Shortly after they had disappeared, the earth opened before us, and a
black and white cat appeared, the hairs of which stood quite on end,
and which made a most horrible mewing. A black wolf directly followed
after her, and gave her no time to rest. The cat, being thus hard
pressed, changed into a worm, and hid itself in a pomegranate which
lay by accident on the ground; but the pomegranate swelled
immediately, and became as big as a gourd, which, lifting itself up to
the roof of the gallery, rolled there for some time backward and
forward; it then fell down again into the court, and broke into
several pieces.
The wolf had in the meanwhile transformed itself into a cock, and now
fell to picking up the seeds of the pomegranate one after another; but
finding no more, he came toward us with his wings spread, making a
great noise, as if he would ask us whether there were any more seed.
There was one lying on the brink of the canal, which the cock
perceiving as he went back, ran speedily thither; but just as he was
going to pick it up the seed rolled into a fountain and turned into a
little fish.
The cock, flying toward the fountain, turned into a pike, and pursued
the small fish; they both continued under water above two hours, and
we knew not what was become of them; but suddenly we heard terrible
cries, which made us tremble, and a little while after we saw the
genie and princess all in flames. They threw ashes of fire out of
their mouths at each other, till they came to close combat; then the
two fires increased, with a thick, burning smoke, which mounted so
high that we had reason to apprehend it would set the palace on fire.
But we very soon had a more pressing occasion of fear, for the genie,
having got loose from the princess, came to the gallery where we
stood, and blew flames of fire upon us. We must all have perished had
not the princess, running to our assistance, forced him to retire, and
to defend himself against her; yet, notwithstanding all her exertions,
she could not hinder the sultan's beard from being burned, and his
face scorched, and a spark from entering my right eye, and making it
blind. The sultan and I expected nothing but death, when we heard a
cry of "Victory, victory!" and instantly the princess appeared in her
natural shape; but the genie was reduced to a heap of ashes.
The princess approached us and hastily called for a cupful of water,
which the young slave, who had received no hurt, brought her. She took
it, and after pronouncing some words over it, threw it upon me,
saying, "If thou art become an ape by enchantment, change thy shape,
and take that of a man, which thou hadst before." These words were
hardly uttered when I again became a man in every respect as I was
before my transformation, excepting the loss of my eye.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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