hek recurred to her memory; she recollected
also that herself and Gulchenrouz had been sick and dying; but all these
images bewildered her mind. Not knowing where she was, she turned her
eyes on all sides, as if to recognise the surrounding scene; this
singular lake, those flames reflected from its glassy surface, the pale
hues of its banks, the romantic cabins, the bulrushes that sadly waved
their drooping heads, the storks whose melancholy cries blended with the
shrill voices of the dwarfs, everything conspired to persuade them that
the Angel of Death had opened the portal of some other world.

Gulchenrouz on his part, lost in wonder, clung to the neck of his cousin:
he believed himself in the region of phantoms, and was terrified at the
silence she preserved; at length addressing her:

"Speak," said he, "where are we? do you not see those spectres that are
stirring the burning coals? are they Monker and Nakir, come to throw us
into them? does the fatal bridge cross this lake, whose solemn stillness
perhaps conceals from us an abyss, in which for whole ages we shall be
doomed incessantly to sink?"

"No, my children!" said Sutlememe, going towards them, "take comfort! the
exterminating Angel, who conducted our souls hither after yours, hath
assured us that the chastisement of your indolent and voluptuous life
shall be restricted to a certain series of years, which you must pass in
this dreary abode, where the sun is scarcely visible, and where the soil
yields neither fruits nor flowers. These," continued she, pointing to
the dwarfs, "will provide for our wants, for souls so mundane as ours
retain too strong a tincture of their earthly extraction; instead of
meats your food will be nothing but rice, and your bread shall be
moistened in the fogs that brood over the surface of the lake."

At this desolating prospect the poor children burst into tears, and
prostrated themselves before the dwarfs, who perfectly supported their
characters, and delivered an excellent discourse of a customary length
upon the sacred camel, which after a thousand years was to convey them to
the paradise of the faithful.

The sermon being ended, and ablutions performed, they praised Allah and
the Prophet, supped very indifferently, and retired to their withered
leaves. Nouronihar and her little cousin consoled themselves on finding
that, though dead, they yet lay in one cabin. Having slept well before,
the remainder of the night was spent