“ ‘Oh!’ said the unhappy Bladud, clasping his hands, and mournfully raising his eyes towards the sky, ‘would that my wanderings might end here! Would that these grateful tears with which I now mourn hope misplaced, and love despised, might flow in peace forever!’

“The wish was heard. It was in the time of the heathen deities, who used occasionally to take people at their words, with a promptness, in some cases, extremely awkward. The ground opened beneath the prince’s feet; he sank into the chasm; and instantaneously it closed upon his head forever, save where his hot tears welled up through the earth, and where they have continued to gush forth ever since.