in they went. Fine as it all was, Selim
the Fisherman cared to look neither to the right nor to the left, but
straight after the old man he went, until at last they came to the
seaside and the boat and the four-and-twenty oarsmen dressed like
princes and the black slaves with the perfumed torches.

Here the old man entered the boat and Selim after him, and away they
sailed.

To make a long story short, everything happened to Selim the Fisherman
just as it had happened to Selim the Baker. At dawn of day they came to
the island and the city built on the mountain. And the palaces were just
as white and beautiful, and the gardens and orchards just as fresh and
blooming as though they had not all tumbled down and sunk under the
water a week before, almost carrying poor Selim the Baker with them.
There were the people dressed in silks and satins and jewels, just as
Selim the Baker had found them, and they shouted and hurrahed for Selim
the Fisherman just as they had shouted and hurrahed for the other.
There were the princes and the nobles and the white horse, and Selim the
Fisherman got on his back and rode up to a dazzling snow-white palace,
and they put a crown on his head and made a king of him, just as they
had made a king of Selim the Baker.

That night, at midnight, it happened just as it had happened before.
Suddenly, as the hour struck, the lights all went out, and there was a
moaning and a crying enough to make the heart curdle. Then the door
flew open, and in came the six terrible black men with torches. They
led Selim the Fisherman through damp and dismal entries and passage-ways
until they came to the vaulted room of black marble, and there stood
the beautiful statue on its black pedestal. Then came the voice from
above--"Selim! Selim! Selim!" it cried, "what art thou doing? To-day is
feasting and drinking and merry-making, but beware of to-morrow!"

But Selim the Fisherman did not stand still and listen, as Selim the
Baker had done. He called out, "I hear the words! I am listening! I will
beware to-day for the sake of to-morrow!"

I do not know what I should have done had I been king of that island and
had I known that in a twelve-month it would all come tumbling down about
my ears and sink into the sea, maybe carry me along with it. This is
what Selim the Fisherman did [but then he wore the iron Ring of Wisdom
on his finger, and I never had that upon mine]:

First of all, he called the wisest men of the i