pet, reflecting on the beauty and charms of
the princess Nouronnihar increased every day the violence of his
passion, and he fancied he should be the more easy and happy the
nearer he was to her. After he had satisfied the master of the
khan for his apartment, and told him the hour when he might come
for the key, without mentioning how he should travel, he shut the
door, put the key on the outside, and spreading the carpet, he
and the officer he had brought with him sat down upon it, and as
soon as he had formed his wish, were transported to the
caravanserai at which he and his brothers were to meet, and where
he passed for a merchant till their arrival.

Prince Ali, the second brother, who had designed to travel into
Persia, in conformity with the intention of the sultan of the
Indies, took that road, having three days after he parted with
his brothers joined a caravan; and in four months arrived at
Sheerauz, which was then the capital of the empire of Persia; and
having in the way contracted a friendship with some merchants,
passed for a jeweller, and lodged in the same khan with them.

The next morning, while the merchants opened their bales of
merchandises, prince Ali, who travelled only for his pleasure,
and had brought nothing but necessaries with him, after he had
dressed himself, took a walk into that quarter of the town where
they sold precious stones, gold and silver works, brocades,
silks, fine linens, and other choice and valuable articles, and
which was at Sheerauz called the bezestein. It was a spacious and
well-built street, arched over, within the arcades of which were
shops. Prince Ali soon rambled through the bezestein, and with
admiration judged of the riches of the place by the prodigious
quantities of the most precious merchandises exposed to view.

But among the criers who passed backwards and forwards with
several sorts of goods, offering to sell them, he was not a
little surprised to see one who held in his hand an ivory tube,
of about a foot in length, and about an inch thick, which he
cried at forty purses. At first he thought the crier mad, and to
inform himself, went to a shop, and said to the merchant who
stood at the door, "Pray, sir, is not that man" (pointing to the
crier, who cried the ivory tube at forty purses) "mad? If he is
not, I am much deceived." "Indeed, sir," answered the merchant,
"he was in his right senses yesterday; and I can assure you he is
one of the ablest criers we