Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/216

194 Hassan gave the horse the rein, and it flew off with him, swiftlier than lightning, and stayed not in its course ten days, when he saw before him a vast mountain, blacker than night, that walled the world from East to West. As he neared it, his horse neighed under him, whereupon there flocked to it horses in number as the drops of rain, none could tell their tale, and fell to rubbing themselves against it. Hassan was affrighted at them and rode on, surrounded by the horses, till he came to the cavern which Abdulcuddous had described to him. The steed stood still at the door and Hassan alighted and threw the rein over the saddle-bow; whereupon the horse entered the cavern, whilst he abode without, as the old man had charged him, pondering the issue of his case and knowing not what would befall him.

He abode thus, at the mouth of the cavern, five days and nights, sleepless, mournful, distracted and perplexed, pondering his severance from home and friends and family, with tearful eye and mournful heart. Then he bethought him of his mother and of what might yet happen to him and of his separation from his wife and children and all that he had suffered and recited the following verses:

Hardly had he made an end of his verses, when out came the Sheikh Abourruweish, black and clad in black raiment, and he knew him by the description that