6

HALECHALBE AND THE UNKNOWN LADY 309

THE FOUR TALISMANS 341

THE STORY OF BOHETZAD; OR, THE LOST CHILD 366

URAD; OR, THE FAIR WANDERER 499

ALISCHAR AND SMARAGDINE 524

* * * * *

EASTERN TALES.

Jalaladdeen of Bagdad.

[Illustration]

Once upon a time there lived in the city of Bagdad a young man called
Jalaladdeen. It was not his native place; but, in his early days, his
father had taken up his abode there. He was, however, little
acquainted with the town, in which he had grown up a sturdy youth; for
his father inhabited a small house in one of the suburbs, and lived a
very retired and frugal life. They managed their household affairs,
and cultivated their small garden, without the aid of any domestics.

One day the father, feeling his end approaching, called for his son
once more to his bed-side before his death, and said to him,
"Jalaladdeen, my dearest son, thou seest that I have arrived at the
bourne of my earthly career: now I should joyously quit this life,
were it not for the thought that I must leave thee here alone. After
my death, thou wilt find that thou are not so poor as thou mayest have
conceived, and that too with good reason, from our hitherto contracted
habits of life. Nevertheless, guard against the impression that thou
art in possession of inexhaustible riches. Reflect that a year has
three hundred and sixty-five days, and that the smallest expenditure,
when it occurs daily, will in the end amount to no inconsiderable sum.
Pay careful heed, therefore, to these my instructions, and be
contented with the necessaries of life. Provide that which is
indispensable to thy subsistence; but beware of purchasing
superfluities. Man's wants increase daily, if he do not accustom
himself in his early days to practise self-denial. But shouldest thou
ever be so unhappy as to neglect these my sincere cautions, and
consequently fall into poverty, I have only this piece of advice left
for thee:--Take this rope, fasten it to the nail in yonder wall, and
pull stoutly three times."

After these words, with his latest strength he drew a new rope from
under the head of his bed, and presented it to Jalaladdeen: the next
moment he expired.

So remarkable was the last lesson of the dying father to Jalaladdeen,
that he carefully p