down there. I was wondering, and began to feel about me on the ground,
when some bones came into my gripe.

"After a moment, a noise like that made by the mouth when some one
is masticating, struck my ears. I exclaimed, 'O creatures of God,
who are ye; tell me for God's sake?' They laughed, and said, 'This
is the great Solomon's prison, and we are prisoners.' I asked them,
'Am I really alive?' They again laughed heartily, and replied,
'You are as yet alive, but will soon die.' I said, 'You are eating;
what would it be if you were to give me some?' They then got angry,
and gave me a dry answer, but nothing else. After eating and drinking,
they fell asleep. I through faintness and weakness, fell into a swoon,
and wept and dreamed of God. Mighty sire, I had been seven days in
the sea, and so many days since without food, owing to my brothers'
false accusation; yea, instead of food, I had got a beating, and
was now ingulfed in such a prison, that not the least appearance of
release came even into my imagination.

"At last, life was leaving me; sometimes it came, and sometimes it
left me. From time to time some person used to come at midnight, and
let down by a rope some bread tied up in a handkerchief, and a jar
of water, and used to call out. Those two men who were confined near
me used to seize it and eat and drink. The dog constantly witnessing
this circumstance, exerted his intelligence, thus, 'In the way in which
this person lets down water and bread into the pit, do thou also make
some contrivance whereby some food may reach this destitute one, who
is thy master, then may his life be saved.' Thus having reflected,
he went to the city, [and saw that] round cakes of bread piled up
on the counter at a baker's shop; leaping up, he seized a cake in
his mouth, and ran off with it; the people pursued him, and pelted
him with clods, but he would not quit the cake; they became tired
[of pursuing him], and returned; the dogs of the city ran after him;
he fought arid struggled with them, and having saved the cake, he
came to the well, and threw in the bread. There was sufficient light
for me to see the cake lying near me, and I heard, moreover, the dog
bark. I took up the cake; and the dog, after throwing down the bread,
went to look for water.

"On the outskirts of a certain village, there was an old woman's hut;
jars and pots filled with water stood [at the door], and the old woman
was spinning. The dog went up to the pot