And if we find none then will death be more
welcome to us than life."
So the two brothers issued from a second private postern of the
palace, and they never stinted wayfaring by day and by night until
they reached a tree a-middle of a meadow hard by a spring of sweet
water on the shore of the salt sea. Both drank of it and sat down to
take their rest. And when an hour of the day had gone by, lo! they
heard a mighty roar and uproar in the middle of the main as though the
heavens were falling upon the earth, and the sea brake with waves
before them and from it towered a black pillar, which grew and grew
till it rose skyward and began making for that meadow. Seeing it, they
waxed fearful exceedingly and climbed to the top of the tree, which
was a lofty, whence they gazed to see what might be the matter. And
behold, it was a Jinni, huge of height and burly of breast and bulk,
broad of brow and black of blee, bearing on his head a coffer of
crystal. He strode to land, wading through the deep, and coming to the
tree whereupon were the two Kings, seated himself beneath it. He
then set down the coffer on its bottom and out of it drew a casket
with seven padlocks of steel, which he unlocked with seven keys of
steel he took from beside his thigh, and out of it a young lady to
come was seen, whiteskinned and of winsomest mien, of stature fine and
thin, and bright as though a moon of the fourteenth night she had
been, or the sun raining lively sheen.
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