Revue des Traditione Populaires. For the Remora, the Editor is indebted to the Voyage à la Lune of M. Cyrano de Bergérac.
p. 1CHAPTER I.
How the Fairies were not Invited to Court.
Once upon a time there reigned in Pantouflia a king and a queen. With almost everything else to make them happy, theywanted one thing: they had no children. This vexed the kingeven more than the queen, who was very clever and learned, and who had hated p. 2dolls when she was a child. However, she, too in spite of all the books she read and all the pictures she painted, would have been glad enough to be the mother of a little prince. The king was anxious to consult the fairies, but the queen would not hear of such a thing. She did not believe in fairies: she said that they had never existed; and that she maintained, though The History of the Royal Family was full of chapters about nothing else.
Well, at long and at last they had a little boy, who was generally reg