330° THE ARABIAN NIGHTS,

At this speech Aladdin hung down his head, and was much
disconcerted ; but his mother seeing this, answered for himy
“ Aladdin is a very idle boy.” “This is not right, Aladdin,” said
the African magician ; “you must think of supporting yourself,
and working for your bread. If you have an objection against
learning any trade, and yet wish to be a respectable and honest
character, I will procure you a shop, and furnish it with rich
stuffs and fine sorts of linens ; you shall sell the goods, and with
the money that you make you shall buy other merchandise.
Consult your own inclinations, and tell me candidly what you
think of the plan. You will always find me ready to perform my
promise.” i

This offer flattered the vanity of Aladdin very much ; and he
said he should all his life continue sensible. of the obligation he
was under to him.

The mother of Aladdin, who till now had not been convinced
that the magician was in fact the brother of her husband, no
longer doubted it, after all the good he promisd to do for her
son.

The African magician did not fail to return the next morning
to the widow of Mustafa the tailor, as he had promised. He
took Aladdin away with him, and conducted him to a merchant’s
where ready-made clothes, suited to every description of people,
and made of the finest stuffs, were sold. He made him try
such as seemed to fit him, and purchased them for him He
then conducted him to the most frequented parts of the city,
particularly where the shops of the most opulent merchants
were; and when he was come to the street where the shops of
fine stuffs and linens were, he said to Aladdin, “You will soon
become a merchant such as one of these. It is proper that you
should frequent this place, and become acquainted with them.”
After this he carried him to the largest and most noted mosques,
to the khans, where the foreign merchants lived, and through
every part of the sultan’s palace where he had leave to enter,
Having at length gone with him over every part of the city most
worth seeing, they came to the khan where the magician had
hired an apartment. They found several merchants, with whom
he had made some slight acquaintance since his arrival, and
whom he had now invited to partake of a repast, in order to
introduce his pretended nephew to them.