“A hundred feet of the water fell quickly, and then Fronto saw that the Sun Prince, in drying up the water, could doom him and his followers to death. Panic-stricken, he restored the Princess, and begged for mercy. “Corus, though happy to have his beloved bride again, felt that the awful crime Fronto had committed should not be treated lightly. His punishment must serve as a warning to the world. Still, at the request of his gentle-hearted bride, he forgave his false friend, and sent him back safe with his companions to the Ocean King. However, he forced Fronto to remain in his father’s dominions for ever, saying that he had proven, by his treachery, he was unfit to govern a kingdom of his own. Moreover, that kingdom should exist no longer. He would dry it up and make it a huge desert, to mark the spot of a false friend’s perfidy. “So the Sun never relaxed his fierce gaze, nor the wind its hot breath. Together they scorched the seabed until the water disappeared, and the bottom looked like a huge white bowl. Then slowly the desert formed. The fierce heat became so intense that even the rains refused to fall there, and the earth was too salty to allow anything to grow. Every living creature shunned it. Neither bird nor beast would visit it, and thus it remained for thousands of years. “When you are in the bottom of this bowl, you are nearly three hundred feet below the ocean. Upon all sides are great mountains, some over ten thousand feet high; and this spot is the hottest place in the world. The desert looks like a great plain leading out to the horizon. The soil is almost as fine as white flour. “But, silent and deserted as it is, the Sun Prince declared that, because his beloved bride had been kept there, it should still be sacred in his eyes—still retain a certain fascination. So, in all its desolation, it does possess a weird beauty of its own. The sand dunes reflect the light of the sky. They are sometimes deep blue, sometimes topaz yellow, and again, at sunset, a brilliant rose. “The quiet of the desert is profound, save when some whirling sand-storm blows. Then all living creatures caught there are lost unless they lie flat and cover heads and mouths. Except for this, the air is always magnificent. At times, it is all covered with a pink mist; at other times, it is a pure golden haze. The mountains, too, are in changing shades of purple and lilac and blue, with golden and blood-red colors mingled.