this city belong, wherein is no lord nor any liege, and whence came these mules and asses and horses that hindered me from landing?” And he mused over his case. Then he walked on at hazard till he espied an old man, a grocer.[FN#337] So he saluted him and the other returned his salam and seeing him to be a handsome young man, said to him, “O youth, whence comest thou and what brought thee to this city?” Badr told him his story; at which the old man marvelled and said, “O my son, didst thou see any on thy way?” He replied, “Indeed, O my father, I wondered in good sooth to sight a city void of folk.” Quoth the Shaykh, “O my son, come up into the shop, lest thou perish.” So Badr Basim went up into the shop and sat down; whereupon the old man set before him somewhat of food, saying, “O my son, enter the inner shop; glory be to Him who hath preserved thee from yonder she-Sathanas!” King Badr Basim was sore affrighted at the grocer’s words; but he ate his fill and washed his hands; then glanced at his host and said to him, “O my lord, what is the meaning of these words? Verily thou hast made me fearful of this city and its folk.” Replied the old man, “Know, O my son, that this is the City of the Magicians and its Queen is as she were a she-Satan, a sorceress and a mighty enchantress, passing crafty and perfidious exceedingly. All thou sawest of horses and mules and asses were once sons of Adam like thee and me; they were also strangers, for whoever entereth this city, being a young man like thyself, this miscreant witch taketh him and hometh him for forty days, after which she enchanteth him, and he becometh a mule or a horse or an ass, of those animals thou sawest on the sea-shore.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Seven Hundred and Fifty-second Night,