that I have dwelt alone underground for these five and twenty years; and praise be to Allah, who hath sent me some one with whom I can converse!" Then she asked, "O youth, what sayest thou to wine?" and I answered, "Do as thou wilt." Whereupon she went to a cupboard and took out a sealed flask of right old wine and set off the table with flowers and scented herbs and began to sing these lines:— "Had we known of thy coming we fain had dispread * The cores of our hearts or the balls of our eyes; Our cheeks as a carpet to greet thee had thrown * And our eyelids had strown for thy feet to betread." Now when she finished her verse I thanked her, for indeed love of her had gotten hold of my heart and my grief and anguish were gone. We sat at converse and carousel till nightfall, and with her I spent the night—such night never spent I in all my life! On the morrow delight followed delight till midday, by which time I had drunken wine so freely that I had lost my wits, and stood up, staggering to the right and to the left, and said "Come, O my charmer, and I will carry thee up from this underground vault and deliver thee from the spell of thy Jinni." She laughed and replied "Content thee and hold thy peace: of every ten days one is for the Ifrit and the other nine are thine." Quoth I (and in good sooth drink had got the better of me), "This very instant will I break down the alcove whereon is graven the talisman and summon the Ifrit that I may slay him, for it is a practice of mine to slay Ifrits!" When she heard my words her colour waxed wan and she said, "By Allah, do not!" and she began repeating:— "This is a thing wherein destruction lies * I rede thee shun it an thy wits be wise." And these also:— "O thou who seekest severance, draw the rein * Of thy swift steed nor seek o'ermuch t' advance; Ah stay! for treachery is the rule of life, * And sweets of meeting end in severance." I heard her verse but paid no heed to her words, nay, I raised my foot and administered to the alcove a mighty kick. And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Thirteenth Night,