his life; whereas he neither saw nor felt any thing. But he soon heard a voice, which said, Do you know what honest man this is to whom we have done this piece of service? Another voice answered, No. To which the first replied, Then I will tell you. This man, out of charity the greatest that ever was known, left the town he lived in, and has established himself in this place, in hopes to cure one of his neighbours of the envy he had conceived against him; he has acquired such a general esteem, that the envious man, not able to endure it, came hither on purpose to ruin him, which he had performed, had it not been for the assistance which we have given this honest man, whose reputation is so great, that the sultan, who keeps his residence in the neighbouring city, was to pay him a visit to-morrow, and to recommend the princess his daughter to his prayers.
Another voice asked, What need had the princess of the dervize's prayers? To which the first answered, You do not know, it seems, that she is possessed by genie Maimoun, the son of Demdim, who is fallen in love with her. But I know well how this good head of the dervizes may cure her; the thing is very easy, and I will tell it you. He has a black cat in his convent, with a white spot at the end of her tail, about the bigness of a small piece of English money: let him only pull seven hairs out of this white spot, burn them, and smoke the princess's head with the fume, she will not only be perfectly cured, but be so safely delivered from Maimoun, the son of Demdim, that he will never dare to come near her a second time.
The head of the dervizes remembered every word of the discourse between the fairies and the genies, who were very silent all the night after. The next morning, by break of day, when he could discern one thing from another, the well being broken down in several places, he saw a hole, by which he crept out with ease.
The other dervizes who had been seeking for him, were rejoiced to see him. He gave them a brief account of the wickedness of that man to whom he had given so kind a reception the day before, and retired into his cell. It was not long till the black cat, of which the fairies and the genies had made mention in their discourses the night before, came to fawn upon her master, as she was accustomed to do: He took her up, and pulled seven hairs out of the white spot that was upon her tail, and laid them aside for his use, when occasion should serve.
The sun was not high, when the sultan, who would leave no means untried which he thought could restore the princess to her perfect health, arrived at the gate of the convent. He commanded his guards to halt, whilst he, with his principal officers, went in. The dervizes received him with profound respect.
The sultan called their head aside, and says, good Sheik, it may be you know already the cause of my coming hither. Yes, sir, replies he, very gravely; if I do not mistake it, it is the disease of the princess which procures me this honour that I have not deserved. That is the very thing, replied the sultan. You will give me new life, if your prayers, as I hope they will, can procure my daughter's health. Sir, said the good man, if your majesty will be pleased to let her come hither, I am in hopes, that through God's assistance and favour, she shall return in perfect health.
The prince, transported with joy, sent immediately to fetch his daughter, who very soon appeared with a numerous train of ladies and eunuchs, but masked, so that her face was not seen. The chief of the dervizes caused a pall to be held over her head, and he had no sooner thrown the seven tufts of hair upon the burning coal, than the genie Maimoun, the son of Demdim, gave a great cry, without any thing being seen, and left the princess at liberty; upon which she took the veil from off her face, and rose up to see where she was, saying, Where am I, and who brought me hither? At these words, the sultan, overcome with excess of joy, embraced his daughter, and kissed her eyes; he also kissed the chief of the dervize's hands, and said to his officers, Tell me your opinion, what reward does he deserve who has cured my daughter? They all cried, he deserves her in marriage. That is what I had in my thoughts, said the sultan; and I make him my son-in-law from this moment. Some time after, the prime vizier died, and the sultan conferred the place on the dervize. The sultan himself died without heirs-male; upon which the religious orders and the militia gathered together, and the honest man was declared and acknowledged sultan by general consent.
The honest dervize, being mounted on the throne of his father-in-law, as he was one day in the midst of his courtiers upon a march, espied the envious man among the crowd of people that stood as he passed along, and calling one of his viziers that attended him, whispered him in the ear thus: Go bring me that man you see there, but take care you do not frighten him. The vizier obeyed, and when the envious man was brought into his presence, the sultan said, Friend, I am extremely glad to see you. Upon which he called an officer: Go immediately, says he, and cause to be paid this man out of my treasury one hundred pieces of gold; let him have also twenty load of the richest merchandise in my store-houses, and a sufficient guard to conduct him to his house. After he had given this charge to the officer, he bade the envious man farewell, and proceeded on his march.
When I had finished the recital of this story to the genie, the murderer of the princess of the isle of Ebone, I made the application to himself thus: O genie! you see here that this bountiful sultan did not content himself with forgetting the design of the envious man to take away his life, but treated him kindly, and sent him back with all the favours which I just now related. In short, I made use of all my eloquence, prayed him to imitate such a good example, and to grant me pardon; but it was impossible for me to move his compassion.
All that I can do for thee, said he, is, that I will not take away thy life; do not flatter thyself that I will send thee safe and sound back. I must let you feel what I am able to do by my enchantments. With that he laid violent hands on me, and carried me across the vault of the subterraneous palace, which opened to give him passage; he flew up with me so high, that the earth seemed to be only a little white cloud; from thence he came down again like lightning, and alighted upon the ridge of a mountain.
There he took up a handful of earth, and pronounced, or rather muttered, some words which I did not understand, and threw it upon me. Leave the shape of a man, says he to me, and take on that of an ape. He vanished immediately, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, overwhelmed with sorrow in a strange country, not knowing if I was near unto or far from my father's dominions.
I went down from the height of the mountain, and came into a plain country, which took me a month's time to travel through, and then I came to a coast of the sea. It happened then to be a great calm, and I espied a vessel about half a league from the shore; I would not lose this good opportunity, but broke off a large branch from a tree, which I carried with me to the sea-side, and set myself astride upon it, with a stick in each hand to serve me for oars.
I launched out in this posture, and advanced near the ship. When I was near enough to be known, the seamen and passengers that were upon the deck thought it an extraordinary spectacle, and all of them looked upon me with great astonishment. In the mean time, I got aboard, and laying hold of a rope, I jumped on the deck, and, having lost my speech, I found myself in very great perplexity; and indeed the risk I ran then was nothing less than when I was at the mercy of the genie.
The merchants, being both superstitious and scrupulous, believed I should occasion some mischief to their voyage, if they received me: therefore, says one, I will knock him down with an handspike; says another, I will shoot an arrow through his guts; says a third, Let us throw him into the sea. Some of them would not have failed to have executed their design, if I had not got to the side where the captain was; when I threw myself at his feet, and took him by the coat in a begging posture. This action, together with the tears which he saw gush from my eyes, moved his compassion; so that he took me into his protection, threatened to be avenged on him that should do me the least hurt; and he himself made very much of me, And on my part, though I had no power to speak, I did, by my gestures, show all possible signs of gratitude.
The wind that succeeded the calm was gentle and favourable, and did not alter for five days, but brought us safe to the port of a fine town, well peopled, and of great trade, where we came to an anchor. It was so much the more considerable, that it was the capital city of a powerful state.
Our vessel
