One of this person's countrymen, whom he asserted to be a man of indubitable veracity, was sitting on the roof of a house which he had hired, overlooking the Ganges, and was passing the closing hour of the day, according to his usual custom, smoking his Persian pipe, and feasting his eyes by gazing at the beautiful forms of Indian maidens bathing in the river, when he beheld among them one so lovely that his heart was overpowered with desire to have her for his wife. At nightfall she came to him, and told him that she had observed his emotion, and would consent to become his wife; but on the condition that he should never admit another female to take or share her place, and that she should only be with him in the night-time. They took the marriage-vow to each other, with none for their witness but God; and great was his happiness, till, one evening, he saw again, among a group of girls in the river, another who excited in him still more powerful emotions. To his surprise, this very form stood before him at the approach of night. He withstood the temptation, mindful of his marriage-vow: she used every allurement; but he was resolute. His fair visiter then told him that she was his wife; that she was a Jinneeyeh; and that she would always thenceforward visit him in the form of any female whom he might chance to prefer. NOTE 26. This form of benediction is almost always added when the Prophet is mentioned in a book by any of his followers, and often also in conversation. NOTE 27. Perhaps it is needless to explain this proverb by the words of the Bible--"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans, xii. 19.) For the honour of the Muslims I must say that this maxim is often observed by them, excepting in cases to which the law of retaliation applies. NOTE 28. The houses in Arabian countries generally have flat roofs, upon which, in the summer, some of the inhabitants often sleep: the interior, therefore, is as accessible from the roof as from the common entrance. NOTE 29. I here steer a middle course between my usual standard copy--which gives the story of the third sheykh more fully than I have done--and the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights, which omits it altogether, as does also the copy from which the old translation was made, perhaps on account of its uninteresting nature. [Illustration] [Illustration] [111] Ḳur-án, ch. xiii. v. 39. [112] "El-Insán el-Kámil," by 'Abd-El-Kereem El-Jeelee, quoted by El-Is-ḥáḳee, in his account of Ibráheem Báshà el-Maḳtool. [113] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, vol. i. pp. 26-34. [114] Ibid. [115] Idem, vol. ii. p. 373. [116] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil wa-Murshid el-Mutaähhil, section 7. [117] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, vol. ii. p. 381. [118] For a translation of the whole of this prayer, see "Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. ch, xii. [119] Ḳur-án, ch. v. v. 35. [120] See "Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. ch. xv.