of its race is drowned in the sea.'

[Illustration: SUMI.SHOWS.HASSAN.THE.BOOK.OF.MAGIC]

'Alas!' sighed the unfortunate youth. 'It now comes back to my memory.
One day the slave of Zambac was making a cake. She warned me not to
touch, as the cake was mixed with lard, but I did not heed her, and in
an instant my hand became the ebony that it now is.'

'Holy dervish!' exclaimed the Bassa, 'how true were your words! My son
has neglected the advice you gave him on presenting him the bracelet,
and he has been severely punished. But tell me, O wise Sumi, where I can
find the last of the accursed race who has brought this doom on my son?'

'It is written here,' replied Sumi, turning over some leaves. 'The
little black pig is in the pink bag carried by the two Circassians.'

When he read this the Bassa sank on his cushions in despair.

'Ah,' he said, 'that is the bag that was offered me this morning for
three hundred sequins. Those must be the women who caused Izif and Izouf
to dance, and took from them the two talismans of the daughters of
Siroco. They only can break the spell that has been cast on us. Let
them be found and I will gladly give them the half of my possessions.
Idiot that I was to send them away!'

While the Bassa was bewailing his folly, Ibrahim in his turn had opened
the book, and blushed deeply as he read the words: 'The chaplet of beads
has been defiled by the game of "Odd and Even." Its owner has tried to
cheat by concealing one of the numbers. Let the faithless Moslem seek
for ever the missing bead.'

'O heaven,' cried Ibrahim, 'that unhappy day rises up before me. I had
cut the thread of the chaplet, while playing with Aurora. Holding the
ninety-nine beads in my hand she guessed "Odd," and in order that she
might lose I let one bead fall from my hand. Since then I have sought it
daily, but it never has been found.'

'Holy dervish!' cried the Bassa, 'how true were your words! From the
time that the sacred chaplet was no longer complete, my son has borne
the penalty. But may not the Book of Spells teach us how to deliver
Ibrahim also?'

'Listen,' said Sumi, 'this is what I find: "The coral bead lies in the
fifth fold of the dress of yellow brocade."'

'Ah, what good fortune!' exclaimed the Bassa, 'we shall shortly see the
beautiful Aurora, and Ibrahim shall at once search in the fifth fold of
her yellow brocade. For it is she no doubt of whom the book speaks.'

As the Jewess closed the Book of