the Talisman ; | we 165

i>

all good Mussulmans do before they die, when the gardener expired
in his presence.

The prince being under the necessity of embarking immediately
hastened to pay the last duty to the deceased. He washed
his body, buried him in his own garden (for the Mahometans had
no cemetery in the city of the idolaters, where they were only
tolerated), and as he had nobody to assist him it was almost even-
ing before he had put him in the ground. As soon as he had
done it he ran to the water-side, carrying with him the key of
the garden, intending, if he had time, to give it to the landlord ;
otherwise to deposit it in some trusty person’s hand before a
witness, that he might leave it when he was gone. When he came
to the port, he was told the ship had sailed several hours before he
came and was already out of sight. It had waited three hours for him,
and the wind standing fair, the captain dared not stay any longer.

It is easy to imagine that Prince Camaralzaman was exceed-
ingly grieved to be forced to stay longer in a country where he
neither had nor wished to have any acquaintance : to think that he
must wait another twelvemonth for the opportunity he had lost.
But .the. greatest affliction of all was his having let go the Princess
Badoura’s talisman, which he now gave over for lost. The only
course that was left for him to take was to return to the garden
to rent it of the landlord, and to continue to cultivate it by him-
self, deploring his misery and misfortunes. He hired a boy to help
him to do some part of the drudgery; and that he might not lose
the other half of the treasure, which came to him by the death
of the gardener, who died without heirs, he put the gold-dust
into fifty other pots, which he filled up with olives, to be ready
against the time of the ship’s return.

While Prince Camaralzaman began another year of labour,
sorrow and impatience, the ship, having a fair wind, continued
her voyage. to. the Isle of Ebony, and happily arrived at the capital.