the way;" to which one who was nearest to her, in the name
of the rest, replied, "Madam, were we ignorant of the respect due
to your sex, yet after what you have done for us there is no
deference we would not willingly pay you, notwithstanding your
modesty; we entreat you no longer to deprive us of the happiness
of following you."

"Gentlemen," said the princess, "I do not deserve the honour you
do me, and accept it only because you desire it." At the same
time she led the way, and the two princes and the gentlemen
followed.

This illustrious company called upon the dervish as they passed,
to thank him for his reception and wholesome advice, which they
had all found to be sincere. But he was dead: whether of old age,
or because he was no longer necessary to shew the way to the
obtaining the three rarities which the princess Perie-zadeh had
secured, did not appear. They pursued their route, but lessened
in their numbers every day. The gentlemen who, as we said before,
had come from different countries, after severally repeating
their obligations to the princess and her brothers, took leave of
them one after another as they approached the road they had come.

As soon as the princess reached home, she placed the cage in the
garden; and the bird no sooner began to warble than he was
surrounded by nightingales, chaffinches, larks, linnets,
goldfinches, and every species of birds of the country. And the
branch of the singing tree was no sooner set in the midst of the
parterre, a little distance from the house, than it took root,
and in a short time became a large tree, the leaves of which gave
as harmonious a concert as those of the tree from which it was
gathered. A large basin of beautiful marble was placed in the
garden; and when it was finished, the princess poured into it all
the yellow water from the flagon, which instantly increased and
swelled so much that it soon reached up to the edges of the
basin, and afterwards formed in the middle a fountain twenty feet
high, which fell again into the basin perpetually without running
over.

The report of these wonders was presently spread abroad, and as
the gates of the house and those of the gardens were shut to
nobody, a great number of people came to admire them.

Some days after, when the princes Bahman and Perviz had recovered
from the fatigue of their journey, they resumed their former way
of living; and as their usual diversion was hunting, they mounted
their h