ogs he hath felled!'

So she taunted him, and he still sneezing and bent double with the might
of the sneeze. Then said Noorna in a stern voice, 'No more altercation
between us! Wait thou here till I reappear, Karaz!'

Thereupon, she went from them; and the two, Feshnavat and Shibli Bagarag,
feared greatly being left with the Genie, for he became all colours, and
loured on them each time that he ceased sneezing. He was clearly menacing
them when Noorna returned, and in her hand a saddle made of hide, traced
over with mystic characters and gold stripes.

So she cried, 'Take this!' Then, seeing he hesitated, she unclosed from
her left palm a powder, and scattered

it over him; and he grew meek, and the bending knee of obedience was his,
and he took the saddle. So she said, ''Tis well! Go now, and wait outside
the city in the shape of an Ass, with this saddle on thy back.'

The Genie groaned, and said, 'To hear is to obey!' And he departed with
those words, for she held him in bondage. Then she calmed down the white
flames of the circles that enclosed Shibli Bagarag and the Vizier
Feshnavat, and they stepped forth, marvelling at the greatness of her
sorceries that held such a Genie in bondage.

THE WELL OF PARAVID

Now, there was haste in the movements of Noorna bin Noorka, and she
arrayed herself and clutched Shibli Bagarag by the arm, and the twain
departed from Feshnavat the Vizier, and came to the outside of the city,
and lo! there was the Genie by a well under a palm, and he standing in
the shape of an Ass, saddled. So they mounted him, and in a moment they
were in the midst of the desert, and naught round them save the hot
glimmer of the sands and the grey of the sky. Surely, the Ass went at
such a pace as never Ass went before in this world, resting not by the
rivulets, nor under the palms, nor beside the date-boughs; it was as if
the Ass scurried without motion of his legs, so swiftly went he. At last
the desert gave signs of a border on the low line of the distance, and
this grew rapidly higher as they advanced, revealing a country of hills
and rocks, and at the base of these the Ass rested.

So Noorna, said, 'This desert that we have passed, O my betrothed, many
are they that perish in it, and reach not the well; but give thanks to
Allah that it is passed.'

Then said she, 'Dismount, and be wary of moving to the front or to the
rear of this Ass, and measure thy distance from the lash of his tail.'