give
you of my devotion by my sighs and lamentations. Is it from
insensibility, or contempt? O tomb! tell me by what miracle thou
becamest the depository of the rarest treasure the world ever
contained.'

"I must confess, my lord, I was enraged at these expressions; for, in
truth, this adored mortal was by no means what you would imagine him to
have been. He was a black Indian, one of the original natives of this
country. I was so enraged at the language addressed to him, that I
discovered myself, and apostrophising the tomb in my turn, I cried, 'O
tomb! why dost thou not swallow up that monster so revolting to human
nature, or rather why dost thou not swallow up this pair of monsters?'

"I had scarcely uttered these words, when the queen, who sat by the
black, rose up like a fury: 'Miscreant!' said she, 'thou art the cause
of my grief; do not think I am ignorant of this, I have dissembled too
long. It was thy barbarous hand that brought the object of my fondness
into this lamentable condition; and thou hast the cruelty to come and
insult me.' 'Yes,' said I, in a rage, 'it was I who chastised that
monster, according to his desert; I ought to have treated thee in the
same manner; I now repent that I did not; thou hast too long abused my
goodness.' As I spoke these words, I drew out my cimeter, and lifted up
my hand to punish her; but regarding me steadfastly, she said with a
jeering smile, 'Moderate thine anger.' At the same time she pronounced
words I did not understand; and afterward added, 'By virtue of my
enchantments, I command thee to become half marble and half man.'
Immediately, my lord, I became what you see, a dead man among the
living, and a living man among the dead. After this cruel sorceress,
unworthy of the name of queen, had metamorphosed me thus, and brought me
into this hall, by another enchantment she destroyed my capital, which
was very flourishing and populous; she annihilated the houses, the
public places and markets, and reduced the site of the whole to the lake
and desert plain you have seen; the fishes of four colours in the waters
are the four kinds of inhabitants, of different religions, which the
city contained. The white are the Mussulmans; the red, the Persians, who
worship fire; the blue, the Christians; and the yellow, the Jews. The
four little hills were the four islands that gave name to this kingdom.
I learned all this from the enchantress, who, to add to my affliction,
related to me