ousness.
When he came to himself, he lay on the turf, and a tall, grey-headed
man, of strange appearance, stood before him, clothed in a long black
robe, which reached to his ankles, and was fastened by a glittering
girdle of a fiery colour. Instead of a turban, he wore a high pointed
cap on his head, at the end of which was a tassel of the same hue as
the girdle.

"Has your life returned to you?" he asked: "you deserved to be
suffocated in the mud. Come, we must go farther before daylight quite
leaves us."

With these words he raised him from the ground, passed his left arm
round his body, and flew with him through the air as quickly as an
arrow. Haschem again momentarily lost recollection: it is not known
how long he remained in this condition. He awoke at last as from a
deep sleep; and as he looked around, the first thing he recognized was
a cage of gold wire, which hung from the ceiling by a long golden
chain, and within was the snow-white bird he had so long followed. He
found himself alone with this bird in a hall, the roof of which was
supported on pillars of white marble, and the walls were built of
smooth pale-green stones. The openings to the windows were skilfully
contrived with so many windings and narrow gratings, that even the
white bird could have found no space to pass through, even if it had
escaped from the cage. Beside one wall stood a crystal urn; and from
this fell a stream of clear water, which, passing over the curved brim
of the urn, dripped into a white basin beneath, from which it
disappeared unseen.

Whilst he observed this, and wondered what had happened to him, and
how he came there, he suddenly heard the old man in the black robe
enter from behind a curtain. He carried a small golden box in his
hand, and approached him with these words:

"You have now caught the white bird; you now have it in a cage: in
this box is food for it, and there is water; take diligent care of it,
and mind that it does not escape."

As he said this he disappeared. Haschem now arose and walked round the
hall: he looked through the windows, and ascertained that he must be
in a foreign land, as the forms of the mountains and trees were quite
different to any he had before seen. The hall seemed high, as if it
were the upper storey of a lofty tower. No other edifice was to be
seen, and from the windows he could not distinguish the trees and
plants which bloomed beneath. He drew the curtain aside, and
discovered