Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/153

133 set at ease and he continued to eat and drink and sleep with the Magian, whilst the latter clad him in his own raiment.

Then they sailed on other three months, at the end of which time the ship came to an anchor off a long beach of pebbles of all colours, white and yellow and blue and black and what not, and the Magian rose and said to Hassan, ‘Come, let us go ashore: for we have reached our destination.’ So Hassan rose and landed with Behram, after the latter had commended his goods to the captain’s care. They walked on inland, till they were out of sight of the ship, when Behram sat down and taking from his pocket a little drum of copper and a silken strap, wroughten in gold with talismanic characters, beat the drum with the strap, whereupon there arose a cloud of dust from the further side of the desert.

Hassan marvelled at the Magian’s doings and was afraid of him: and he repented of having come ashore with him, and his colour changed. But Behram looked at him and said, ‘What ails thee, O my son? By the fireFire [sic] and the light,Light, [sic] thou hast nought to fear from me; and were it not that my occasion may not be accomplished save by thy means, I had not brought thee ashore. So rejoice in all good; for yonder cloud of dust is the dust of somewhat we will mount and which will aid us to traverse this desert and make the passage thereof easy to us.’ Presently, the dust lifted and discovered three dromedaries, one of which Behram mounted and Hassan another. Then they loaded their victual on the third and fared on seven days, till they came to a wide champaign, in whose midst they saw a pavilion vaulted upon four columns of red gold; so they alighted and entering therein, ate and drank and rested there.

Presently, Hassan chanced to look aside and seeing