16 Qe | ' The King of Persia

and I do not love him less than you do. You see I am not alarmed;
neither in truth ought I to be so. He runs no risk, and you will soon
see the king his uncle appear with him again, and bring him back
safe and sound. For he will have the same advantage his uncle
and I have, of living equally in, the sea and upon the land’ The
queen his mother and the princesses his relations confirmed the
same thing; yet all they said had no effect on the king’s fright,
from which he could not recover till he saw Prince Beder appear
again before him.

The sea at length became troubled, when immediately King
Saleh arose with the young prince in his arms, and holding him
up in the air, he re-entered at the same window he went out at. The
King of Persia being overjoyed to see Prince Beder again, and
astonished that he was as calm as before ‘he lost sight of him, King
Saleh said, ‘Sir, was not your majesty in a great fright, when you
first saw me plunge into the sea with the prince my nephew?’

‘Alas! Prince, answered the King of Persia, ‘I cannot express
_.my concern. I thought him lost from that very moment, and. you
now restore life to me by bringing him again,

_ ‘I thought as much,’ replied King Saleh, ‘though you had not
the least reason’to apprehend any danger ; for, before I plunged into
the sea with him I pronounced over him certain mysterious words,
which were engraven on the seal of the great Solomon, the son of
David. We do the same to all those children that are born in the
regions at the bottom ‘of the sea, by virtue of which they receive the
same privileges that we have over those people who inhabit the earth. —
From what your majesty -has observed, you may easily see what
advantage your son Prince Beder has acquired by his birth, for as
long as he lives, and as often as he pleases, hei will be at liberty
to plunge into the sea, and traverse the vast empires it contains
in its bosom.’

Having so spoken, King Saleh, who had ‘restored Prince Beder