ength yielded to my power, and Allah hath given to
my vengeance the wretch that doubts His protection. Crawl, therefore,"
continued she, "vile reptile, on the earth, and become a toad."

At the powerful voice of her enchantment, the Sultan shrank from his
natural form and became a reptile on the earth. His change of form did
not take from Misnar his memory or recollection: he was sensible of
his disgrace, and of the justness of his sentence; and though he could
not fly from himself, yet he hastened into the thicket, that he might
hide from the light of heaven. But the calls of nature soon drove him
from his recess, to seek his proper food in the desert. He crawled
forth, and was led on by a scent that pleased him: his spirits seemed
enlivened by the sweet odour, and his cold feeble limbs were endued
with brisker motion.

"Surely," said he, in his heart, "the bounteous Allah hath not left
the meanest of His creatures without comfort and joy. The smell is as
the smell of roses, and life and vigour are in these attractive
paths."

With these thoughts he crawled forwards into the thickest covert; and
though his body was drawn with a secret impulse, yet his mind was
filled with horror when he came in sight of a mangled and corrupted
body, which lay hid among the bushes. One of his own deformed kind sat
squatting beside it, and, like himself, seemed to desire and yet
detest the loathsome feast.

Misnar, at sight of one of his hideous kind, was filled with scorn and
rage; and, forgetting his transformation, was about to drive him from
the mangled body, when the reptile, opening his mouth, addressed him
in the language of Delhi.

"Whether thou art really what thy form bespeaks thee," said the
reptile, "or, like me, the victim of enchantment, answer."

The Sultan, surprised at this address, and perceiving that misery was
not his portion alone, desired to know by what means his
fellow-creature suffered such a wretched change.

"Since I perceive by your speech," said the reptile, "that one event
has happened to us both, I shall not be adverse to declare to you the
cause of my transformation; but I shall expect that my confidence will
not be misplaced, and that, after I have made you acquainted with my
history, you will not refuse to reveal your own."

"A similitude in our fates," replied Misnar, "has already made us
brethren, and I should be unreasonable to ask a favour I meant not to
return."

"Well, then," said he, "