The Arabian Nights [688]
"Well, my son," said the Hijjemmee, "art thou now convinced of my skill, and my sincerity in offering to promote thy fortunes?" "I am," said Mazin, "and am ready to follow wherever thou choosest, in hopes of learning this invaluable secret" "That shall soon be thine," replied the transmuter of metals; "I will sup with thee this evening, and in the privacy of retirement give thee the necessary instruction." Mazin, overjoyed, immediately shut up his shop, and with his adopted father repaired to his own house, where he seated him in his best apartment. He then went to his mother, desiring that she would go and spend the night at a neighbour's, shewing her the gold which his broken copper had procured, as a proof of the sincerity of his new friend. The old lady no longer doubted upon such evidence, and cheerfully took leave and departed to a friend's house.
Mazin next went to a cook's shop, from which he returned laden with every sort of refreshment, nor was wine forgotten, though forbidden to the faithful. The adopted father and son ate heartily, at the same time pushing about the spirit-stirring liquor, till at last Mazin, who had not been used to drink wine, became intoxicated. The wily magician, for such in fact was his pretended friend, watching his opportunity, infused into the goblet of his unsuspecting host a certain potent drug, which Mazin had scarcely drunk oft, when he fell back upon his cushion totally insensible, the treacherous wizard tumbled him into a large chest, and shutting the lid, locked it. He then ransacked the apartments of the house of every thing portable worth having, which, with the gold, he put into another chest, then fetching in porters, he made them take up the chests and follow him to the seaside, where a vessel waited his orders to sail, and embarked with the unfortunate Mazin and his plunder. The anchor was weighed, and the wind being fair, the ship was soon out of sight of the land.
Mazin's mother early in the morning returning to her house found the door open, her son missing, and the rooms ransacked of all her valuables. She gave a loud shriek, tore her hair, beat her bosom, and threw herself on the ground, crying out for her son, who she thought must have been murdered by the treacherous magician, against whose professions she had warned him to be cautious, till the sight of the transmuted gold had deceived her, as well as the unfortunate victim of his accursed arts. Some neighbours hearing her lamentations rushed in, lifted her from the ground, and inquired the cause of her distress; which, when informed of, they endeavoured to alleviate by every consolation in their power, but in vain: the afflicted old lady was not to be comforted. She commanded a tombstone to be raised in the court-yard, over which she sat night and day bewailing her son, taking scarcely food sufficient to preserve her miserable existence.
The infidel Hijjemmee, who was a wicked magician and a worshipper of fire, by name Bharam, hated the true believers, one of whom annually for several years past he had inveigled by his offers of instructing in the science of transmuting metals into his power; and after making him subservient to his purposes in procuring the ingredients necessary for his art, had treacherously put him to death, lest the secret should be divulged: such was now his intention towards the unfortunate Mazin.
On the evening of the second day after the sailing of the vessel, Bharam thought proper to awaken his victim to a sense of his misery. He opened the chest, which had been placed in his cabin, and poured a certain liquid down the throat of Mazin, who instantly sneezed several times; then opening his eyes, gazed for some minutes wildly around him. At length, seeing the magician, observing the sea, and feeling the motion of the ship, his mind surmised to him the misfortune which had happened; and he guessed his having fallen into the snares of the treacherous Bharam, against which his mother had warned him, but in vain. Still, being a virtuous Mussulmaun, he would not complain against the decrees