Three young men travelling on foot together, become weary, and agree that whoever will not relate his adventures shall carry the other two to the city, from which they were not far distant.

Being shipwrecked, he fell into the hands of peries, with one of whom he married, and remained eight years; when being anxious to revisit his own country, he was carried homewards on the back of a deo; who on the way was changed into a serpent. Alarmed at this, the young man made his escape; and on passing through a forest, was ensnared by a demon in the shape of an old man, and confined in a cave, where he found many companions in adversity, from whom he learnt that they daily expected to be devoured, as the demon fed on human flesh and sheep, of which he had a large flock, under charge of a monster who took them out every morning to graze, and returned with them at night to the cave.

The demon happening to sta y ou one night, the young man seeing the monster asleep, blinded him with the red hot point of a spit; and covering himself with a sheepskin, made his way out of the cave among the sheep, when they were let out to pasture, tho’ the blinded monster felt every one of them as they passed, hoping thus to prevent the escape of the devoted captives.

After travelling several days in a forest, he was near expiring with hun­ger, when he found a nest containing seven eggs, of the size of a gourd, and each of a different colour. Having ate one, he continued his journey for seven days; and on the last having fed on the seventh egg, suddenly beautiful feathers of many colours, and at length wings, covered his body, and he was able to fly. One day, after soaring through the air, he alighted on a tree round which was a great concourse of people, to whom he addressed himself as they were going to shoot him. On hearing his adventures, they had compassion, and took him under their protection. With them he remained seven years; at the expiration of which his wings and feathers fell off, and he returned safely to his own country.*

Being upon business in a certain city, he goes upon a hunting party, and fatigued with the chace, stops at a country house to beg refreshment. The lady of the mansion receives him kindly, and admits him as a lover. In the midst of their dalliance the husband comes home, and the young man has no resource to escape discovery, but jumping into a basin which was in the court of the house, and standing with his head covered with a hollow gourd, which luckily hap­pened to be in the water. The husband surprized at the gourd’s remaining fixed in the water, which was agitated by the wind, throws a stone at it; when the lover dips from under it, and holds his breath till almost suffocated. Luckily the husband retires with his wife into an inner apartment, when the young man escapes.

The next day he relates his adven­ture before a large company at a coffee­house. The husband happens to be one of the audience, and, meditating revenge, pretends to admire the gallantry of the young man, whom he invites to his house. The lover accompanies him, and on seeing his residence is overwhelmed with confusion; but recovering himself, resolves to abide all hazards, in hopes of escaping by some lucky stratagem. His host introduces him to his wife, and begs he will relate his merry adventure before her, having resolved, when he should finish, to put them both to death. The young man complies, but with an artful presence of mind exclaims at the con­clusion, “Glad was I when I awoke from so alarming a dream.” The husband upon this, after some questions, is satisfied that he had only told him his dream; and after having entertained him nobly dismisses him kindly.*

The third young man having nothing to relate, carries his companions upon his back one after another to a caravan­serai in the city. The king’s daughter from a window seeing the travellers, calls them to her, and enquires the cause of their odd proceedings. On being informed, she, at their request, relates her adventures; saying, that she had fallen in love with a young man, whom she had brought into her palace disguised as a female. While she was enjoying his company, the king came to pay her a visit; and she had only time to put her gallant into a very narrow dark closet to prevent discovery. The king staid long, and upon his departure, the princess found her lover dead from suffocation. In order to have the body conveyed away, she applies to an ugly negro, her domestic; who refuses, and threatens to dis­close her abandoned conduct to the king, unless she will receive his addresses, and she is forced to submit. Wearied with his brutal conduct, she with the assistance of her nurse one night hurls him headlong from the battlements of the palace, and he is dashed in pieces with the fall. Some time after this, her father gives her in marriage to a prince; when she, dreading lest her husband should discover her loss of virtue, contrives to place a virgin in her place on the nuptial night, and sets fire to the palace. The young lady is consumed, and the wicked princess escapes undetected, to the great joy of her husband, who had supposed she was burnt to death.