Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/385

 contempt? No, no, I believe nothing of it. tomb! tell me by what miracle thou becamest the depositary of the rarest treasure that ever was in the world."

'I must confess I was enraged at these words, for, in short, this creature so much doted upon, this adored mortal, was not such an one as you might imagine him to have been. He was a black Indian, a native of that country. I say I was so enraged that I appeared all of a sudden, and addressing the tomb in my turn, cried, "O tomb! why dost not thou swallow up this pair of monsters?"

'I had scarcely finished these words when the queen, who sat by the Indian, rose up like a fury. "Cruel man!" said she, "thou art the cause of my grief. I have dissembled it but too long; it is thy barbarous hand which hath brought him into this lamentable condition, and thou art so hard-hearted as to come and insult me.'

'"Yes," said I, in a rage, "it was I who chastised that monster according to his deserts. I ought to have treated thee in the same manner. I repent now that I did not do it. Thou hast abused my goodness too long."

'As I spoke these words I drew out my scimitar, and lifted up my hand to punish her; but she, steadfastly beholding me, said, with a jeering smile, "Moderate thy anger." At the same time she pronounced words I did not understand, and added, "By virtue of my enchantments, I command thee immediately to become half marble and half man." Immediately I became such as you see me now, a dead man among the living, and a living man among the dead.

'After this cruel magician, unworthy of the name of a queen, had metamorphosed me thus, and brought me into this hall, by another enchantment she destroyed my capital, which was very flourishing and full of people, she abolished the houses, the public places and markets, and reduced it to the pond and desert field, which you may have seen; the fishes of four colours in the pond are the four sorts of people, of different religions, who inhabited the place. The white are the Mussulmans; the red, the Persians, who worship fire; the blue, the Christians; and the yellow, the Jews. The four little hills were the four islands that gave the