TWILIGHT LAND

Instantly the beautiful slave dropped the golden basin
upon the stone floor, and began shrieking and tearing her
clothes. ‘He has asked the question!” she screamed—
‘he has asked the question !”

The young man began to grow frightened; he arose
from his couch, and with uneven steps went out into the
anteroom. ‘There he found his chamberlain waiting for
him with a crowd of attendants and courtiers. “Tell
me,” said Aben Hassen the Fool, “why are you all so
sorrowful ?”

Instantly they who stood waiting began crying and
tearing their clothes and beating their hands. As for
the chamberlain—he was a reverend old man—his eyes
sparkled with anger, and his fingers twitched as though
he would have struck if he had dared. ‘‘ What,” he
cried, “art thou not contented with all thou hast and
with all that we do for thee without asking the forbidden
question ?”

Thereupon he tore his cap from his head and flung it
upon the ground, and began beating himself violently
upon the head with great outcrying.

Aben Hassen the Fool, not knowing what to think or
what was to happen, ran back into the bedroom again.
“T think everybody in this place has gone mad,” said he.
“Nevertheless, if I do not find out what it all means, I
shall go mad myself.”

Then he bethought himself, for the first time since he
came to that land, of the Talisman of Solomon.

‘Tell me, O Talisman,” said he, ‘‘ why all these people
weep and wail so continuously ?”

“Rest content,” said the Talisman of Solomon, “ with
knowing that which concerns thine own self, and seek

52