ended with the rapidity of lightning,
grasped the skin in her widely extended talons, and soaring
swifter than the eagle soon alighted on the table-land of the
mountain; when Mazin, feeling himself on the ground, ripped the
stitches of his dangerous enclosure, and the roc being alarmed,
uttered a loud scream and flew away. Mazin now arose, and walked
upon the surface of the mountain, which he found covered with
black dust; but he beheld also the skeletons of the young men
whom the accursed Bharam, after they had served his purpose, had
left to perish. His blood became chilled with horror at the view,
as he apprehended the same unhappy fate: he however filled his
bag with the black powder, and advanced to the edge of a
precipice, from which he beheld the magician eagerly looking
upwards to discover him. Mazin called out; and when the hypocrite
saw him, he began dancing and capering for joy, at the same time
exclaiming, "Welcome, welcome, my son! my best friend, beloved
child! all our dangers are now over, throw me down the bag." "I
will not," said Mazin, "but will give it thee when thou hast
conveyed me safely from this perilous summit." "That is not in my
power," answered Bharam, "till I shall have the bag: cast it
down, and I swear by the fire which I worship immediately to
procure thee a safe descent." Mazin, relying on his oath, and
seeing no other chance of escape, cast down the bag; which having
taken up, the accursed sorcerer mounted his camel and was
departing. The unhappy Mazin in agony called after him, saying,
"Surely thou wilt not forfeit thy oath, nor leave me to perish!"
"Perish thou must, Mussulmaun dog!" exclaimed the treacherous
magician, "that my secret may be kept, nor can thy boasted
prophet save thee from destruction; for around thee are mountains
impassable, and below a fathomless sea. I have obtained what I
wished, and leave thee to thy fate." Having said thus he speeded
onwards, and was soon out of sight.

Mazin was now in an agony of despair, not a ray of hope comforted
his mind; he beat his bosom, threw himself on the ground amid the
mouldering skeletons of the former victims to the treachery of
the magician, and lay for some time in a state of insensibility.
At length the calls of hunger and thirst forced him back to a
sense of wretched existence; and the love of life, however
miserable, made him have recourse to his water and his loaves.
Being somewhat revived, religion came to his aid, and