In this way the King strode on day by day until he had passedentirely out of his own kingdom. At evening he stopped at someconvenient house on the road, and if any of his followers did notfind himself near a house or cottage when the King shouted back theorder to halt, he laid himself down to sleep wherever he might be. Bythis time the increasing line of followers had used up all theofficers of the court, and it became necessary to draw upon some ofthe under government officers in order to keep the line perfect.

The King had not gone fairly far outside the limits of his dominionswhen he met a Sphinx. He had often heard of these creatures, althoughhe had never seen one before. But when he saw the winged body of alion with a woman's head, he really knew instantly what it was. He knew,also, that the chief business of a Sphinx was that of asking peoplequestions, and then getting them into trouble if the right answerswere not given. He therefore determined that he would not be caughtby any such tricks as these, and that he would be on his guard if theSphinx spoke to him. The creature was lying down when the King firstsaw it, but when he approached nearer it rose to its feet. There wasnothing savage about its look, and the King was not at all afraid.

"Where are you going?" exclaimed the Sphinx to him, in a pleasant voice.

"Give it up," said in reply the King.

"What do you mean by that?" exclaimed the other, with an air of surprise.