into a
palace, divided into three great halls. In each of these you will see
four large brass cisterns placed on each side, full of gold and silver;
but take care you do not meddle with them. Before you enter the first
hall, be sure to tuck up your robe, wrap it about you, and then pass
through the second into the third without stopping. Above all things,
have a care that you do not touch the walls so much as with your
clothes; for if you do, you will die instantly. At the end of the third
hall, you will find a door which opens into a garden, planted with fine
trees loaded with fruit. Walk directly across the garden to a terrace,
where you will see a niche before you, and in that niche a lighted lamp.
Take the lamp down and put it out. When you have thrown away the wick
and poured out the liquor, put it in your waistband and bring it to me.
Do not be afraid that the liquor will spoil your clothes, for it is not
oil, and the lamp will be dry as soon as it is thrown out."

After these words the magician drew a ring off his finger, and put it on
one of Aladdin's, saying, "It is a talisman against all evil, so long as
you obey me. Go, therefore, boldly, and we shall both be rich all our
lives."

Aladdin descended the steps, and, opening the door, found the three
halls just as the African magician had described. He went through them
with all the precaution the fear of death could inspire, crossed the
garden without stopping, took down the lamp from the niche, threw out
the wick and the liquor, and, as the magician had desired, put it in his
waistband. But as he came down from the terrace, seeing it was perfectly
dry, he stopped in the garden to observe the trees, which were loaded
with extraordinary fruit of different colours on each tree. Some bore
fruit entirely white, and some clear and transparent as crystal; some
pale red, and others deeper; some green, blue, and purple, and others
yellow; in short, there was fruit of all colours. The white were pearls;
the clear and transparent, diamonds; the deep red, rubies; the paler,
balas rubies; the green, emeralds; the blue, turquoises; the purple,
amethysts; and the yellow, sapphires. Aladdin, ignorant of their value,
would have preferred figs, or grapes, or pomegranates; but as he had his
uncle's permission, he resolved to gather some of every sort. Having
filled the two new purses his uncle had bought for him with his clothes,
he wrapped some up in the skirts of his vest, an