When the magician had made choice of a place, and sat down, he began to enter into discourse with Aladdin’s mother. “My good sister,” said he, “do not be surprised at your never having seen me all the time you have been married to my brother, Mustapha, of happy memory. I have been forty years absent from this country, which is my native place, as well as my late brother’s; and during that time have travelled into the Indies, Persia, Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, and have resided in the finest towns of those countries, and afterwards crossed over into Africa, where I made a longer stay. At last, as it is natural for a man, how distant soever it may be, to remember his native country, relations and acquaintance, I was very desirous to see mine again, and to embrace my dear brother; and finding I had strength and courage enough to undertake so long a journey, I immediately made the necessary preparations for it, and set out. I will not tell you the length of time it took me, all the obstacles I met with, and what fatigues I have endured, to come hither; but nothing ever mortified and afflicted me so much as the hearing of my brother’s death, for whom I always had a brotherly love and friendship. I observed his features in the face of my nephew, your son, and distinguished him from a number of children with whom he was at play; he can tell you how I received the most melancholy news that ever reached my ears. But God be praised for all things! It is a comfort to me to find him again in a son, who has his most remarkable features.” The African magician, perceiving that Aladdin’s mother began to weep at the remembrance of her husband, changed the discourse, and turning towards Aladdin, asked him his name. “I am called Aladdin,” said he. “Well, Aladdin,” replied the magician, “what business do you follow? Are you of any trade?” At this question Aladdin hung down his head, and was not a little dashed when his mother made answer, “Aladdin is an idle fellow; his father, when alive, strove all he could to teach him his trade, but could not succeed; and since his death, notwithstanding all I can say to him, he does nothing but idle away his time in the streets, as you saw him, without considering he is no longer a child: and if you do not make him ashamed of it, and make him leave it off, I despair of his ever coming to any good. He knows that his father left him no fortune, and sees me endeavour to get bread by spinning cotton every day; for my part, I am resolved, one of these days, to turn him out of doors and let him provide for himself.”