184 ALI BABA AND

to maintain his wife and children but his daily
labour of cutting wood, and bringing it upon
three asses, which were his whole substance, to
town to sell.

One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, and
had just cut wood enough to load his asses; he
saw at a distance a great cloud of dust, which
seemed to be driven towards: him; he observed.
it very attentively, and distinguished soon after
a body of horse. Though there had been no
rumour of robbers in that country, Ali Baba began
to think that they might prove such, and without
considering what might become of his asses, was
resolved to save himself. He climbed up a large,
thick tree, whose branches, at a little distance
from the ground, were so close to one another
that’ there was but little space between them.
He placed himself in the middle, from whence
he could see all that passed without being dis-
covered; and the tree stood at the base of a
single rock, so steep and craggy that nobody
could climb up it.

The troop, who were all well mounted and
armed, came to the foot of this rock, and there
dismounted. Ali Baba counted forty of them,
and, from their looks and equipage, was assured
that they were robbers. Nor was he mistaken in