and roomul, and then made him over to the custody of Ashfak-os Sultan.  At night the King sent for the minister, and, summoning Sadik Allee, bid him dress himself exactly as he was dressed on the night he visited him, and prepare a room in the palace exactly in the same manner as he had prepared his own to receive his Majesty on that night.  He chose a small room in the palace, and under the ceiling he suspended a second ceiling, so that no one could perceive how it was fixed on, and placed himself between the two.  When all was ready the King went to the apartment with the minister, accompanied by Ruzee-od Dowlah, the head singer.  When the door of the apartment was closed, they first heard a frightful voice, without being able to perceive whence it came.  Neither the minister nor the King could perceive the slightest opening or fissure in the ceiling.  They then came out and closed the door, but immediately heard from within the peaceful salutation of ‘salaam aleekom,’ and the man appeared within as King of the Fairies, and presented his Majesty with some jewels and other offerings.  All was here enacted precisely as it had been acted on the occasion of the King’s visit to Muftee Gunge.  Turning an angry look upon Ruzee-od Dowlah, the King said, ’All the evil that I have so often heard of you, men of Rampoor, I have now with my own eyes seen realized;’ and, turning to the minister, he said, ’How often have these men spoken evil of you before me!’ Ruzee-od Dowlah then said, ’If your Majesty thinks me guilty, I pray you to punish me as may seem to you proper; but I entreat you not to make me over to the minister.’  The King, without deigning any reply, summoned Hajee Shureef, and told him to place mounted sentries of his own corps of cavalry over the door of Saadut Allee Khan’s mausoleum, in which these singers resided, and infantry sentries in the apartments with them, with strict orders that no one should be permitted to go out without, being first strictly searched.  The sister of Ruzee-od Dowla could nowhere be found, and was supposed to have made her escape.”

The King had several interviews of this kind with his Majesty, the King of the Fairies, who described the symptoms from which he suffered, and prescribed the remedies, which consisted chiefly of rich offerings to the Fairies, who were to relieve him.  He frequently received letters from the Fairy King to the same effect, written in an imperious style, suited to the occasion.  The farce was carried on for several months, and the King at different times is supposed to have given the Fairy King some two lacs of rupees, which he shared liberally with the singers.