see thee in it.' Upon this, the Afreet shook himself, and became converted again into smoke, which rose to the sky, and then entered the bottle little by little, until it was all inclosed.

"Thereupon the fisherman hastily snatched the sealed 5 leaden stopper, and having replaced it in the mouth of the bottle, called out to the Afreet, and said: Choose in what manner thou wilt die. I will assuredly throw thee here into the sea, and build me a house on this spot; and whosoever shall come here, I will prevent his fishing in this 10 place, and will say to him, "Here is an Afreet, who, to any person who liberates him, will propose various kinds of death, and then give him his choice of one.'

"On hearing these words of the fisherman, the Afreet endeavored to escape; but could not, finding himself 15 restrained by the impression of the seal of Solomon. The fisherman then took the bottle to the brink of the sea. The Afreet exclaimed, 'Nay! nay!'-to which the fisherman answered, 'Yea, without fail! yea, without fail!' The Afreet then, addressing him with a soft voice 20 and humble manner, said, 'What dost thou intend to do with me, O fisherman?' He answered, 'I will throw

thee into the sea; and as thoù hast been there a thousand and eight hundred years, I will make thee to remain there until the hour of judgment.'

"At this the Afreet roared and cried: For the love of Spare me and do

Allah, O fisherman, do not do that!

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not bear me malice for what I did, for we Afreets are stupid folk. Let me out, and I will swear to bring thee great riches.'

"The fisherman accepted his offer and unsealed the 5 bottle. Then the smoke ascended as before, and gathered itself together, and became an Afreet, who gave the bottle a kick, and sent it in the sea. When the fisherman saw this, he gave himself up for lost. But the Afreet laughed, and started off inland, saying to the fisherman, 10' Follow me.' So he followed him, trembling. And he led him to a plain, and in the midst of this lay a lake surrounded by four little hills. He led the fisherman into the lake and bade him throw his net. The fisherman looked into the water, and was astonished to see fish 15 of four colors, white and red and blue and yellow. Then he took his net and cast it, and when he drew it in, he found in it four fish, one of each color. And the Afreet said, Carry these to the Sultan and he will reward thee richly.' And so indeed it came to pass."

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20 But when Shahrazad had concluded this story, the king determined to hear still another, and so Shahrazad continued for a thousand and one nights, by which time the king had lost his suspicions of womankind, and they lived happily forever after.

-Adapted from the translation by E. W. LANE.

ex hor'ted, pleaded with; author'i ty, power; mal'ice, ill will; Sul'tan, emperor.

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THE VOYAGES OF SINDBAD THE SAILOR

[ANOTHER marvelous set of stories in The Thousand and One Nights are those which Sindbad the Sailor tells about his extraordinary voyages, in each of which he meets with terrible disasters, and escapes destruction only by his quick wits and good fortune. It was during one of these long and perilous voyages that one of the most interesting adventures of his life befell him. He had been accidentally separated from his companions and cast upon a lonely island. He relates his experiences as follows: -]

I CLIMBED up a lofty tree and began to look from it to the right and to the left, but saw nothing save sky and water and trees and birds and islands and sands. Looking carefully, however, I seemed to see distinctly in the distance a white object of enormous size. I then descended 5 from the tree and went towards it, and lo! it was a large white dome of great height. I drew near to it and walked around it, but found no door to it, and it was so smooth that I was unable to climb it. I made a mark at the place where I stood and went round the dome, measuring 10 the distance, and lo! it was fifty full paces. In my perplexity I then sat down to plan some means of entering this strange building.

The close of the day had now drawn near, and suddenly the sun was hidden and the sky became dark. I 15 imagined that a cloud had come over it, but I raised my

head and saw that the cloud was a bird of enormous size,

flying in the air,

which had cast a

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shadow over this part of the island. At this my wonder increased, but I remembered a story which travelers had told

me long before, that there is in certain islands a huge bird called the roc, which feeds its young with elephants. I was convinced therefore that the dome which I had seen was one of the eggs of the roc, and lo! the bird alighted by its egg and brooded over it with its wings and slept over it. Thereupon I arose and un

wound my turban from my head and folded it and twisted it, so that it became like a rope, and I girded myself with

it, binding it tightly round my waist, and tied myself by it to one of the feet of the bird and made the knot fast, saying within myself, "Perhaps this bird will convey me to a land of cities and inhabitants, and that will be better than remaining in this island."

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When the dawn came and morn appeared, the bird rose from his egg and uttered a great cry and drew me up into the sky. It soared so high that I imagined that it had reached the highest region of the sky. It then descended with me gradually until it alighted with me upon the 10 earth, and when I reached the earth I hastily untied the rope from its feet and walked away. But the roc flew away towards the sea.

I found myself in a deep and narrow valley, the floor of which was composed of diamonds, but the sides of the 15 valley were exceedingly steep and high, and in spite of the riches at my feet I lamented that my ill fortune had thus led me from one calamity into another. But as I thus mournfully walked along the valley, lo! the carcass of a sheep fell at my feet as from the skies. I wondered 20 greatly at this until I recalled having heard a traveler from distant lands tell of this very valley of diamonds, and how the diamond merchants, unable to descend to the floor of the valley on account of its great depth and the steepness of its sides, had hit on this plan. They kill a 25 sheep and skin it, and throw it down from the cliffs to the floor of the valley. And some of the loose diamonds stick