but came in
soon after, accompanied by the old man. They greeted me kindly, and
bewailed my misfortune, though, indeed, they had expected nothing less.
"All that has happened to you," they said, "we also have undergone, and
we should be enjoying the same happiness still, had we not opened the
Golden Door while the princesses were absent. You have been no wiser
than we, and have suffered the same punishment. We would gladly
receive you among us, to perform such penance as we do, but we have
already told you that this is impossible. Depart, therefore, from
hence and go to the Court of Bagdad, where you shall meet with him that
can decide your destiny." They told me the way I was to travel, and I
left them.

On the road I caused my beard and eyebrows to be shaved, and put on a
Calender's habit. I have had a long journey, but arrived this evening
in the city, where I met my brother Calenders at the gate, being
strangers like myself. We wondered much at one another, to see we were
all blind of the same eye, but we had no leisure to discourse at length
of our common calamities. We had only so much time as to come hither
to implore those favours which you have been generously pleased to
grant us.

He finished, and it was Zobeida's turn to speak: "Go wherever you
please," she said, addressing all three. "I pardon you all, but you
must depart immediately out of this house."

The Seven Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor

In the times of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid there lived in Bagdad a
poor porter named Hindbad, who on a very hot day was sent to carry a
heavy load from one end of the city to the other. Before he had
accomplished half the distance he was so tired that, finding himself in
a quiet street where the pavement was sprinkled with rose water, and a
cool breeze was blowing, he set his burden upon the ground, and sat
down to rest in the shade of a grand house. Very soon he decided that
he could not have chosen a pleasanter place; a delicious perfume of
aloes wood and pastilles came from the open windows and mingled with
the scent of the rose water which steamed up from the hot pavement.
Within the palace he heard some music, as of many instruments cunningly
played, and the melodious warble of nightingales and other birds, and
by this, and the appetising smell of many dainty dishes of which he
presently became aware, he judged that feasting and merry making were
going on. He wondered who lived in this m