ngry he gathered a quantity of
this fruit and eat it as he walked. To his great surprise,
notwithstanding that he had but just risen from a long rest and sound
sleep, he began to feel excessively drowsy, and selecting a secluded
and shady nook, he lay down and at once again fell asleep.

"He must have slept several hours, as when he recovered consciousness
the sun was high in the heavens. But although it was apparently about
midday he presently noticed that he did not experience any sensation of
heat. It gradually dawned upon him, moreover, that, although perfectly
conscious and able to reason and reflect and to distinguish clearly
everything around him, this state of consciousness was wholly separate
from and disconnected with the body. In fact, looking down he
perceived his body lying stretched upon the grass, and still wrapped
apparently in the total oblivion of the profoundest sleep.

"While he was yet lost in astonishment at the marvel of this strange
condition, a fairy or spirit of the air stood beside him, and
addressing him said--

"'Mubarek, why do you stand thus gazing upon the ground? Say, to what
place shall we go? With so many lovely and charming scenes to which we
can resort, we need not remain fettered to this earth.'

"'Fairy,' answered Mubarek, 'the choice rests with you. Take me with
you wheresoever you will.'

"'Mubarek,' said the fairy, 'look up and tell me which star we shall
visit.'

"Mubarek, looking up, found that the brightness of the noonday sun no
longer obscured his vision, but that the stars also appeared clearly to
him sparkling in all their myriad hosts throughout the heaven.
Selecting modestly one of the smaller stars, a mere point of light
glistening in the distance, he said--

"'We will go there.'

"In a moment, not with the speed of lightning, for the lightning lags
and travels slowly, but in a moment and with the speed of thought, the
swiftest of all travellers known to man, they passed at once through
all the vast immeasurable space which lay between that little world and
this.

"On their arrival, after they had time to look about them and realize
the peculiarities of their novel surroundings, Mubarek perceived that
in this strange world the light was not derived from any one fixed
point, such as our sun, but came in a steady and evenly diffused
brightness from every part of the clear and luminous vault of heaven.
But, notwithstanding that the heat under that cloud