as it were in answer to her summons, there was a
deep growl of thunder, and the palace rocked, tottering; and the air
became smoky and full of curling vapours. Presently they were aware of
the cry of a Cat, and its miaulings; and the patch of red unguent on the
floor parted and they beheld a tawny Cat with an arched back. So Noorna
bin Noorka frowned fiercely at the Cat, and cried, 'This is thy shape, O
Karaz; change! for it serves not the purpose.'

The Cat changed, and was a Leopard with glowing yellow eyes, crouched for
the spring. So Noorna bin Noorka stamped, and cried again, 'This is thy
shape, O Karaz; change! for it serves not the purpose.'

And the Leopard changed, and was a Serpent with many folds, sleek,
curled, venomous, hissing.

Noorna bin Noorka cried in wrath, 'This is thy shape, O Karaz; change! or
thou'lt be no other till Eblis is accepted in Paradise.'

And the Serpent vanished. Lo! in its place a Genie of terrible aspect,
black as a solitary tree seared by lightning; his forehead ridged and
cloven with red streaks; his hair and ears reddened; his eyes like two
hollow pits dug by the shepherd for the wolf, and the wolf in them. He
shouted, 'What work is it now, thou accursed traitress?'

Noorna replied, 'I've need of thee!'

He said, 'What shape?'

She answered, 'The shape of an Ass that will carry two on its back, thou
Perversity!'

Upon that, he cried, 'O faithless woman, how long shall I be the slave of
thy plotting? Now, but for that hair of my head, plucked by thy hand
while I slept, I were free, no doer of thy tasks. Say, who be these that
mark us?'

She answered, 'One, the Vizier Feshnavat; and one, Shibli Bagarag of
Shiraz, he that's destined to shave Shagpat, the son of Shimpoor, the son
of Shoolpi, the son of Shullum; and the youth is my betrothed.'

Now, at her words the whole Genie became as live coal with anger, and he
panted black and bright, and made a stride toward Shibli Bagarag, and
stretched his arm out to seize him; but Noorna, blew quickly on the
circles she had drawn, and the circles rose up in a white flame high as
the heads of those present, and the Genie shrank hastily back from the
flame, and was seized with fits of sneezing. Then she said in scorn,
'Easily, O Karaz, is a woman outwitted! Surely I could not guess what
would be thy action! and I was wanting in foresight and insight! and I am
a woman bearing the weight of my power as a woodman staggereth under the
l