only a roc's egg were hung from the middle
of the dome. "A roc," he said, "is a bird of enormous size which lives
at the summit of Mount Caucasus. The architect who built your palace
can get you an egg."

When the princess told Aladdin of her desire, he summoned the genie of
the lamp and said to him,--

"Genie, I command thee in the name of this lamp, bring a roc's egg to
be hung in the middle of the dome of the hall of the palace."

No sooner were these words spoken than the hall shook as if ready to
fall, and the genie told Aladdin that he had asked him to bring his
own master and hang him up in the midst of the hall; it was enough to
reduce Aladdin and the princess and the palace all to ashes; but he
should be spared, because the request had really come from another.
Then he told Aladdin who was the true author of it, and warned him
against the pretended Fatima, whom till then he had not known as the
brother of the African magician. Aladdin saw his danger, and on that
very day he killed his wicked enemy with the dagger which was meant to
be his own death.

Thus was Aladdin delivered from the two brothers who were magicians.
Within a few years the Sultan died at a good old age, and, as he left
no male children, the Princess Buddir al Buddoor came to the throne,
and she and Aladdin reigned together many years.

ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES

I

There once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim
and the other Ali Baba. Their father divided his small property
equally between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a
wealthy merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and
lived by cutting wood and bringing it upon three asses into the town
to sell.

One day, when Ali Baba had cut just enough wood in the forest to load
his asses, he noticed far off a great cloud of dust. As it drew
nearer, he saw that it was made by a body of horsemen, whom he
suspected to be robbers. Leaving the asses, he climbed a large tree
which grew on a high rock, and had branches thick enough to hide him
completely while he saw what passed beneath. The troop, forty in
number, all well mounted and armed, came to the foot of the rock on
which the tree stood, and there dismounted. Each man unbridled his
horse, tied him to a shrub, and hung about his neck a bag of corn.
Then each of them took off his saddle-bag, which from its weight
seemed