Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/369

339 One came to us with God’s command And summoned us to the right way “Is there no ’scaping from this thing?” Quoth we and did his word gainsay. Then on us fell a thunderblast From out the heaven far away, And like the sheaves in reaping-time Midmost a field, o’erthrown we lay. And now beneath the storied plains Of earth we wait the appointed Day.

(Quoth Eth Thaalibi also), [sic] It chanced that two men once entered this cavern and found at its upper end a stair; so they descended and came to an underground chamber, a hundred cubits long by forth wide and a hundred high. In the midst stood a throne of gold, whereon lay a man of gigantic stature, filling the whole length and breadth of the throne. He was covered with jewelry and raiment gold and silver wrought, and at his head was a tablet of gold, bearing an inscription. So they took the tablet and bore it off, together with as many bars of gold and silver and so forth as they could away with.’ [sic] ISAAC OF MOSUL’S STORY OF THE LADY KHEDIJEH AND THE KHALIF MAMOUN.

(Quoth Isaac of Mosul ), [sic] ‘I went out one night from Mamoun’s presence, on my way to my house, and being taken with a need to make water, I turned aside into a by-street and stood up against a wall, fearing lest something might hurt me, if I squatted down. Presently, I espied something hanging down from one of the houses and feeling it, found that it was a great four-handled basket, covered with brocade. “There must be some reason for this,” said I to myself and knew not what to think, then