the robe of honor and mount him on the mule, and let him be surrounded

by the guards and preceded by the band of music." They came to the
ship and took me from the Captain and robed me in the robe of honor

and, mounting me on the she-mule, carried me in state procession
through the streets whilst the people were amazed and amused. And folk

said to one another: "Halloo! Is our Sultan about to make an ape his
Minister?" and came all agog crowding to gaze at me, and the town

was astir and turned topsy-turvy on my account. When they brought me
up to the King and set me in his presence, I kissed the ground

before him three times, and once before the High Chamberlain and great
officers, and he bade me be seated, and I sat respectfully on shins

and knees, and all who were present marveled at my fine manners, and
the King most of all.

Thereupon he ordered the lieges to retire, and when none remained
save the King's Majesty, the eunuch on duty, and a little white slave,

he bade them set before me the table of food, containing all manner of
birds, whatever hoppeth and flieth and treadeth in nest, such as quail

and sand grouse. Then he signed to me to eat with him, so I rose and
kissed ground before him, then sat me down and ate with him. Presently

they set before the King choice wines in flagons of glass and he
drank. Then he passed on the cup to me, and I kissed the ground and

drank and wrote on it:
With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue,

And pain and patience gave for fellowship.
Hence comes it hands of men upbear me high

And honeydew from lips of maid I sip!
The King read my verse and said with a sigh, "Were these gifts in

a man, he would excel all the folk of his time and age!" Then he
called for the chessboard, and said, "Say, wilt thou play with me?"

and I signed with my head, "Yes." Then I came forward and ordered
the pieces and played with him two games, both of which I won. He

was speechless with surprise, so I took the pen case and, drawing
forth a reed, wrote on the board these two couplets:

Two hosts fare fighting thro' the livelong day,
Nor is their battling ever finished

Until, when darkness girdeth them about,
The twain go sleeping in a single bed.

The King read these lines with wonder and delight and said to his
eunuch, "O Mukbil, go to thy mistress, Sitt al-Husn, and say her,

'Come, speak the King, who biddeth thee hither to take thy solace in
seeing this right wondrous ape!"' So the eunuch went out, and

presently returned with the lady, who when she saw me veiled her
face and said: "O my father, hast thou lost all sense of honor? How

cometh it thou art pleased to send for me and show me to strange men?"
"O Sitt al-Husn," said he, "no man is here save this little foot

page and the eunuch who reared thee and I, thy father. From whom,
then, dost thou veil thy face?" She answered, "This whom thou

deemest an ape is a young man, a clever and polite, a wise and
learned, and the son of a king. But he is ensorceled, and the Ifrit

Jirjaris, who is of the seed of Iblis, cast a spell upon him, after
putting to death his own wife, the daughter of King Ifitamus lord of

the Islands of Abnus." The King marveled at his daughter's words
and, turning to me, said, "Is this true that she saith of thee?" and I

signed by a nod of my head the answer "Yea, verily," and wept sore.
Then he asked his daughter, "Whence knewest thou that he is

ensorceled?" and she answered: "O my dear Papa, there was with me in
my childhood an old woman, a wily one and a wise and a witch to

boot, and she taught me the theory of magic and its practice, and I
took notes in writing and therein waxed perfect, and have committed to

memory a hundred and seventy chapters of egromantic formulas, by the
least of which I could transport the stones of thy city behind the

Mountain Kaf and the Circumambient Main, or make its site an abyss
of the sea and its people fishes swimming in the midst of it." "O my

daughter," said her father, "I conjure thee, by my life, disenchant
this young man, that I may make him my Wazir and marry thee to him,

for indeed he is an ingenious youth and a deeply learned." "With joy
and goodly gree," she replied and, hending in hand an iron knife

whereon was inscribed the name of Allah in Hebrew characters she
described a wide circle in the midst of the palace hall, and therein

wrote in Kufic letters mysterious names and talismans. And she uttered
words and muttered charms, some of which we understood and others we

understood not.
Presently the world waxed dark before our sight till we thought that

the sky was falling upon our heads, and lo! the Ifrit presented
himself in his own shape and aspect. His hands were like

many-pronged pitchforks, his legs like the masts of great ships, and
his eyes like cressets of gleaming fire. We were in terrible fear of

him, but the King's daughter cried at him, "No welcome to thee and
no greeting, O dog!" Whereupon he changed to the form of a lion and

said, "O traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware
that neither should contraire other?" "O accursed one," answered

she, "how could there be a compact between me and the like of thee?"
Then said he, "Take what thou hast brought on thyself." And the lion

open his jaws and rushed upon her, but she was too quick for him, and,
plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it

the while. And the hair straightway became a trenchant sword blade,
wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves

flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess
became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the

two fought, coiling and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least.
Then the scorpion changed to a vulture and the serpent became an

eagle, which set upon the vulture and hunted him for an hour's time,
till he became a black tomcat, which miauled and grinned and spat.

Thereupon the eagle changed into a piebald wolf and these two
battled in the palace for a long time, when the cat, seeing himself

overcome, changed into a worm and crept into a huge red pomegranate
which lay beside the jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall.

Whereupon the pomegranate swelled to the size of a watermelon in air
and, falling upon the marblepavement of the palace, broke to

pieces, and all the grains fell out and were scattered about till they
covered the whole floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a

snow-white cock, which fell to picking up the grains, purposing not to
leave one, but by doom of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain edge

and there lay hid.
The cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us

with his beak as if to ask, "Are any grains left?" But we understood
not what he meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we

thought the palace would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the
floor till he saw the grain which had rolled to the fountain edge, and

rushed eagerly to pick it up when behold, it sprang into the midst
of the water and became a fish and dived to the bottom of the basin.

Thereupon the cock changed to a big fish, and plunged in after the
other, and the two disappeared for a while and lo! we heard loud

shrieks and cries of pain which made us tremble. After this the
Ifrit rose out of the water, and he was as a burning flame, casting

fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and nostrils. And immediately
the Princess likewise came forth from the basin, and she was one

live coal of flaming lowe, and these two, she and he, battled for
the space of an hour, until their fires entirely compassed them

about and their thick smoke filled the palace.
As for us, we panted for breath, being well-nigh suffocated, and

we longed to plunge into the water, fearing lest we be burnt up and
utterly destroyed. And the King said: "There is no Majesty and there

is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great! Verily we are
Allah's and unto Him are we returning! Would Heaven I had not urged my

daughter to attempt the disenchantment of this ape fellow, whereby I
have imposed upon her the terrible task of fighing yon accursed Ifrit,