grumbling.

Scarcely were they gone when, instead of the pile, horns, mummies, and
ashes, the Caliph both saw and felt, with a degree of pleasure which he
could not express, a table covered with the most magnificent repast;
flagons of wine and vases of exquisite sherbet floating on snow. He
availed himself without scruple of such an entertainment and had already
laid hands on a lamb stuffed with pistachios, whilst Carathis was
privately drawing from a filigree urn a parchment that seemed to be
endless, and which had escaped the notice of her son; totally occupied in
gratifying an importunate appetite he left her to peruse it without
interruption, which, having finished, she said to him in an authoritative
tone, "Put an end to your gluttony, and hear the splendid promises with
which you are favoured!" She then read as follows: "Vathek, my
well-beloved, thou hast surpassed my hopes; my nostrils have been regaled
by the savour of thy mummies, thy horns, and still more by the lives
devoted on the pile. At the full of the moon cause the bands of thy
musicians and thy tymbals to be heard; depart from thy palace surrounded
by all the pageants of majesty; thy most faithful slaves, thy best
beloved wives, thy most magnificent litters, thy richest leaden camels,
and set forward on thy way to Istakhar; there await I thy coming; that is
the region of wonders; there shalt thou receive the diadem of Gian Ben
Gian, the talismans of Soliman, and the treasures of the Pre-Adamite
Sultans; there shalt thou be solaced with all kinds of delight. But
beware how thou enterest any dwelling on thy route, or thou shalt feel
the effects of my anger."

The Caliph, who, notwithstanding his habitual luxury, had never before
dined with so much satisfaction, gave full scope to the joy of these
golden tidings, and betook himself to drinking anew. Carathis, whose
antipathy to wine was by no means insuperable, failed not to supply a
reason for every bumper, which they ironically quaffed to the health of
Mahomet. This infernal liquor completed their impious temerity, and
prompted them to utter a profusion of blasphemies; they gave a loose to
their wit at the expense of the ass of Balaam, the dog of the seven
sleepers, and the other animals admitted into the paradise of Mahomet.
In this sprightly humour they descended the eleven thousand stairs,
diverting themselves as they went at the anxious faces they saw on the
square through the oilets of the