Its eyes were on long horns like a snail`s eyes... it had ears like a bat`s ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider`s and covered with thick, soft fur... and it had hands and feet like a monkey`s. `It` was the Psammead, the grumpy sand-fairy that could, if in the mood, grant a wish a day. When the five children befriend him they find that each wish granted often has a sting in its tail. Golden guineas are too difficult to spend, wings let them down in a most inconvenient way, and when they wish for Red Indians, the children forget that they can sometimes be a little warlike.