o no one; all of them making
contortions, and uttering a frightful jargon, but very amusing to the
princess; till at last, being stunned by their gibbering, and suffocated
by the potency of their exhalations, she was forced to quit the gallery,
after stripping it of a part of its treasures.

Whilst she was thus occupied, the Caliph, who, instead of the visions he
expected, had acquired in these insubstantial regions a voracious
appetite, was greatly provoked at the negresses; for, having totally
forgotten their deafness, he had impatiently asked them for food, and
seeing them regardless of his demand, he began to cuff, pinch, and push
them, till Carathis arrived to terminate a scene so indecent, to the
great content of these miserable creatures, who, having been brought up
by her, understood all her signs, and communicated in the same way their
thoughts in return.

"Son! what means all this?" said she, panting for breath. "I thought I
heard as I came up the shrieks of a thousand bats tearing from their
crannies in the recesses of a cavern; and it was the outcry only of these
poor mutes, whom you were so unmercifully abusing. In truth you but ill
deserve the admirable provision I have brought you."

"Give it me instantly," exclaimed the Caliph; "I am perishing for
hunger!"

"As to that," answered she, "you must have an excellent stomach if it can
digest what I have been preparing."

"Be quick," replied the Caliph; "but, oh, heavens! what horrors! what do
you intend?"

"Come, come," returned Carathis, "be not so squeamish, but help me to
arrange everything properly, and you shall see that what you reject with
such symptoms of disgust will soon complete your felicity. Let us get
ready the pile for the sacrifice of to-night, and think not of eating
till that is performed; know you not that all solemn rites are preceded
by a rigorous abstinence?"

The Caliph, not daring to object, abandoned himself to grief and the wind
that ravaged his entrails, whilst his mother went forward with the
requisite operations. Phials of serpents' oil, mummies, and bones were
soon set in order on the balustrade of the tower; the pile began to rise,
and in three hours was as many cubits high. At length darkness
approached, and Carathis, having stripped herself to her inmost garment,
clapped her hands in an impulse of ecstasy and struck light with all her
force. The mutes followed her example; but Vathek, extenuated with
hunger and