on a couch and fell asleep.

When he awoke, he felt strong and well. He arose and walked round the
hall, and he then observed that the table with the meats had
disappeared. This did not please him, as he had thought to make a good
supper of the remainder. He did not allow this, however, to trouble
him much, as he was now sure that he was not to die of hunger. He had
now leisure enough to examine his prison more closely. He searched
all anew pillars, walls, and floor; but he could nowhere find a
crevice or a fissure: all was fast and whole. His view from the
windows did not allow him to make any discovery: he only saw that he
was very far from the earth, and in a spacious valley. Mountains were
to be seen in the distance, with curiously pointed summits: the
nearest offered no change of prospect, and the farthest was too
distant to raise his spirits by its contemplation: it was a high,
wearisome abode. As soon as he had completed this examination, and
found there was nothing to occupy him, he turned his attention to the
white bird in the cage. Here was still life; and if the cage was
narrow, yet the prisoner could hop about on the different perches.
Soon it remained still, and looked at him with its bright eyes; and it
seemed as if sense and speech lay in these eyes, only the
interpretation was wanting. Night put an end to these reflections.

On the next morning he observed that the bird again wanted food. He
filled its seed-box with grain from the golden box, and gave it fresh
water from the urn. Scarcely had he done this, when the table, covered
with meats, again stood in the same place as the day before. This day
passed like the former, and the following in the same manner. Haschem
wept and mourned, took care of the little bird, fed it, and was every
time rewarded in the same manner with the table covered with dishes,
as soon as he had filled the bird's seed-box. He could not perceive
who brought the table, nor how it disappeared. It always came when he
stood beside the cage with his back turned, and without any noise.

On the ninth day the old man suddenly appeared to him, and said,
"To-day is a day of repose for you: you have performed your duty
during the preceding days in giving the bird its food; now you may
amuse yourself in the garden till evening."

He led him through a door into a narrow passage, at the end of which
they descended twenty steps. Then he opened a small metal trap-door,
and Haschem again desc