Bedreddin could not understand so singular a love; he asked his favourite if he still had the portrait of Bedy-Aljemal.

‘Yes, my lord,’ replied Seyf el Mulouk, ‘and I always carry it with me.’ Thus saying he took it from his pocket and showed it to the king.

The monarch admired it. ‘The daughter of Achahbal was,’ he said, ‘a charming princess. I approve of the love that Solomon had for her, but your passion seems to me very extravagant.’

‘Sire,’ then said the Sad Vizir, ‘your majesty can judge by the history of Prince Seyf el Mulouk that all men have their troubles, and that they are not born to be perfectly happy on earth.’

I cannot believe what you tell me,’ replied the king. ‘I have a better opinion of human nature, and I am persuaded that there are people whose peace is disturbed by no trouble.’

The King of Damascus, wishing to show his vizir that there were men very contented with their lot, said to his favourite: ‘Go and walk in the town, pass by the artisans’ shops, and later on bring me the one who seems gayest to you.’

Seyf el Mulouk obeyed, and returned to Bed­reddin some hours after.

‘Well,’ said the monarch, ‘have you done what I ordered you?’

‘Yes, sire,’ replied the favourite; ‘I passed by several shops, I saw all sorts of artisans who were singing at their work, and who seemed to me very content with their fate. I remarked amongst others a young weaver named Malek, who was laughing heartily with his neighbours. I stopped to speak to him. “Friend,” I said to him, “you seem very gay.”

‘“It is my nature,” he replied. “I never experience melancholy.”

‘I asked the neighbours whether it were true that he had such a pleasant nature; they all told me that he did nothing but laugh from morning to night. Then I told him to follow me, and I brought him to the palace. He is in your apartment, do you wish me to introduce him into your presence?’

‘Let him enter,’ said the king. ‘I must speak to him here.’

Seyf el Mulouk then left Bedreddin’s cabinet and returned immediately, followed by a young man of pleasant appearance, whom he presented to the king. The weaver prostrated himself before the monarch, who said: ‘Rise, Malek, and confess frankly whether you are as contented as you seem to be. They say you do nothing but laugh and sing every day whilst at your work; you pass for the happiest of my subjects, and there is occasion to think that you are so indeed. Tell me whether they judge ill of you and whether you are satis­fied with your condition; it is a matter which it concerns me to know, and I demand of you to speak without reserve.’

‘Great king,’ replied the weaver, after having risen, ‘may the days of your majesty endure for ever, and be showered with pleasure unmixed with sorrow. Dispense me from satisfying your curious desires. If it is forbidden to lie to kings, it must also be admitted that there are truths which one dares not reveal. I can only tell you that they have a false opinion of me. In spite of my singing and laughing, I am perhaps the most unhappy of men. Content yourself with this confession, sire, and do not oblige me to detail my misfortunes to you.’

‘Why,’ replied Bedreddin, ‘do you fear to relate your adventures to me? Is it because they do you no credit?’

‘They would do honour to the greatest prince,’ replied the weaver, ‘but I have resolved to keep them secret.’

‘Malek,’ said the king, ‘you arouse my curiosity, and I order you to satisfy it.’ The weaver did not dare reply to these words, and began the history of his life thus:

‘I am the only son of a rich merchant of Surat. Shortly after his death I dissipated the greater part of the wealth he had left me. I was consuming the rest with my friends, when a stranger who was passing Surat to go to the island of Serendib happened by chance to be at my table.

‘The conversation turned on travelling. Some dwelt upon the utility and pleasure of it, and others dilated upon its dangers. Some persons of the company who had travelled related their travels to us. The curious things they said they had seen secretly excited me to travel, and the dangers they said they had run prevented me from coming to a resolution.

‘After I had heard them all I said, “One cannot hear of the pleasure which travelling through the world gives without feeling extremely desirous to travel, but the perils to which a traveller exposes himself take from me the desire for foreign countries. If it were possible,” I added, smiling, “to go from one end of the earth to the other without having unpleasant encounters on the road, I would leave Surat to-morrow.”

‘At these words, which made all the company laugh, the stranger said to me, “My lord Malek, if you wish to travel and the danger of encountering robbers alone prevents you from determining on it, I will teach you, if you wish, how to travel with impunity from kingdom to kingdom.” I thought he was joking, but after the repast he took me aside and told me that the following morning he would come to my house and show me something rather singular.

‘He came, and said to me, “I wish to keep my word to you, but you will not see the effect of my promise for a few days, for what I have to show is a work which is not made nowadays. Send one of your slaves for a carpenter, and let them return both laden with planks.” That was immediately done.

‘When the carpenter and the slave had arrived, the stranger told the former to make a coffer six feet long and four wide. The workman immediately set to work. The stranger did not remain idle either; he made various parts of the machine, such as bolts and springs. They both worked all day, after which the carpenter was sent away. The stranger spent the following day in fixing the springs and completing the work.

‘The third day, the coffer being finished, it was covered with a Persian carpet and it was carried into the country, whither I went with the stranger, who said to me, “Send away your slaves and let us remain here alone. I do not like to have other persons beside yourself as a witness of what I am going to do.” I ordered my slaves to return home and remained alone with this stranger.

‘I was very curious to know what he would do with this machine, when he entered it; at the same time the coffer rose from the ground and flew through the air at an incredible speed. In a moment he was far from me, and a moment after he descended at my feet. I cannot say how astonished I was at this marvel.

‘“You see,” said the stranger on leaving the machine, “a rather pleasant carriage, and you must be persuaded that travelling thus there is no fear of being robbed on the road. This is the means I wished to give you of travelling with security. I make you a present of this coffer; you will make use of it if some day the desire takes you to travel in foreign countries. Do not imagine,” he con­tinued, “that there is any magic in what you have seen; it is not at all by means of cabalistic words nor by virtue of a talisman that this coffer rises in the air; its movement is produced by the ingenious art which teaches moving forces. I am perfected in mechanics, and I know how to make other machines as surprising as this one.”

‘I thanked the stranger for so rare a present and I gave him out of gratitude a purse full of sequins.

‘“Teach me,” I said, “what I must do to put this coffer in movement.”

‘“You shall soon know that,” he replied. At these words he made me enter the machine with him, then he touched a spring and we were immediately lifted into the air; then he showed me what I must do to steer it straight. “Turning this bolt,” he said, “you will go to the right, and turning this one you will go to the left. Touching this spring you will ascend, touching that you will descend.”

‘I wished to try it myself. I turned the bolts and touched the springs; the coffer, obeying my hand, went as I pleased, and I hastened or slackened its pace as I wished. After making several tours in the clouds we took our flight towards my house, and descended in my garden with ease because we had removed the carpet which covered the machine, in which were several holes, as much for air as for seeing.

‘We were home before my slaves, who were not a little astonished at seeing us back again. I had the coffer enclosed in my apartment, where I guarded it with more care than a treasure, and the stranger went away as pleased with me as I was with him.

‘I continued amusing myself with my friends until I had finished devouring my patrimony. I even began to borrow, so that I insensibly found myself burdened with debts. As soon as it was known in Surat that I was ruined I lost my credit. No one wished to lend to me any longer, and my creditors, impatient to recover their money, sum­moned me to repay it. Seeing myself without resources, and consequently exposed to troubles and insults, I had recourse to my coffer. I dragged it one night from my apartment into my courtyard. I shut myself up in it with some provisions and the little money that remained to me. I touched the spring which made the machine ascend, then turning one of the bolts I left Surat and my creditors without fear of pursuit.