k by the two attendants; and after his
repast, they conducted him to the same door, drew back the curtain
from before it, and he again, to his utter amazement, found himself in
his own sleeping-chamber at Bagdad. Once more he recognized every
article of furniture as his own, or exactly similar to his own, and
the copper vessel standing precisely on the same spot. He then threw
himself on his couch, and was soon locked in deep slumber. But at the
hour of midnight he was again roused from his dream by the hideous old
woman, who stood by his bed-side, flourishing her crutch in a
threatening attitude, and calling upon him in a hoarse, croaking
voice,

"See thou commit no rash act of folly," she cried. "Go not on foot to
the desert, otherwise the floating clouds of sand will bury thee for
ever before thou arrivest at the palms; or if thou shouldest attain
the spot, the lion will tear thee in pieces if he find no other booty.
They must give thee a camel: see that thou demand it." At these words
she shook her crutch at him, and disappeared into the vessel.

"A camel!" said Jalaladdeen to himself: "can they possibly have camels
in this unfrequented place? And even if they had, how could I descend
to the plain with such a beast, through the clefts in the rocks, from
this height?"

His weariness was so great that, amid a chain of thoughts that
attended the vision, he fell fast asleep again. The next morning he
was awoke by the man who gave him the lance, and he discovered himself
at the opening of the rock, as on a former occasion. The sun again
shone through the hollow, and the man said to him,

"'T is time that you should make ready to do your duty: take the bow
and arrow, together with my lance, and journey on to the desert."

At the moment he called to mind the injunction of the old woman, and
answered, "For my passage through the desert I shall require a camel."

"Then thou shalt have one," replied the man; and, on emerging a second
time from the opening, there stood a camel, ready furnished with many
necessaries for his comfort and convenience during the journey.

To his astonishment, after he had mounted the animal, it proceeded by
an easy pathway down the side of the mountain; and, although he could
see nothing but impassable spots, huge blocks of stone, and deep
abysses both before and behind, still the camel travelled on by a
level and gently declining track.

On this occasion, too, his journey was more prosper