Part 2 (1/2)
”He'd better not coician, ”or it will be the worse for him But tell me, will you marry me?”
”No,” said the princess, ”I shall not reater ician, ”that will be easy enough to prove; tell me how you would have me do so and I will do it”
”Very well,” said the princess, ”then let e yourself into a lion If you can do that I reat as ician, ”be as you say He began to e words, and then all of a sudden he was gone, and in his place there stood a lion with bristling ht fit of itself to kill a body with terror
”That will do!” cried the princess, quaking and treician took his own shape again
”Now,” said he, ”do you believe that I areat as the poor soldier?”
”Not yet,” said the princess; ”I have seen how big you can make yourself, noish to see how little you can becoe yourself into a ain to one just as he was gone before, and in his place was a littleat the princess with a pair of eyes like glass beads
But he did not sit there long This hat the soldier had planned for, and all the while he had been standing by with his feather hat upon his head Up he raised his foot, and down he set it upon the ician
After that all was clear sailing; the soldier hunted up the three-legged stool and down he sat upon it, and by dint of no arden and all through the air again to the place whence it caain that his son-in-laas the King of the Wind; anyhow, all was peace and friendliness thereafter, for when a body can sit upon a three-legged stool and wish to such good purpose as the soldier wished, a body is just as good as a king, and a good deal better, to my mind
The Soldier who cheated the Devil looked into his pipe; it was nearly out He puffed and puffed and the coal glowed brighter, and fresh clouds of smoke rolled up into the air Little Brown Betty ca which he had emptied The Soldier who had cheated the Devil looked up at her and winked one eye
”Now,” said St George, ”it is the turn of yonder old man,” and he pointed, as he spoke, with the stem of his pipe towards old Bidpai, who sat with closed eyesinside of himself
The old man opened his eyes, the whites of which were as yellow as saffron, and wrinkled his face into innuain; then he opened thean: ”There was once upon a time a man whom other men called Aben Hassen the Wise--”
”One moment,” said Ali Baba; ”will you not tell us what the story is about?”
Old Bidpai looked at hi white beard ”It is,” said he, ”about--”
The Talisman of Solomon
There was once upon a time a man whom other men called Aben Hassen the Wise He had read a thousand books of ic, and knew all that the ancients orof the Dereat and hideous monster, named Zadok, was his servant, and came and went as Aben Hassen the Wise ordered, and did as he bade After Aben Hassen learned all that it was possible for man to know, he said to himself, ”Noill take my ease and enjoy my life” So he called the Demon Zadok to him, and said to the monster, ”I have read in my books that there is a treasure that was one tiypt--a treasure such as the eyes of man never saw before or since their day Is that true?”
”It is true,” said the Demon
”Then I command thee to take me to that treasure and to show it to me,”
said Aben Hassen the Wise
”It shall be done,” said the Deht up the Wise Man and transported him across ht him to a country known as the ”Land of the Black Isles,” where the treasure of the ancient kings was hidden The Deht such as man had never looked upon before or since the days that the dark, ancient ones hid it With his treasure Aben Hassen built hiardens and paradises such as the world never saw before He lived like an eh all the four corners of the earth
Now the queen of the Black Isles was the most beautiful wo as she was beautiful
Noher; for not only was she as beautiful as a dream, but her beauty was of that sort that it bewitched a man in spite of himself