f Haddad-Ben-Ahab saw him approach, they respectively
took their pipes from their mouths and held them in their left hands,
while they pressed their bosoms with their right, and received him with
a solemn salaam, for he had been long absent, and all they in the mean
time had heard concerning him was only what Orooblis, the Armenian dyer,
on his return told them: namely, that he was gone to the wall of the
world, which limits the travels of man. No wonder then that they
rejoiced with an exceeding gladness to see him return and take his place
in the kiosk among them, as if he had never been a day's journey away
from Bagdad.

They then questioned him about his adventures, and he faithfully related
to them all the wonders which have been set forth in our account of the
journey; upon which they declared he had made himself one of the sages
of the earth.

Afterward they each made a feast, to which they invited all the
philosophers in Bagdad, and Haddad-Ben-Ahab was placed in the seat of
honor, and being courteously solicited, told them of his travels, and
every one cried aloud, "God is great, and Mahomet is his prophet!"

When they had in this manner banqueted, Haddad-Ben-Ahab fell sick, and
there was a great talk concerning the same. Some said he was very ill;
others shook their heads and spoke not; but the world is full of envy
and hard-heartedness, and those who were spiteful because of the renown
which Haddad-Ben-Ahab, as a traveller who had visited the top of the
wall of the world with so much courage, had acquired, jeered at his
malady, saying he had been only feasted overmuch. Nevertheless,
Haddad-Ben-Ahab died; and never was such a funeral seen in all Bagdad,
save that of the caliph Mahoud, commonly called the Magnificent. Such
was the admiration in which the memory of the traveller was held, the
poets made dirges on the occasion, and mournful songs were heard in the
twilight from the windows of every harem. Nor did the generation of the
time content itself with the ceremonies of lamentation: they caused a
fountain to be erected, which they named the Fountain of Haddad-Ben-Ahab
the traveller; and when the slaves go to fetch water, they speak of the
wonderful things he did, and how he was on the top of the wall of the
world, and saw the outside of the earth; so that his memory lives
forever among them, as one of the greatest, the wisest, and the bravest
of men.

BLUEBEARD'S GHOST.

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THAC