cess, suffered his
dread to exist. So I kissed him, and bowed my head to him, and she fled
from the sight of innocent happiness. Then took I the ring, and summoned
Karaz, and ordered him to reinstate all those princes and chiefs and
officers in their possessions and powers, on what part of earth soever
that might be. Never till I stood as the Lily and thy voice sweetened the
name of love in my ears, heard I aught of delicate delightfulness, like
the sound of their gratitude. Many wooed me to let them stay by me and
guard me, and do service all their lives to me; but this I would not
allow, and though they were fair as moons, some of them, I responded not
to their soft glances, speaking calmly the word of farewell, for I was
burdened with other thoughts.

Now, when the Genie had done my bidding, he returned to me joyfully. My
soul sickened to think myself his by a promise; but I revolved the words
of my promise, and saw in them a loophole of escape. So, when he claimed
me, I said, 'Ay! ay! lay thy head in my lap,' as if my mind treasured it.
Then he lay there, and revealed to me his plans for the destruction of
men. 'Or,' said he, 'they shall be our slaves and burden-beasts, for
there 's now no restraint on me, now thou art mistress of the ring, and
mine.' Thereupon his imagination swelled, and he saw his evil will
enthroned, and the hopes of men beneath his heel, crying, 'And the more I
crush them the thicker they crowd, for the Identical compelleth their
very souls to adore in spite of distaste.'

Then said I, 'Tell me, O Genie! is the Identical subservient to me in
another head save thine?'

He answered, 'Nay I in another head 'tis a counteraction to the power of
the Ring, the Ring powerless over it.'

And I said, 'Must it live in a head, the Identical?'

Cried he, 'Woe to what else holdeth it!'

I whispered in his hairy pointed red ear, 'Sleep! sleep!' and lulled him
with a song, and he slept, being weary with my commissioning. Then I bade
Feshnavat, my father, fetch me one of my books of magic, and read in it
of the discovery of the Identical by means of the Ring; and I took the
Ring and hung it on a hair of my own head over the head of the Genie, and
saw one of the thin lengths begin to twist and dart and writhe, and shift
lustres as a creature in anguish. So I put the Ring on my forefinger, and
turned the hair round and round it, and tugged. Lo, with a noise that
stunned me, the hair came out! O my betrothed