ds with their shouts, but they came back having seen
no one and heard no answer. "We saw nothing," they said to Rustem,
"but a vulture fighting with an eagle and plucking out all its
feathers."

The history of this struggle excited Rustem's curiosity; he went to
the spot on foot. He saw no vulture or eagle, but he found that his
elephant, still loaded with baggage, had been attacked by a huge
rhinoceros. One was fighting with his horn, the other with his trunk.
On seeing Rustem the rhinoceros retreated, and the elephant was led
back. But now the horses were gone. "Strange things happen to
travellers in the forest!" exclaimed Rustem. The servants were
dismayed, and their master was in despair at having lost his horses,
his favourite negro, and the sage Topaz, for whom he had always had a
regard, though he did not always agree with his opinion.

He was comforting himself with the hope of soon finding himself at the
feet of the beautiful Princess of Cashmere, when he met a fine striped
ass, which a vigorous peasant was beating violently with a stick.
There is nothing rarer, swifter, or more beautiful than an ass of this
kind. This one retorted on the rustic for his thrashing by kicks which
might have uprooted an oak. The young Mirza very naturally took the
ass's part, for it was a beautiful beast. The peasant ran off, crying
out to the ass: "I will pay you out yet!" The ass thanked its
liberator after its fashion, went up to him, fawned on him, and
received his caresses.

Having dined, Rustem mounted him, and took the road to Cashmere with
his servants, some on foot and some riding the elephant.

Hardly had he mounted his ass, when the animal turned toward Cabul,
instead of proceeding on the way to Cashmere. In vain his rider tugged
at the bridle, jerked at the bit, squeezed his ribs with his knees,
drove the spurs into his flanks, gave him his head, pulled him up,
whipped him right and left. The obstinate beast still made direct to
Cabul.

Rustem was growing desperate, when he met a camel-driver, who said to
him:

"You have a very stubborn ass there, master, which insists on carrying
you where you do not want to go. If you will let me have him, I will
give you four of my camels, which you may choose for yourself."

Rustem thanked Providence for having sent so good a bargain in his
way. "Topaz was all wrong," thought he, "to say that my journey would
be unlucky." He mounted the finest of the camels, and the others