he could not discover one spot
which he could approach sufficiently near.

He was by this time suffering intensely from thirst; for,
notwithstanding the height at which he had arrived, where the cold was
more severe than in the hollows beneath, still his anxiety, and his
journey upwards beneath the midday sun, had parched his lips, and he
had not yet been able to reach a stream at which to moisten them.

"Fool, fool that I am!" exclaimed Jalaladdeen, bitterly; "why should I
thus exhaust my strength? If I attain the summit of the hill, I shall
meet with no water; or even if I were to find a spring at the top of
it, still I should not be able to carry its waters in a rush basket."

He then reasoned with himself whether or not it were better to return;
but then the thought flashed across his mind that the words of the old
woman had on two previous occasions been fully verified. He therefore
determined to follow her advice once more.

"Did she not assure me," said he, "that I should find water enough
above me? 'T is passing strange: the streams certainly flow thence, or
remain still in their channels."

With this he set forward again on his ascent, and it now appeared that
he had advanced much farther than he had been aware of, and in a
shorter space of time. He had not proceeded far when he arrived at a
spot hollowed out, and sheltered from behind by a large mass of rock.
In this cavity was a quantity of snow and ice, which the air at that
height could not melt, and to which the rays of the sun could not
penetrate through the surrounding masses.

Jalaladdeen laid himself down to rest at the edge of the snow, and
refreshed himself with its grateful coolness by taking a small
quantity in his hands, and by applying it to his lips. He first of all
moistened the exterior of his mouth, and then swallowed a little with
great pleasure. This at once solved the mystery of the problem.

"Here," said he, "is a large expanse of snow: the tops of the
mountains are covered with it. What is snow but water? and such water
I can easily carry in my rush basket; and even if some should melt in
the journey, it cannot all dissolve and escape."

He then began immediately to fill the basket with clean snow from the
middle of a heap, and to render it more firm, he pressed it together
with his hands. As soon as he had filled his basket, he set off
joyously on his return; but it seemed as though he must again have
taken a different route,