ng,
written in letters as red as blood: "Fool, fool! Thou hast been a fool
once, thou hast been a fool twice; be not a fool for a third time.
Restore this casket whence it was taken, and depart."

"I will see what is in the box, at any rate," said the young man.

He opened it. There was nothing in it but a hollow glass jar the size of
an egg. The young man took the jar from the box; it was as hot as fire.
He cried out and let it fall. The jar burst upon the floor with a crack
of thunder; the house shook and rocked, and the dust flew about in
clouds. Then all was still; and when Aben Hassen the Fool could see
through the cloud of terror that enveloped him he beheld a great, tall,
hideous being as black as ink, and with eyes that shone like coals of
fire.

When the young man saw that terrible creature his tongue clave to
the roof of his mouth, and his knees smote together with fear, for he
thought that his end had now certainly come.

"Who are you?" he croaked, as soon as he could find his voice.

"I am the King of the Demons of the Earth, and my name is Zadok,"
answered the being. "I was once thy father's slave, and now I am thine,
thou being his son. When thou speakest I must obey, and whatever thou
commandest me to do that I must do."

"For instance, what can you do for me?" said the young man.

"I can do whatsoever you ask me; I can make you rich."

"You can make me rich?"

"Yes, I can make you richer than a king."

"Then make me rich as soon as you can," said Aben Hassen the Fool, "and
that is all that I shall ask of you now."

"It shall be done," said the Demon; "spend all that thou canst spend,
and thou shalt always have more. Has my lord any further commands for
his slave?"

"No," said the young man, "there is nothing more; you may go now."

And thereupon the Demon vanished like a flash.

"And to think," said the young man, as he came up out of the vault--"and
to think that all this I should never have found if I had obeyed the
Talisman."

Such riches were never seen in that land as the young man now possessed.
There was no end to the treasure that poured in upon him. He lived like
an emperor. He built a palace more splendid than the palace of the king.
He laid out vast gardens of the most exquisite beauty, in which there
were fountains as white as snow, trees of rare fruit and flowers that
filled all the air with their perfume, summer-houses of alabaster and
ebony.

Every one who visited him