irit of the Mountain. He was alone! It was
pitchy dark; the winds howled through the thick foliage of the forest;
the owls shrieked, and the wolves bayed; the loneliness of the place was
calculated to inspire terror! and the idea of meeting such a personage,
at such an hour, did not contribute to the removal of that terror! He
trembled most violently. At length, summoning up courage he entered the
mystic cell, and commenced challenging the assistance of the Spirit of
the Mountain in the following words:

"In the name of the Genius of the Dale I conjure you! by our holy
Prophet I command you! by the darkness of this murky night I entreat
you! and by the blood of a Caliph, shed by this weak arm, I allure you,
most potent Muloch, to appear! Muloch rise! help! appear!"

At this instant the monster appeared, in the form of a human being of
gigantic stature and proportions, having a fierce aspect, large, dark,
rolling eyes, bushy eyebrows, and a thick black beard--attired in the
habit of a blacksmith! He bore a huge hammer in his right hand, and in
his left he carried a pair of pincers, in which was grasped a piece of
shapeless metal. His eyes flashed with indignation as he flourished the
ponderous hammer over his head, as though it had been a small
sword--when, striking the metal he held in the forceps, a round,
well-formed shield fell from the stroke.

"Mortal!" vociferated the enchanter, in a voice of thunder, "there is
thy weapon and defence!"--flinging the weighty hammer on the ample
shield, the collision of which produced a sound in unison with the deep
bass of Muloch's voice; nor did the reverberation that succeeded cease
to ring in the ears of Abad until several minutes after the spectre had
disappeared.

Abad rejoiced when the fearful visit was over, and, well pleased with
his success, was preparing to depart; but his joy was damped on finding
the hammer so heavy that he could not, without difficulty, remove it
from off the shield. He left it in the cave, and returned with the
shield only, comforting himself that however he might be at a loss for
a weapon, he had a shield that would render him invincible.

His next care was to discover the retreat of the robbers, otherwise he
was waging a war with shadows. After making every inquiry, and wandering
in vain for several months in quest of them, he was not able to obtain
a glimpse of the objects of his search. Still they seemed to possess
ubiquity. Their depredation