him coldly.  “My princess,” said he, “I think you are not so cheerful as you used to be; has any thing happened during my absence, which has displeased you, or given you any trouble or dissatisfaction In the name of God, do not conceal it from me; I will leave nothing undone that is in my power to please you.”  “It is a trifling matter,” replied the princess, “which gives me so little concern that I could not have thought you could have perceived it in my countenance; but since you have unexpectedly discovered some alteration, I will no longer disguise a matter of so little consequence from you.”

“I always believed,” continued the princess,” that our palace was the most superb, magnificent, and complete in the world:  but I will tell you now what I find fault with, upon examining the hall of four-and-twenty windows.  Do not you think with me, that it would be complete if a roe’s egg were hung up in the midst of the dome?” “Princess,” replied Alla ad Deen, “it is enough that you think there wants such an ornament; you shall see by the diligence used to supply that deficiency, that there is nothing which I would not do for your sake.”

Alla ad Deen left the princess Buddir al Buddoor that moment, and went up into the hall of four-and-twenty windows, where pulling out of his bosom the lamp, which, after the danger he had been exposed to, he always carried about him, he rubbed it; upon which the genie immediately appeared.  “Genie,” said Alla ad Deen, “there wants a roe’s egg to be hung up in the midst of the dome; I command thee, in the name of this lamp, to repair the deficiency.”  Alla ad Deen had no sooner pronounced these words, than the genie gave so loud and terrible a cry, that the hall shook, and Alla ad Deen could scarcely stand upright.  “What! wretch,” said the genie, in a voice that would have made the most undaunted man tremble, “is it not enough that I and my companions have done every thing for you, but you, by an unheard-of ingratitude, must command me to bring my master, and hang him up in the midst of this dome?  This attempt deserves that you, your wife, and your palace, should be immediately reduced to ashes:  but you are happy that this request does not come from yourself.  Know then, that the true author is the brother of the African magician, your enemy, whom you have destroyed as he deserved.  He is now in your palace, disguised in the habit of the holy woman Fatima, whom he has murdered; and it is he who has suggested to your wife to make this pernicious demand.  His design is to kill you, therefore take care of yourself.”  After these words, the genie disappeared.

Alla ad Deen lost not a word of what the genie had said.  He had heard talk of the holy woman Fatima, and how she pretended to cure the headache.  He returned to the princess’s apartment, and without mentioning a word of what had happened, sat down, and complained of a great pain which had suddenly seized his head; upon which the princess ordered the holy woman to be called, and then told him how she had invited her to the palace, and that she had appointed her an apartment.