nest polished black marble. There are always burning in
it five thousand everlasting lamps. It has also an hundred folding doors
of ebony, which are each of them watched day and night by an hundred
negroes, who are to take care that nobody enters besides the governor.

19. Helim, after having conveyed the body of his daughter into this
repository, and at the appointed time received her out of the sleep into
which she was fallen, took care some time after to bring that of
Abdallah into the same place. Balsora, watched over him till such time
as the dose he had taken lost its effect. Abdallah was not acquainted
with Helim's design when he gave him this sleepy potion.

20. It is impossible to describe the surprise, the joy, the transport he
was in at his first awaking. He fancied himself in the retirement of the
blest, and that the spirit of his dear Balsora, who he thought was just
gone before him, was the first who came to congratulate his arrival. She
soon informed him of the place he was in, which notwithstanding all its
horrors, appeared to him more sweet than the bower of Mahomet, in the
company of his Balsora.

21. Helim, who was supposed to be taken up in the embalming of the
bodies, visited the place very frequently. His greatest perplexity was
how to get the lovers out of it, the gates being watched in such a
manner as I have before related. This consideration did not a little
disturb the two interred lovers.

22. At length Helim bethought himself, that the first day of the full
moon of the month Tizpa was near at hand. Now it is a received tradition
among the Persians, that the souls of those of the royal family, who are
in a state of bliss, do, on the first full moon after their decease,
pass through the eastern gate of the black palace, which is therefore
called the Gate of Paradise, in order to take their flight for that
happy place.

23. Helim, therefore, having made due preparation for this night,
dressed each of the lovers in a robe of azure silk, wrought in the
finest looms of Persia, with a long train of linen whiter than snow,
that flowed on the ground behind them. Upon Abdallah's head he fixed a
wreath of the greenest myrtle, and on Balsora's a garland of the
freshest roses. Their garments were scented with the richest perfumes of
Arabia.

24. Having thus prepared every thing, the full moon was no sooner up,
and shining in all its brightness, but he privately opened the Gate of
Paradise, and shu