132 ok , The Story of Zobeide

 

carpet, reading with great devotion the Koran, which lay before him
upon a desk. At the sight of this I was transported with wonder.
I. wondered how it came to pass that he should be the only living
creature in a town.where all the people were turned into stones, and I
did not doubt but that there was something in it very extraordinary.

The door. being only half shut, 1 opened it and went in, and
standing upright before the niche, I said this prayer aloud: ‘Praise
be to God, who has favoured us with a happy voyage, and may He be
graciously pleased to protect us in the same manner until we arrive
again in our own country. Hear me, O Lord, and grant my request.’

The young man cast his eyes upon-me, and said, ‘My good lady;
pray let me know who you are; and what has brought you to this
desolate ‘city ; and, in return, I will tell you who I am, what
happened to me, why the inhabitants of this city are reduced to
that state you see them in, and why I alone am safe and sound in
the midst of such a terrible. disaster.’

I told him in..few words from whence I came, , what made me
undertake the voyage, and how I had safely arr ived at the port after
twenty days’ sailing; and when I had done I prayed him to fulfil
his promise, and told him how much ‘I was struck by the frightful
desolation which I had seen in all places as I came along.

‘My dear lady, said the young man, ‘have patience for a
moment.’ At these.words he shut the Koran, put it into a rich case,
and laid it in the niche, I took that opportunity of observing him,
and perceived so much good-nature and beauty in him that I felt,
strange emotion, He made me sit down by him; and before he,
began his discourse I could not “forbear ‘saying to oa ‘Sir, [I can:
scarcely have patience to wait for an account of all those wonderful:
things that I have seen since the first time I came into your city;
and my curiosity. cannot be. satisfied top soon: therefore pray, sir,,
let me know by what miracle you alone are left alive among so
many persons that have died in so strange a manner.