'After five days Rabscuttle slipped out again with the children and came back to El-ahrairah. When he heard that the king was ill and that Rabscuttle had done all he wanted, El-ahrairah set to work to disguise himself. He clipped his white tail and made Rabscuttle nibble his fur short and stain it with mud and blackberries. Then he covered himself all over with trailing strands of goose-grass and big burdocks and he even found ways to alter his smell. At last even his own wives could not recognize him, and El-ahrairah told Rabscuttle to follow some way behind and off he went to King Darzin's palace. But Rabscuttle waited outside, on the top of the hill.
'When he got to the palace, El-ahrairah demanded to see the captain of the guard. "You are to take me to the King," he said. "Prince Rainbow has sent me. He has heard that the King is ill and he has sent for me, from the distant land beyond Kelfazin, to find the cause of his sickness. Be quick! I am not accustomed to be kept waiting."
' "How do I know this is true?" asked the captain of the guard.
' "It is all one to me," replied El-ahrairah. "What is the sickness of a little king to the chief physician of the land beyond the golden river of Frith? I will return and tell Prince Rainbow that the king's guard were foolish and gave me such treatment as one might expect from a crowd of flea-bitten louts."
'He turned and began to go away, but the captain of the guard became frightened and called him back. El-ahrairah allowed himself to be persuaded and the soldiers took him to the king.
'After five days of bad food and bad stomach, the king was not inclined to be suspicious of someone who said that Prince Rainbow had sent him to make him better. He begged El-ahrairah to examine him and promised to do all he said.
'El-ahrairah made a great bu
siness of examining the king. He looked at his eyes and his ears and his teeth and his droppings and the ends of his claws and he inquired what he had been eating. Then he demanded to see the royal store-rooms and the lettuce-garden. When he came back he looked very grave and said, "Great king, I know well what sorry news it will be to you, but the cause of your sickness is those very lettuces by which you set such store."
' "The lettuces?" cried King Darzin. "Impossible! They are all grown from good, healthy seed and guarded day and night."
' "Alas!" said El-ahrairah,-"I know it well! But they have been infected by the dreaded Lousepedoodle, that flies in ever-decreasing circles through the Gunpat of the Cludge - a deadly virus - dear me, yes! - isolated by the purple Awago and maturing in the grey-green forests of the Okey Pokey. This, you understand, is to put the matter for you in simple terms, insofar as I can. Medically speaking, there are certain complexities with which I will not weary you."
' "I cannot believe it," said the king.
"The simplest course," said El-ahrairah, "will be to prove it to you. But we need not make one of your subjects ill. Tell the soldiers to go out and take a prisoner."
'The soldiers went out and the first creature they found was Rabscuttle, grazing on the hill-top. They dragged him through the gates and into the king's presence.
' "Ah, a rabbit," said El-ahrairah. "Nasty creature! So much the better. Disgusting rabbit, eat that lettuce!"
'Rabscuttle did so and soon afterwards he began to moan and thrash about. He kicked in convulsions and rolled his eyes. He gnawed at the floor and frothed at the mouth.
' "He is very ill," said El-ahrairah. "He must have got an exceptionally bad one. Or else, which is more probable, the infection is particularly deadly to rabbits. But in any event, let us be thankful it was not Your Majesty. Well, he has served our purpose. Throw him out! I would strongly advise Your Majesty," went on El-ahrairah, "not to leave the lettuces where they are, for they will shoot and flower and seed. The infection will spread. I know it is disappointing, but you must get rid of them."
'At that moment, as luck would have it, in came the captain of the guard, with Yona the hedgehog.
' "Your Majesty," he cried, "this creature returns from the marshes of Kelfazin. The people of El-ahrairah are mustering for war. They say they are coming to attack Your Majesty's garden and steal the royal lettuces. May I have your Majesty's order to take out the soldiers and destroy them?"
' "Aha!" said the king, "I have thought of a trick worth two of that. 'Particularly deadly to rabbits.' Well! Well! Let them have all the lettuces they want. In fact, you are to take a thousand down to the marshes of Kelfazin and leave them there. Ho! Ho! What a joke! I feel all the better for it!"
' "Ah, what deadly cunning!" said El-ahrairah. "No wonder Your Majesty is ruler of a great people. I believe you are already recovering. As with many illnesses, the cure is simple, once perceived. No, no, I will accept no reward. In any case, there is nothing here that would be thought of value in the shining land beyond the golden river of Frith. I have done as Prince Rainbow required. It is sufficient. Perhaps you will be so good as to tell your guards to accompany me to the foot of the hill?" He bowed, and left the palace.
'Later that evening, as El-ahrairah was urging his rabbits to growl more fiercely and run up and down in the marshes of Kelfazin, Prince Rainbow came over the river.
' "El-ahrairah," he called, "am I bewitched?"
' "It is quite possible," said El-ahrairah. "The dreaded Lousepedoodle -"
' "There are a thousand lettuces in a pile at the top of the marsh. Who put them there?"
' "I told you they were being delivered," said El-ahrairah. "You could hardly expect my people, weak and hungry as they are, to carry them all the way from King Darzin's garden. However, they will soon recover now, under the treatment that I shall prescribe. I am a physician, I may say, and if you have not heard as much, Prince Rainbow, you may take it that you soon will, from another quarter. Rabscuttle, go out and collect the lettuces."
'Then Prince Rainbow saw that El-ahrairah had been as good as his word, and that he himself must keep his promise too. He let the rabbits out of the marshes of Kelfazin and they multiplied everywhere. And from that day to this, no power on earth can keep a rabbit out of a vegetable garden, for El-ahrairah prompts them with a thousand tricks, the best in the world.'
16. Silverweed
He said, 'Dance for me' and he said,
'You are too beautiful for the wind
To pick at, or the sun to burn.' He said,