the cries died away, whereby they knew that the lion had slain them.  Presently, as they stood by the mouth of the excavation behold, the lion came scrambling up the sides and would have issued forth:  but, as often as he showed his head, they pelted him with stones, till they beat him down and he fell; whereupon one of the hunters descended into the pit and despatched him and saw the boy wounded; after which he went to the chamber, where he found the woman dead, and indeed the lion had eaten his fill of her.  Then he noted that which was therein of clothes and what not else, and notifying his mates, fell to passing the stuff up to them:  lastly, he took up the boy and bringing him forth of the pit, carried him to their dwelling-place where they dressed his wounds.  He grew up with them, but acquainted them not with his affair; and indeed, when they questioned him, he knew not what he should say, because they let him down into the pit when he was a little one.  The hunters marvelled at his speech and loved him with exceeding love and one of them took him to son and abode rearing him by his side and training him in hunting and horseriding, till he reached the age of twelve and became a brave, going forth with the folk to the chase and to the cutting of the way.  Now it chanced one day that they sallied forth to stop the road and fell in with a caravan during the night:  but its stout fellows were on their guard; so they joined battle with the robbers and overcame them and slew them and the boy fell wounded and tarried cast down in that place till the morrow, when he opened his eyes and finding his comrades slain, lifted himself up and arose to walk the road.  Presently, there met him a man, a treasure-seeker, and asked him, “Whither away, O lad?” So he told him what had betided him and the other said, “Be of good heart, for that the tide of thy good fortune is come and Allah bringeth thee joy and gladness.  I am one who am in quest of a hidden treasure, wherein is a mighty mickle of wealth.  So come with me that thou mayst help me, and I will give thee monies with which thou shalt provide thyself all thy life long.”  Then he carried the youth to his dwelling and dressed his wounds and he tarried with him some days till he was rested; when the treasure-seeker took him and two beasts and all that he needed, and they fared on till they came to a towering highland.  Here the man brought out a book and reading therein, dug in the crest of the mountain five cubits deep, whereupon there appeared to him a stone.  He pulled it up and behold it was a trap-door covering the mouth of a pit.  So he waited till the foul air[FN#227] was come forth from the midst of the pit, when he bound a rope about the lad’s middle and let him down bucket-wise to the bottom, and with him a lighted waxen taper.  The boy looked and beheld, at the upper end of the pit, wealth abundant; so the treasure-seeker let down a rope and a basket and the boy fell to filling and the man to drawing up, till the fellow had got his