the inhabitants." Mazin having
heard what they said, exclaimed, "I accept your offer with
gratitude."

The ten genii now took up Mazin, soared with him through the air
for a night and day, till they came to the limits of their
territories, and then set him down in a country called the land
of Kafoor, took, their leaves, and vanished from his sight. He
walked onwards, and did not neglect to employ his tongue in
prayer, beseeching from God deliverance and the attainment of his
wishes. Often would he exclaim, "O God, deliverer from bondage,
who canst guide in safety over mountains, who feedest the wild
beasts of the forest, who decreest life and death, thou canst
grant me if thou choosest relief from all my distress, and free
me from all my sorrows."

In this manner did he travel onwards during ten days; on the last
of which he beheld three persons contending with each other, each
man trying to kill his fellow. He was astonished at their
conduit, but advanced towards them. Upon his approach they
desisted from combat, and one and all exclaimed, "We will be
judged before his young man, and whoever contradicts his opinion
shall be deemed in the wrong." To this they agreed, and coming up
to Mazin, demanded from him a just arbitration in their dispute.
They then displayed before him a cap, a small copper drum, and a
wooden ball, saying, "We are three brothers, by the same father
and mother, who are both received into the mercy of God, leaving
behind them these articles. They are three, and we are three; but
a dispute hath fallen out among us respecting their allotment, as
each of us says, 'I will have the cap.' Our contention made us
proceed to blows, but now we are desirous that thou shouldst
arbitrate between us, and allot an article to each of us as thou
shall judge best, when we will rest satisfied with thy decision,
but should either contradict it he shall be adjuged an offender."

When Mazin heard the above he was surprised, and said to himself,
"These articles are so paltry and of such trifling value as not
to be worth an arbitration; for surely this shabby cap, the drum,
and the wooden ball, cannot be worth altogether more than half a
deenar; but I will inquire farther about them." He then said, "My
brethren, wherein lies the value of these three things about
which you were contending, for to me they appear of very little
worth." They replied, "Dear uncle, each of them has a property
worth treasuries of wealth, a