Chrysoprase 141
cess
Trina, who, to succour her people in time of dire famine, stripped
herself of all her possessions but a pitiful last piece of jewelry, a
golden lizard with green eyes of chrysoprase, given to the princess on
her wedding day by her deceased mother. A wizard admonished the
princess never to part with the lizard, because it would some day bring
untold riches, and besides that, whoever possessed any leek-green
chrysoprase would, in time of great distress, understand the language
of animals. Eeduced to the verge of selling her last treasure by the
unbearable sight of the sufferings of the children of her starving
people, the good Princess Trina was weeping and praying at a window,
when a tiny lizard with glittering green eyes darted into the room,
and, in a silver voice and lacertilian language, which the princess by
virtue of her talisman understood perfectly, said: " Help shall arise
for thee out of a river: Only seek."
Thus
admonished the princess wandered through the stony bed of one river
after another wearing out her eyes, her strength, and her soul, in the
search; until, when about to succumb to exhaustion, she discovered a
vast treasure of chrysoprase, thus ending the famine
