he poor mother, thought that if he was
found in that costume, the people might do vengeance on him; so he
fled by bypaths, and returned to his palace.

Having been accustomed to deal death around, the murder of the infant
did not prey upon his mind; but the words of the mother he never
forgot. 'I am miserable, because I am childless,' he repeated every
day; and he ordered all the women of his harem to be well beaten. But
he was compelled to admit, that there was now little chance of his
wishes being fulfilled. However, as a last resort, he consulted a
magician, a man of Persian origin, who had recently arrived with
merchandise in that country. This magician, after many very intricate
calculations, told him that he was destined to have a son by the
daughter of an Abyssinian prince, now betrothed to the son of the
sultan of Damascus; but that her friends would endeavour to take her
secretly down the river in a boat before the year was out, lest he
might behold and covet her. The magician also asked him wherefore he
had thrown away the 'sword of good-luck;' and explained by saying,
that the ancestors of King Mansoor had always been in possession of a
sword which brought them prosperity, and that the dynasty was to come
to an end if it were lost.

Upon this, the king gave, in the first place, orders to his servants
and his guards to search for the sword he had lost; but the woman, who
had concealed it, thinking it might afford some clue to the assassin
of her child, instantly understood, on hearing these inquiries, that
Mansoor was the man. So she vowed vengeance; and being a daughter of
the Arabs of the desert, retired to a distant branch of her tribe with
the sword, and effectually escaped all pursuit. Her name was Lulu;
from that time forth she abjured all feminine pursuits, and became a
man in action, riding a fierce horse, and wielding sword and spear;
'For I,' said she, 'when the period is fulfilled, will smite down this
king who has slain my child.'

Meanwhile, Mansoor had also given orders to stretch an enormous chain
across the river between the two parts of his city, so as to prevent
all boats from passing until searched for the daughter of the
Abyssinian prince; and this is the origin of the name of these
mountains. For a long time, no such person could be discovered; but at
length, when the year was nearly out, a maiden of surpassing
loveliness was found concealed in a mean kanjia, and being brought
before t