The honest dervize, being mounted on the throne of his father-in-law, as he was one day in the midst of his courtiers upon a march, espied the envious man among the crowd of people that stood as he passed along, and calling one of his viziers that attended him, whispered him in the ear thus: Go bring me that man you see there, but take care you do not frighten him. The vizier obeyed, and when the envious man was brought into his presence, the sultan said, Friend, I am extremely glad to see you. Upon which he called an officer: Go immediately, says he, and cause to be paid this man out of my treasury one hundred pieces of gold; let him have also twenty load of the richest merchandise in my store-houses, and a sufficient guard to conduct him to his house. After he had given this charge to the officer, he bade the envious man farewell, and proceeded on his march. When I had finished the recital of this story to the genie, the murderer of the princess of the isle of Ebone, I made the application to himself thus: O genie! you see here that this bountiful sultan did not content himself with forgetting the design of the envious man to take away his life, but treated him kindly, and sent him back with all the favours which I just now related. In short, I made use of all my eloquence, prayed him to imitate such a good example, and to grant me pardon; but it was impossible for me to move his compassion. All that I can do for thee, said he, is, that I will not take away thy life; do not flatter thyself that I will send thee safe and sound back. I must let you feel what I am able to do by my enchantments. With that he laid violent hands on me, and carried me across the vault of the subterraneous palace, which opened to give him passage; he flew up with me so high, that the earth seemed to be only a little white cloud; from thence he came down again like lightning, and alighted upon the ridge of a mountain. There he took up a handful of earth, and pronounced, or rather muttered, some words which I did not understand, and threw it upon me. Leave the shape of a man, says he to me, and take on that of an ape. He vanished immediately, and left me alone, transformed into an ape, overwhelmed with sorrow in a strange country, not knowing if I was near unto or far from my father's dominions. I went down from the height of the mountain, and came into a plain country, which took me a month's time to travel through, and then I came to a coast of the sea. It happened then to be a great calm, and I espied a vessel about half a league from the shore; I would not lose this good opportunity, but broke off a large branch from a tree, which I carried with me to the sea-side, and set myself astride upon it, with a stick in each hand to serve me for oars.