d been passing the night at the inn,
and very naturally they all commenced at once to follow the pursuer and
pursued.

The Caliph then quietly entered the deserted house, and placing the
packet of money carefully in the innkeeper's turban, where he would be
sure to find it on his return from the chase, he left, and taking
another road, and one leading, as far as he could judge, in the
direction of his own dominions, he continued his journey.

He walked along for some hours without meeting any one except a few
peasants, or encountering any noteworthy incident whatsoever.

At length he became tired with his long march, and the heat of the
noontide sun became so oppressive, that, espying a thick clump of trees
at a short distance from the road, he gladly made his way to that
pleasant shelter, lay down on a grassy bank, with a log for his pillow,
and composed himself to rest and sleep.

On waking, after two or three hours of very sound and refreshing sleep,
he found that owing to some change in his position his turban had
fallen off. This, in itself not very serious or remarkable accident,
gave him on the present occasion much apprehension and concern. For in
his turban he had placed, as has been mentioned, the invisible object,
whatever it might be, which had in some inexplicable manner conferred
upon him also, while he was in contact with it, the condition of
invisibility.

He took up the turban most carefully, he felt in it, he put it on, but
nowhere could he encounter the soft, cool sensation with which he had
become familiar. He groped laboriously all round the spot where he had
been lying, but in vain. Whether the object had rolled away, or
whether it had been carried to a distance by the breeze, or possibly
had even been dissipated altogether, he could not determine. One thing
only was clear and beyond conjecture--the charm was lost for ever.

Coming at last most unwillingly to that conclusion, he sat down
cross-legged upon the grass as on a divan, resting his elbow upon the
log which had served him for a pillow, and began to consider how he
should manage to make his way back to his own dominions through that
land of idolaters. He had no idea of the distance to be traversed, but
he reflected that, having no longer the aid and protection of being
invisible, and being possessed of no money, his difficulties must
necessarily be great. Moreover, he was not without considerable
anxiety as to what might have