a
finer house, uncle, than any we have seen yet." By this artifice,
the cunning magician led Alla ad Deen some way into the country;
and as he meant to carry him farther, to execute his design, he
took an opportunity to sit down in one of the gardens on the
brink of a fountain of clear water, which discharged itself by a
lion's mouth of bronze into a basin, pretending to be tired.
"Come, nephew," said he, "you must be weary as well as I; let us
rest ourselves, and we shall be better able to pursue our walk."

After they had sat down, the magician pulled from his girdle a
handkerchief with cakes and fruit, which he had provided, and
laid them on the edge of the basin. He broke a cake in two, gave
one half to Alla ad Deen, and ate the other himself; and in
regard to the fruit, left him at liberty to take which sort he
liked best. During this short repast, he exhorted his nephew to
leave off keeping company with vagabonds, and seek that of wise
and prudent men, to improve by their conversation. "For," said
he, "you will soon be at man's estate, and you cannot too early
begin to imitate their example." When they had eaten as much as
they liked, they got up, and pursued their walk through gardens
separated from one another only by small ditches, which marked
out the limits without interrupting the communication; so great
was the confidence the inhabitants reposed in each other. By this
means, the African magician drew Alla ad Deen insensibly beyond
the gardens, and crossed the country, till they nearly reached
the mountains.

Alla ad Deen, who had never been so far before, began to find
himself much tired with so long a walk, and said to the magician,
"Where are we going, uncle? We have left the gardens a great way
behind us, and I see nothing but mountains; if we go much
further, I do not know whether I shall be able to reach the town
again?" "Never fear, nephew," said the false uncle; "I will shew
you another garden which surpasses all we have yet seen; it is
not far off; and when we come there, you will say that you would
have been sorry to have been so nigh, and not seen it." Alla ad
Deen was soon persuaded; and the magician, to make the way seem
shorter and less fatiguing, told him a great many stories.

At last they arrived between two mountains of moderate height,
and equal size, divided by a narrow valley, which was the place
where the magician intended to execute the design that had
brought him from Africa to