e 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.

Alla ad Deen put them behind one of the cushions of the sofa, and
continued his story, telling his mother, that when he returned to
the mouth of the cave, upon his refusal to give the magician the
lamp till he should get out, the stone, by his throwing some
incense into the fire, and using two or three magical words, shut
him in, and the earth closed. He could not help bursting into
tears at the representation of the miserable condition he was in,
at finding himself buried alive in a dismal cave, till by the
touching of his ring, the virtue of which he was till then an
entire stranger to, he, properly speaking, came to life again.
When he had finished his story, he said to his mother, "I need
say no more, you know the rest. This is my adventure, and the
danger I have been exposed to since you saw me."

Alla ad Deen's mother heard with so much patience as not to
interrupt him this surprising and wonderful relation,
notwithstanding it could be no small affliction to a mother, who
loved her son tenderly: but yet in the most moving part which
discovered the perfidy of the African magician, she could not
help shewing, by marks of the greatest indignation, how much she
detested him; and when her son had finished his story, she broke
out into a thousand reproaches against that vile impos