the King’s Son ¢&. 209

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the princess appeared in her natural shape, but the genie was reduced
to a heap of ashes.

The princess came near to us that she might not lose time, called
for a cupful of water, which the young slave, who had received no
damage, brought her. She took it, and after pronouncing some
words over it, threw it upon me, saying, ‘If thou art become an ape
by enchantment, change thy shape, and take that of a man, which
thou hadst before. These words were hardly uttered when I became
a man as I was before.

I was preparing to give thanks to the princess, but she prevented
me by addressing herself to her father, thus: ‘Sir, I have gained
the victory over the genie, as your majesty may see; but it is
a victory that costs me dear. I have but a few minutes to live, and
you will not have the satisfaction of making the match you intended;
the fire has pierced me during the terrible combat, and I find it
is consuming me by degrees. This would not have happened had >
I perceived the last-of the pomegranate seeds, and swallowed it
as I did the others, when I was changed into a cock; the genie
had fied thither as to his last entrenchment, and upon that the
success of the combat depended, without danger to me. This slip
obliged me to have recourse to fire, and to fight with those
mighty arms as I did between heaven and earth, in your presence ;
for, in spite of all his redoubtable art and experience, I made the
genie know that I understood more than he. I have conquered
and reduced him to ashes, but I cannot escape death, which is
approaching.’

The sultan suffered the princess, the Lady of Beauty, to go on
with the recital of her combat, and when she had done he spoke
to her in a tone that sufficiently testified his grief’ ‘My daughter,’
said he, ‘you see in what condition your father is; alas! I wonder
that I am yet alive!’ He could speak no more, for his tears, sighs
and sobs made him speechless ; his daughter and I wept with him.

Be2 :