WHEN the prince, in company with the feeble-bodied but heavenly-minded sage, had advanced some distance, he arrived at a forest, the air of which, like the vapours of the infernal regions, was loathsome, and its expanse abounding, like the plains of hell, in torments. The waters of it appeared as a boiling lake, from which every instant offensive steams, assailing the sense, distracted the brain. The trees were full of poison as the noxious stings of serpents; and the herbage, like snakes distilling venom. Hell burnt with the fire of shame at being put in comparison with such hor­rors, and the frozen zone was doubly chilled with scorn at being likened to such a region.

At beholding this horror-creating scene, fortitude deserted, the prince’s mind, and alarm overpowered his facul­ties; his companions also shook with dread, like the reed; and from fear, large drops of sweat trickled from their foreheads.

The prince at length addressed the sage, saying, “What place is this of such horror and peril, and why is it so dreadful, that from its noisome vapour the fire of hell seems to shrink like water, and, in comparison with its terrors, the tortures of the damned to diminish?”

The truth-discerning sage, who had travelled the globe, replied, “This quarter is the abode of an Afreet,* superior of his kind, named Hullul,* of monstrous size, strength, and savage fierceness, who has destroyed numbers, and devoured a world. In these parts every city and village, from the rage of his cruelty, has become desolate; and the people of these countries, one and all, have been the prey of his voraciousness. At present, should you explore through a tract of one hundred fersungs, you will not find a man round this unlucky spot, nor perceive a vestige of the stag or antelope; for them, as well as mankind, he has devoured. He often breaks his fast with a tiger or a wolf, and can swallow an ele­phant at a morsel. Wherever you may look around this wild, you will per­ceive no signs of population; for the bats and owls have taken possession of the cities, and ravens and crows occupy the gardens. To pass over this man-devouring wilderness is impos­sible, unless the existence of this impure Afreet be cast upon the dust of annihilation.”

The prince replied, “Father, thou art certainly the wisest among us; devise, therefore, some plan by which this grievous impediment, or rather mountain of calamity, may be removed from our passage.” “It is the regular custom of the Afreet,” answered the experienced sage, “during the fortnight in which the moon is increasing her light, to employ him­self in hunting excursions, when he devours all animals and men that fall in his way; but in the fourteen days of her decrease, he sleeps without once opening his eyes. In this state he may be attacked, and easily hurled into the cavern of death; but when awake, should a world confederate, to overcome him would be impossible.”

When they counted the day of the month, they found that the moon’s splendour, being hidden in the mouth of the three-headed serpent, kept mortals in expectation of her appearance. The prince, regarding the remaining day as the new moon of his prosperity, and the sleep of the Afreet as the wakefulness of his stars, esteemed the opportunity precious, and desired assistance of his com­panions to destroy the cursed tyrant; but no one dared to advance the steps of courage on the plain of enterprize. Each pleading his profession, looked up to the vizier’s son, saying, “Every one of us is distinguished by a peculiar skill which he can exercise, when necessary, to advantage; but the defeat of an enemy particularly depends on the wise policy of a vizier.”

The vizier’s son perceiving that his declining the undertaking would be esteemed as cowardice and selfishness, resolved on encountering destruction; and with all spirit and valour taking upon himself the expedition, was dis­missed by the prince. Beseeching the aid of divine protection, (the surest remedy to the afflictions of the wretched, and restorer of the affairs of the distressed) and fixing the hand of hope on the strong cord of resignation, which is the best guardian of the wanderers in the plain of difficulty and peril, he speeded towards the field of danger.

When he had proceeded some dis­tance, he beheld a palace, whose walls seemed to touch the clouds, and its bat­tlements to soar above the skies. From fear of the Afreet he struck into the surrounding woods, advanced cautiously, and having reached the gateway unper­ceived, entered with so light a step, that the sound of his foot penetrated not even his own ear. He now, however, trembled like the reed with fear, his bosom seemed to melt like water from alarm, his heart to divide, and his gall to dissolve away.

Suddenly appeared in the corner of the court a beautiful damsel, delicate as the rose, at whose beauty a peri would be fascinated, and to whose charms the hoor would sacrifice life. The heart burnt like a grain of suppund on the fire of her cheek, the dark mole of which overcame patience and understanding, and life and heart fell a prey to the piercing glances of her eyes. The vizier’s son, at sight of the garden of her beauty, became con­founded like the love-stricken nightin­gale, and he stood motionless as a statue.

The cypress of the garden of excel­lence gracefully advanced near, and shedding from the ruby casket of her lips the pearls of speech, said, “Ah! thou ignorantly devoted to death, knowest thou not, that this place is the abode of a blood-devouring Afreet, where the bird dare not expand his wings, or the fly presume to hum? Wherefore hast thou placed thy feet in the jaws of the alligator, and wilfully cast thyself into the snare of death, unless thou art satiated with life, and become weary of existence?”

The youth replied, “O thou angel-like fair one, I have a difficult object in view, and am engaged in a most important undertaking; but inform me, how thou (before whose spring-like beauty the rose is of less estima­tion than the moon, and in comparison with whose dazzling brightness, the moon is void of splendour) hast been ensnared into the company of this Afreet, and hast reconciled thy heart to the society of such a monster. Alas! that the rose should associate with the thorn; but apparently, thou hast a view to policy in such conduct.” The hoori-formed maiden, on hearing these words, having dropped showers of moist pearls from her ubbeer-like eyes on the roses of her cheeks, opened her lips in reply and said:

“I was once a flower in the garden of royalty, and as a choice pearl in an imperial casket. My queen mother named me Peri-nuzzade,* and my royal father had betrothed me to a youthful sovereign stiled Manochere, who received tribute from powerful sultauns, and had wrested crowns from the heads of mighty princes. This Afreet, having first gradually devoured the inhabitants of our dominions, extended the hand of voraciousness upon the capital, and after some time, when no human being remained in the city or its environs, entered the royal palace, where he dispatched one by one to the cave of annihilation the jasmine-faced, silver-bodied maidens, who were wont to look with contempt on the sunbul-coloured shunblead,* and devoured the moon-cheeked damsels, who in the pride of beauty, regarded the globe-illuming sun as their slave, and esteemed the nergus and the sosun as without eye or tongue.* At last no persons remained in the imperial haram but the sultaun and myself; when the savage Afreet, having entered, seized him like a sparrow, and having dispatched the nightingale of his soul to the gardens of paradise, brought me by force to this life-destroy­ing wilderness?

“Inform me now, wherefore hast thou sought thy own destruction, and wilfully approached the maw of the dragon?”