east Alborac,
and passed through all the seven heavens into the presence of Allah
himself, with whom he had a conversation, which could not have been a
very short one, and was then brought back by the way he had gone. He
remained long enough in each heaven to give a full, true and particular
account of it and of its inhabitants, and performed various other feats
during the journey. Nor will it be forgotten how one of the Sultans one
day expressing doubts on the possibility of so much having happened to
the Apostle in so short a time, a learned doctor of the Mohammedan law
caused a basin of water to be brought and requested him to dip his head
into it. When the Sultan dipped his head he found himself in a strange
country, alone and friendless, on the seashore. He made his way to a
neighbouring town, obtained employment, became rich, married, lived
seven years with his wife, who afterwards, to his great grief, died, and
then he lost all. One day he was wandering in despondency along the
seashore, where he had first found himself; and in his despair he
determined to cast himself into the sea. Scarcely had he done so when he
beheld his courtiers standing around his throne: he was once more
Sultan, and the basin of water into which he had dipped his head was
before him. He began furiously to reproach the learned doctor for
banishing him from his capital and sending him into the midst of
vicissitudes and adventures for so many years. Nor was it without
difficulty that he was brought to believe that he had only just dipped
his head into the water and lifted it out again.

This type of story is less frequent than the other, but it is known in
countries far apart. A stripling, in Pembrokeshire, joined a fairy
dance, and found himself in a palace glittering with gold and pearls,
where he remained in great enjoyment with the fairy folk for many years.
One restriction was laid upon him: he was not to drink from a certain
well in the midst of the palace gardens. But he could not forbear. In
that well swam golden fishes and fishes of all colours. One day the
youth, impelled by curiosity, plunged his hand into the water; but in a
moment fishes and all disappeared, a shriek ran through the garden, and
he found himself again on the hillside with his father's flocks around
him. In fact, he had never left the sheep, and what seemed to him to be
years had been only minutes, during which the fairy spell had been over
him. In Count Lucanor,