amels.

On arriving there, he found everything in order. He rested till
evening, and then went out, without any companions, to the ruins of
the destroyed town. Before sunset he was on the eastern side of them,
and had soon also found, at some distance, the marked-out stone. He
seated himself on it; and the sun had hardly gone down when he
observed the moon riding like a golden ship through the blue of the
obscure sky. He waited with palpitating heart and anxious impatience
for the moment when it should seem to stand on the mountain-ridges on
the western horizon. Then he called out quickly and loudly,
"Haschanascha!" He expected that at this call a guide would
immediately appear to him; but nothing appeared. The moon was, in the
meantime, sunk behind the mountains; but the bright and sparkling
stars still lighted the dark blue sky. He stood by the stone on which
he had hitherto sat, and was going to return to his people in the
town, discouraged at his deluded expectations, when he heard his name
called by a well-known voice. He turned towards the place from whence
it came, and soon recognized, in the light of the stars, his friend
Hassan, whom he thought he had left that morning in Shiraz.

"Well, well," said he, as he drew nearer to Jussuf, "it seemed to me
that thou stopped behind the mountains. Whenever I wished to speak
with thee of thy journey, thou always soughtest to evade me, and
turned the conversation some other way. Now all is clear to me: with
me thou needest not have made any mystery of it; since I find thee
here to-day, the third day after the new moon, I already know
everything. I regret very much that I must serve thee in this case,
for I have already conducted many on this road, and none of them have
ever come back."

"How, Hassan Assad, thou the guide that I was to find here?" exclaimed
Jussuf. "Thou wilt lead me to the object of my desires?"

"No," answered Hassan, "I cannot myself conduct thee: I can only bring
thee on the right road; but come, now, and follow me."

He led him back near the extensive ruins of the destroyed city: they
soon found tolerably passable roads, the few unobstructed tracks of
the former principal streets of the large royal city; but they were
often obliged to scramble over the rubbish of overthrown buildings,
across pillars, and the remains of mighty columns. His guide turned
now right, now left, to seek the easiest road; then backwards, then
forwards. They might, perhap