154 THE ARABIAN NIGHTS.

flection of the most distressing nature, and, alas! I soon had
good reason to fear: she was taken dangerously ill, and died in
afew days. Judge of my horror. To be interred alive did not
appear to me a more desirable end than that of being devoured
by the anthropophagi ; yet I was obliged to comply. Theking,
accompanied by his whole court, would honour the procession
with his presence, and the principal inhabitants of the city also,
out of respect to me, were present at my interment.

When all was in readiness for the ceremony, the corpse of my
wife, decorated with her jewels and most magnificent clothes,
was placed on the bier, and the procession set out. Being the
second personage in this woeful tragedy, I followed the body of
my wife, my eyes bathed in tears, and deploring my miserable
destiny. Before we arrived at the mountain, I wished to make
trial of the compassion of the spectators. I first addressed my-
self to the king, then to those who were near me, and bowing to
the ground to kiss the hem of their garment, I entreated them
to have pityon me. “ Consider,” said I, “that I am a stranger,
who ought not to be subject to so rigorous a law.” I pro-
nounced these words in an affecting tone, but no one seemed
moved; on the contrary, they hastened to put the corpse in
the pit, and soon after I was let down also, on another bier,
with a jug of water and seven loaves. At last, this fatal cere-
mony being completed, they replaced the stone over the mouth
of the pit, notwithstanding the excess of my grief and my piteous
lamentation. :

As I approached the bottom, I discovered, by the little light
that shone from above, the shape of this subterraneous abode.
It was a vast cavern, which might be about fifty cubits deep. I
soon smelt an insupportable stench, which arose from the car-
cases that were spread around. Plunged in grief as I was, yet
the love of life still glowed within me, and induced me to pro-
long my days. I felt my way to the bier on which I had been
placed. I found my bread and water, of which I partook. The
cave now appeared more spacious, and to contain more bodies
than I had at first supposed. I subsisted for some days on my
provisions ; but they were nearly exhausted when one day I
heard a sound like breathing and a footstep. I advanced to the
part from whence the sound proceeded: I heard a louder
breathing at my approach, and 1 fancied I saw something flee-