,[307] by "cheeking" the Sultan on his
views of matrimony; and then he tells how he set out from his dominions
in quest of adventures, and met another bearer of the remarkable name
which his mother had insisted on giving him. This second adventurer
happened to be bearer also of a helmet with a strange bird, apparently
all made of gems, as its crest. They exchange confidences, which are to
the effect that the Trebizondian Facardin is a lady-killer of the most
extravagant success, while the other (who is afterwards called Facardin
of the Mountain) is always unfortunate in love; notwithstanding which he
proposes to undertake the adventure (to be long afterwards defined) of
Mousseline la Serieuse. For the present he contents himself with two or
three more stories (or, rather, one in several "fyttes"), which reduce
the wildest of the _Nights_ to simple village tales--of an island where
lions are hunted with a provision of virgins, chanticleers, and small
deer on an elaborately ruled system; of a mountain full of wild beasts,
witches, lovely nymphs, savages, and an enchanter at the top. After an
interruption very much in the style of Chaucer's Host and _Sir Thopas_,
from Dinarzade, who is properly rebuked by the Sultan, Facardin of the
Mountain (he has quite early in the story received the celebrated
scratch from a lion's claw, "from his right shoulder to his left heel")
recounts a shorter adventure with Princess Sapinelle of Denmark, and at
last, after a fresh outburst from Dinarzade, the Prince of Trebizond
comes to his own affairs.

Then it is that (after some details about the Prince of Ophir, who has a
minim mouth and an enormous nose, and the Princess of Bactria, whose
features were just the reverse) we recover Cristalline. It is perhaps
only here that even Mrs. Grundy, though she may have been uncomfortable
elsewhere, can feel really shocked at Hamilton; others than Mrs. Grundy
need not be so even here. The genie has discovered his Lady's little
ways, and has resolved to avenge himself on her by strict custody, and
by a means of delivery which, if possible, might not have entirely
displeased her. The hundred rings are bewitched to their chain, and are
only to be recovered by the same process which strung them on it. But
this process must be applied by one person in the space of twelve hours,
and the conditions are only revealed to him after he has been kidnapped
or cajoled within the genie's power. If he refuses to try,