• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 29822 0

enriched than all the sovereigns of the world, but thou must be sure to obey me in whatever I may command." Mazin promised to do so, but his heart trembled within him as he beheld the gloomy prospect before him, and recollected the boast which the accursed magician had made of his having sacrificed thirty-nine youthful victims on these mountains, and also his threat on board the ship to make the fortieth offering of himself. He repented of having trusted himself from the vessel, but it was now too late to recede. He resigned himself to the same Providence who had relieved his sufferings in his voyage, and concealed, as well as he could, his uneasiness from the magician, who now endeavoured to sooth and flatter him with artful promises and caresses.

For four days longer they pursued their route, when it was stopped by the black mountains, which formed, as it were, a wall inaccessible, for the precipices were perpendicular, as if scarped by art, and their tremendous height cast a dark and gloomy shade to a vast distance. They now dismounted, and turned their camels to graze, when the magician took out of his package three loaves and a sum of water, after which he lighted a fire; then having beat his talismanic drum, the camels again appeared, the smallest of which he killed, embowelled, and carefully flayed off the skin, the inside of which he washed with water. Having done thus, he addressed Mazin, saying, "My son, the task must now be thine to crown our labours with success. Enter this skin, with these loaves and this water bag for thy sustenance while thou remainest on the summit of the mountain. Be not afraid, for no harm can happen I will sew up the skin, leaving room enough for the admission of air. By and by a roc will descend, and seizing it in her talons carry thee easily through the air. When she shall have alighted on the table-land of the mountain, rip open the stitches of the skin with thy dagger, and the roc on seeing thee will be instantly scared, and fly far away. Then arise, gather as much as possible of a black dust which thou wilt find thickly strewed on the ground; put it into this bag, and throw it down to me, after which I will contrive an easy means for thy descent, and when thou hast rejoined me we will return to our vessel, and I will convey thee safely back to thy own country. The dust, which has the quality of transmuting metals into gold, we will share between us, and shall each have enough to rival all the treasuries on earth."

Mazin finding it in vain to oppose, allowed himself to be sewn up in the camel's skin with the loaves and water, recommending himself by mental prayer to the protection of Allah and his prophet. The magician having finished his work retired to some distance, when, as he had said, a monstrous roc, darting from a craggy precipice, descended with the rapidity of lightning, grasped the skin in her widely extended talons, and soaring swifter than the eagle soon alighted on the table-land of the mountain; when Mazin, feeling himself on the ground, ripped the stitches of his dangerous enclosure, and the roc being alarmed, uttered a loud scream and flew away. Mazin now arose, and walked upon the surface of the mountain, which he found covered with black dust; but he beheld also the skeletons of the young men whom the accursed Bharam, after they had served his purpose, had left to perish. His blood became chilled with horror at the view, as he apprehended the same unhappy fate: he however filled his bag with the black powder, and advanced to the edge of a precipice, from which he beheld the magician eagerly looking upwards to discover him. Mazin called out; and when the hypocrite saw him, he began dancing and capering for joy, at the same time exclaiming, "Welcome, welcome, my son! my best friend, beloved child! all our dangers are now over, throw me down the bag." "I will not," said Mazin, "but will give it thee when thou hast conveyed me safely from this perilous summit." "That is not in my power," answered Bharam, "till I shall have the bag: cast it down, and I swear by the