pital was the place where now the
great lake lies. My story will tell you how these changes came about.

My father died when he was sixty-six, and I succeeded him. I married
my cousin, whom I loved tenderly, and I thought she loved me too.

But one afternoon, when I was half asleep, and was being fanned by two
of her maids, I heard one say to the other, "What a pity it is that our
mistress no longer loves our master! I believe she would like to kill
him if she could, for she is an enchantress."

I soon found by watching that they were right, and when I mortally
wounded a favourite slave of hers for a great crime, she begged that
she might build a palace in the garden, where she wept and bewailed him
for two years.

At last I begged her to cease grieving for him, for although he could
not speak or move, by her enchantments she just kept him alive. She
turned upon me in a rage, and said over me some magic words, and I
instantly became as you see me now, half man and half marble.

Then this wicked enchantress changed the capital, which was a very
populous and flourishing city, into the lake and desert plain you saw.
The fish of four colours which are in it are the different races who
lived in the town; the four hills are the four islands which give the
name to my kingdom. All this the enchantress told me to add to my
troubles. And this is not all. Every day she comes and beats me with
a whip of buffalo hide.

When the young king had finished his sad story he burst once more into
tears, and the Sultan was much moved.

"Tell me," he cried, "where is this wicked woman, and where is the
miserable object of her affection, whom she just manages to keep alive?"

"Where she lives I do not know," answered the unhappy prince, "but she
goes every day at sunrise to see if the slave can yet speak to her,
after she has beaten me."

"Unfortunate king," said the Sultan, "I will do what I can to avenge
you."

So he consulted with the young king over the best way to bring this
about, and they agreed their plan should be put in effect the next day.
The Sultan then rested, and the young king gave himself up to happy
hopes of release. The next day the Sultan arose, and then went to the
palace in the garden where the black slave was. He drew his sword and
destroyed the little life that remained in him, and then threw the body
down a well. He then lay down on the couch where the slave had been,
and waited for the enchantres