said it would be, and
the prince, who was skilled in all tongues, read the following Cufic
inscription: 'O travellers! be it known to you that this column has been
set up with its tablet to give true directions about these roads. If
a man would pass his life in ease and pleasantness, let him take the
right-hand path. If he take the left, he will have some trouble, but
he will reach his goal without much delay. Woe to him who chooses the
middle path! if he had a thousand lives he would not save one; it is
very hazardous; it leads to the Caucasus, and is an endless road. Beware
of it!'

The prince read and bared his head and lifted his hands in supplication
to Him who has no needs, and prayed, 'O Friend of the traveller! I, Thy
servant, come to Thee for succour. My purpose lies in the land of Qaf
and my road is full of peril. Lead me by it.' Then he took a handful of
earth and cast it on his collar, and said: 'O earth! be thou my grave;
and O vest! tee thou my winding-sheet!' Then he took the middle road
and went along it, day after day, with many a silent prayer, till he saw
trees rise from the weary waste of sand. They grew in a garden, and he
went up to the gate and found it a slab of beautifully worked marble,
and that near it there lay sleeping, with his head on a stone, a negro
whose face was so black that it made darkness round him. His upper lip,
arched like an eyebrow, curved upwards to his nostrils and his lower
hung down like a camel's. Four millstones formed his shield, and on a
box-tree close by hung his giant sword. His loin-cloth was fashioned
of twelve skins of beasts, and was bound round his waist by a chain of
which each link was as big as an elephant's thigh.

The prince approached and tied up his horse near the negro's head. Then
he let fall the Bismillah from his lips, entered the garden and walked
through it till he came to the private part, delighting in the great
trees, the lovely verdure, and the flowery borders. In the inner garden
there were very many deer. These signed to him with eye and foot to
go back, for that this was enchanted ground; but he did not understand
them, and thought their pretty gestures were a welcome. After a while he
reached a palace which had a porch more splendid than Caesar's, and was
built of gold and silver bricks. In its midst was a high seat, overlaid
with fine carpets, and into it opened eight doors, each having opposite
to it a marble basin.

Banishing care, Pri