loved son (then a fine
youth), who had been decoyed by the wicked emissaries of the King, for the
purpose, it was feared, of immolation--as it was known to be his custom,
when, laying the foundation of a building, to deposit living victims of
the Mussulmaun faith beneath it. The poor woman had no hope her eyes would
ever again be blessed with the sight of her fondly-loved son, and still
more agonizing were her fears, that his protracted sufferings would be of
the same terrible description with numbers of the faithful who had fallen
into the hands of that wretched heathen King.

'Her friends in the Emaum's family grieved over the sad affliction with
which their favourite had been visited. The Emaum strove to comfort her,
and proposed that she should perform the prayer in which Mahumud had
instructed his followers for "The Opening of Difficulties". "Alas!"
replied the woman, "poor ignorant that I am, how shall I repeat that
prayer; I cannot read: knowest thou not, my Emaum, that I am not
acquainted with letters?" "But I will teach you the prayer," answered the
Emaum; "you shall repeat it after me, and by diligence you will acquire it
perfectly by that day, on which our Prophet commanded his followers to
perform the fast and offer this prayer, that God might be pleased to
remove their calamities."

'The poor woman obeyed all the injunctions and advice of the Emaum Jaffur
Saadick punctually; acquired, by her diligence, the words of the prayer;
strictly observed the preparation by fast; and, on the fifteenth "day of
Rujub", the prayer was duly performed, with sincere devotion and perfect
faith in God's power, and His infinite mercy.

'In the mean time, it appears, the King having been much troubled in a
dream, he was warned to release his prisoner from captivity without delay,
at the peril of destruction to himself and all he possessed. The warning
dream presented him with a view of the gulf to which he was condemned, if
he delayed the release of Daaood from his confinement. The person of the
youth was so clearly represented to the King in his dream, that there
could be no possible mistake in the particular captive to be freed, out of
the many he held in bondage. The King awakening from his troubled sleep,
demanded of his attendants where the young man was confined; and learning
from the chief officer of his court that Daaood was sent to a distant
place, to be the offering buried under the foundation of a house, erecting