world, where illness is unknown and labour
never wearies, woman continues always gay and fresh and pleasant. She
talks as much perhaps as her sisters in less-favoured worlds, but never
learns to scold or grumble or complain.

"The fairy, however, or spirit of the air, who had brought Mubarek
thither, would not accept a house or choose a wife or settle anywhere.
A restless and inconstant being, it preferred to wander forth and view
with never-sated curiosity the ever-varying marvels displayed by other
worlds.

"A long time passed, a time unmarked by any of the changes and small
vicissitudes that we encounter here. No night succeeding day, and
bringing with it unconsciousness and rest. No procession of the
seasons--autumn, winter, spring; but one long summer, whose heat,
instead of seeming oppressive or exhausting, appeared ever cool,
refreshing, and exhilarating, filled with a stream of life, not
fluctuating and intermitting, but constant and untiring.

"Such then was the existence of Mubarek, till one day, happening to
drop and dash in fragments a superb crystal vase which he himself had
fashioned with much delightful labour as a present for his wife, the
old fierce impatience of his native land and race caused him to break
out into fearful imprecations.

"At once, as though on the involuntary rupture of some mysterious spell
or charm, he found himself, with a rapidity equal to that by which he
had mounted to that distant world, transported back to this. He was in
his own body which he had left sleeping on the ground, and in the very
spot at which he had left it sleeping.

"At first he was so dazed and confused by the recollection of all that
he had experienced that he scarce remembered where he was. By and by
becoming more composed, he recognized the danger of remaining in the
grounds of the palace whose Queen he had stabbed, and making his way by
paths as little frequented as he could find to the sea-coast, he beheld
with joy a ship sailing at no great distance from the shore. Making
signals of distress, they put out a small boat and brought him on board.

"The vessel chanced to be one bound for Bussora, whither in due time
Mubarek arrived, and hastening to Bagdad, found his father, now an old
man, and who had long mourned his death, still alive and overjoyed to
again behold his son.

"Bereydah abou Mubarek dying not long after his son's return, Mubarek
succeeded to his father's fortune and his father's