t the planets had disclosed to him the most
marvellous adventures, which were to be accomplished by an extraordinary
personage from a country altogether unknown. Prompted by motives of
curiosity, he had always been courteous to strangers, but from this
instant he redoubled his attention, and ordered it to be announced by
sound of trumpet, through all the streets of Samarah, that no one of his
subjects, on peril of displeasure, should either lodge or detain a
traveller, but forthwith bring him to the palace.

Not long after this proclamation there arrived in his metropolis a man so
hideous that the very guards who arrested him were forced to shut their
eyes as they led him along. The Caliph himself appeared startled at so
horrible a visage, but joy succeeded to this emotion of terror when the
stranger displayed to his view such rarities as he had never before seen,
and of which he had no conception.

In reality, nothing was ever so extraordinary as the merchandise this
stranger produced; most of his curiosities, which were not less admirable
for their workmanship than splendour, had, besides, their several virtues
described on a parchment fastened to each. There were slippers which
enabled the feet to walk; knives that cut without the motion of a hand;
sabres which dealt the blow at the person they were wished to strike; and
the whole enriched with gems that were hitherto unknown.

The sabres, whose blades emitted a dazzling radiance, fixed more than all
the Caliph's attention, who promised himself to decipher at his leisure
the uncouth characters engraven on their sides. Without, therefore,
demanding their price, he ordered all the coined gold to be brought from
his treasury, and commanded the merchant to take what he pleased; the
stranger complied with modesty and silence.

Vathek, imagining that the merchant's taciturnity was occasioned by the
awe which his presence inspired, encouraged him to advance, and asked
him, with an air of condescension, "Who he was? whence he came? and where
he obtained such beautiful commodities?" The man, or rather monster,
instead of making a reply, thrice rubbed his forehead, which, as well as
his body, was blacker than ebony, four times clapped his paunch, the
projection of which was enormous, opened wide his huge eyes, which glowed
like firebrands, began to laugh with a hideous noise, and discovered his
long amber-coloured teeth bestreaked with green.

The Caliph, though a lit