THE KING OF THE BLACK ISLES, 47

1 had hardly finished these words, when the lady, who was
seated near the black, started up like a fury. “Ah, wretch!”
said she to me, “it is thou who hast been the cause of my
grief,” and at the same instant she pronounced some words
which I did not understand, and added, “ By virtue of my en-
chantments, I command thee from this moment to become halt
marble, and half man.” Immediately, my lord, I was changed
to what you see me; already dead among the living, and living
among the dead.

As soon as this cruel enchantress, for she is unworthy of any
other name, had thus transformed me, and by means of her
magic had conveyed me to this apartment, she destroyed my
capital, which was both flourishing and well inhabited ; she
annihilated the palaces, public places, and markets ; turned the
whole place into a lake, or pond, and rendered the country, as
you may perceive, quite a desert. The four sorts of fish which
are in the pond are four different classes of inhabitants, who
professed different religions, and inhabited the capital The
white were Mussulmen; the red, Persians, who worship fire ;
the blue, Christians ; and the yellow, Jews; the four little hills
were four islands, whence the name of the kingdom originated.
I was informed of all this by the enchantress, who herself related
the effects of her rage. Nor was even this all; she did not
confine her fury to the destruction of my empire, and to my
enchantment, for she comes every day and gives me a hundred
blows with a thong, made of a bull’s hide, upon my shoulders,
from whence she draws blood at every stroke. As soon as she
has finished this punishment, she covers me with a thick stuff
made of goat’s hair, and puts a robe of rich brocade over it, not
for the sake of honouring, but of mocking me.—In saying this,
the young king of the Black Isles could not refrain from tears ;
and the sultan’s heart was so oppressed, he could not offer him
any consolation. The young king then, lifting up his eyes
towards heaven, exclaimed, “I submit, O powerful Creator of
all things, to thy judgments, and to the decrees of thy providence.
Since it is thy pleasure, I patiently endure every evil; yet I
trust thy infinite goodness will one day recompense me.”

“Inform me,” cried the sultan, affected by the recital of so
strange a story, and eager to avenge such injuries, “inform me
where this perfidious enchantress resides, and where also is her