only have seen one foot above those trees, he had been safe, and could
have directed his steps whither he desired. But he could barely see the
sky, so dense was the foliage and so closely did each tree's branches
embrace the other. How hard it is to strive to attain the end of the
interminable! What a seeming waste of strength is it to ever work and
work to span the infinite! How disheartening it is to one to feel that
he can never live to see the end of the endless! Interminable,
infinite, and endless seemed this forest to the wearied, hungry, and
thirsty Selim. He strained his eyes ever in his front, hoping that
every low swell of the ground would enable him to see something
encouraging; he looked in all directions for anything bearing the
semblance of a living creature, of beast, or fowl; he looked upwards,
striving to gain a glimpse of the serene face of heaven, which, in his
present state of mind and body, would have afforded him momentary
relief. Had he been more experienced in African travelling he would
have known how to procure water; he would have known that in any one of
those hollows a few hours' excavation with a pointed stick would have
procured him water, and that if there were not roots to satisfy a
craving stomach, then the land would be poor indeed. Knowing nothing,
however, of these things, he wasted the precious hours in resting, and
then plunging nervously on his way, until his body was obliged to
confess its weakness and his starved legs refused to go. When much time
was thus wasted, again he would rise to again fall; and, finally, he
fell fainting to the ground. Poor boy! he was paying dearly for the
desire of his father to increase his riches by the bartering of cloth
and flimsy beads for human creatures!

After a fainting fit, which lasted some minutes, he sat up, but was too
weak to remain long even in that condition, and he fell back; and while
thus prostrate, with his eyes upward, thought was busy with the
pleasures he had been obliged to leave, and the more his body suffered
the more his thoughts loved to revel in the luxurious scenes he had
known. Groaning from sheer agony of body, he cried aloud:

"Ah, for one sight of the foaming wave of the Zangian Sea, which curled
at morn into graceful wreaths like liquid flowers as the monsoon gently
kissed it! One glance, if nothing more, of the snowy strand whereon I
have sported often with my playmates, little Suleiman, and lea, and
Ab