50 Bx Prince Beder and
. : = eee
_ she arose without making any noise and came into his room; but he
was awake, and perceiving she had some design upon him, watched
all her motions. She opened a chest, from whence she took a little
box full of a.certain yellow powder; taking some of the powder, she
laid a train of it across the chamber, and it immediately flowed in a
rivulet of water, to the great astonishment of King Beder. He
trembled with fear, but still pretended to sleep, that the sorceress
might not discover he was awake. ,

Queen Labe next took up some of the water in a vessel, and
poured it into a basin, where there was flour, with which she made
a paste, and kneaded it for a long time: then she mixed with it
certain drugs, which she took from different boxes, and made a cake,
which she put into a covered baking-pan. As she had taken care
first of all to make a good fire, she took some of the coals, and set
the pan upon them ; and while the cake was baking, she put up the
vessels and boxes in their places again; and on her pronouncing
certain words, the rivulet, which ran along the end of the room,
appeared no more. When the cake was baked, she took it off the
coals, and carried it into her room, without the least suspicion that
he had seen anything of what she had done,

King: Beder, whom the pleasures and amusements of a court
had made forget his good host Abdallah, began now to think of
him again, and believed he had more than ordinary occasion for his
advice, after all he had ‘seen the queen do that night, As soon as
he was up, therefore, he expressed a great desire to go and see his
uncle, and begged her majesty to permit him. ‘What! my dear
Beder,’ cried the queen, ‘are you then already tired, I will not say
with living in so superb a palace as mine is, where you must find
so many pleasures, but with the company of a queen who is so
fond of you as I am?’

Great queen!’ answered King Beder, ‘how can I be tired a
so many favours and. graces as your majesty perpetually heaps upon