The Story of Zobeide . | as 183

 

‘ Madam,’ said the young man, ‘you have given-me to under-
stand that you have a knowledge of the true God by the prayer
you have just now addressed to Him. ‘I will acquaint you with
the most remarkable effect of His greatness and power. You must
know that this city was the metropolis of a mighty kingdom, over
which the king, my father, did reign. -He, his whole court, the
inhabitants of. the city, and all his other subjects were magi, wor-
shippers of fire, and of Nardoun, the ancient king of the ‘giants,
who rebelled against God.

‘ And though I had an idolatrous father and mother, I had thé
good fortune in my youth to have a governess who was a good
Mussulman; I -learned the Koran by heart, and understood the |
explanation of it perfectly. ‘Dear prince,” would she oftentimes say,
“there is but one true God; take heed that you do not acknowledge
and adore any other.” She taught me to read Arabic, and the book
she gave me to practise: upon ‘was.the Koran. As soon as I was
capable of understanding it, she explained to me all the heads of this
excellent book, and infused: piety into my mind, unknown to my
father or anybody else. She happened to die, but not before she had
instructed me in all that was necessary to convince mé of the

truth of the Mussulman religion. After her death I persisted with
constancy in this belief; and I abhor the false god Nardoun, and
the adoration of fire.

- ‘It is about three years and some months ago that a teers
‘voice was heard, all of a sudden, so distinctly through the whole
city that nobody could miss hearing it. The words were these :
“Inhabitants, abandon the worship of Nardoun, and of fire, and
worship the only God that shows mercy.” ;

‘This voice was heard for three years successively, but nobody

was converted: so on the last day of the year, at four o’clock in the
morning, all the inhabitants were changed in an instant into stone,
every one in the same condition and posture they happened to be