my mouth these three days.”  His mother brought what she had, and set it before him.  “My son,” said she, “be not too eager, for it is dangerous; eat but little at a time, and take care of yourself.  Besides, I would not have you talk; you will have time enough to tell me what has happened to you when you are recovered.  It is a great comfort to me to see you again, after the affliction I have been in since Friday, and the pains I have taken to learn what was become of you.”

Alla ad Deen took his mother’s advice, and ate and drank moderately.  When he had done, “Mother,” said he to her, “I cannot help complaining of you, for abandoning me so easily to the discretion of a man who had a design to kill me. and who at this very moment thinks my death certain.  You believed he was my uncle, as well as I; and what other thoughts could we entertain of a man who was so kind to me, and made such advantageous proffers?  But I must tell you, mother, he is a rogue and a cheat, and only made me those promises to accomplish my death; but for what reason neither you nor I can guess.  For my part, I can assure you, I never gave him any cause to justify the least ill treatment from him.  You shall judge yourself, when you have heard all that passed from the time I left you, till he came to the execution of his wicked design.”

Alla ad Deen then related to his mother all that had happened to him from the Friday, when the magician took him to see the palaces and gardens about the town, and what fell out in the way, till they came to the place between the two mountains where the great prodigy was to be performed; how, with incense which the magician threw into the fire, and some magical words which he pronounced, the earth opened, and discovered a cave, which led to an inestimable treasure.  He forgot not the blow the magician had given him, in what manner he softened again, and engaged him by great promises, and putting a ring to his finger, to go down into the cave.  He did not omit the least circumstance of what he saw in crossing the three halls and the garden, and his taking the lamp, which he pulled out of his bosom and shewed to his mother, as well as the transparent fruit of different colours, which he had gathered in the garden as he returned.  But, though these fruits were precious stones, brilliant as the sun, and the reflection of a lamp which then lighted the room might have led them to think they were of great value, she was as ignorant of their worth as her son, and cared nothing for them.  She had been bred in a low rank of life, and her husband’s poverty prevented his being possessed of jewels, nor had she, her relations, or neighbours, ever seen any; so that we must not wonder that she regarded them as things of no value, and only pleasing to the eye by the variety of their colours.