id to have knelt once on
this spot to perform his devotions. Wishing as a sincere Mussulman to
wash his face and hands before prayer, and finding no water near, it is
reported that he rubbed his hands, in full confidence in the Almighty,
in the hot sands, and that this immediately ran from his fingers like
limpid water--from this it is said the spring takes its origin. But
the evil spirits, that mar every thing as far as they are able, have,
by Allah's long suffering and hidden intention, since taken possession
of this spring, particularly the abominable Zelulu, who fixes his
nocturnal abode in the desert. It is believed that he dwells in the
spring; and that he has not only corrupted the water, so that it has
entirely lost its healing virtue, but that it has, moreover, become
poisonous and mortal. The sulphureous vapours arising from it infect
the air with pestilence. You will now readily understand my
astonishment at finding you asleep there, and you may thank your sound
constitution and my assistance for your deliverance."

Great was Ali's astonishment on hearing this. He pressed the carrier's
hand with gratitude, and some pieces of gold accompanied the pressure.
The poor man was so delighted at this, that Ali quite forgot the danger
he had escaped in the joy of his companion. The latter accompanied him
some distance on his way, and now Ali soon came to pleasant groves of
cypress, maple, and cedar, through which he went down to the ruins of
Babylon which lay on the mighty river.

There he now stood surrounded by widely scattered ruins overgrown with
grass and moss. Some pillars and fragments of walls rose near the
banks and were reflected in the waves of the slowly flowing Euphrates.
A herdsman sat on an architrave playing his reed-pipe, while his goats
wandered about browsing on the grass between the stones.

"Do you know this place?" asked Ali.

"I have a hut in the neighbourhood," said the shepherd.

"And what mean these heaps of stones?"

"It is said that in ancient time a city stood upon this spot."

"Cannot you tell me something about it?"

"No; it has been desolate from time immemorial; neither my father nor
my grandfather ever saw it different."

Ali stood lost in thought. He was moved by seeing the young shepherd
sitting on the stone like the unconcerned Present on the grave of the
Past,--on the shore of the stream of time which rushes by like the
paradisaical Euphrates, the river that saw