" Said the Ifrit: "Lengthen not
thy words! As to my slaying thee, fear it not, and as to my
pardoning thee, hope it not, but from my bewitching thee there is no
escape." Then he tore me from the ground, which closed under my
feet, and flew with me into the firmament till I saw the earth as a
large white cloud or a saucer in the midst of the waters. Presently he
set me down on a mountain, and taking a little dust, over which he
muttered some magical words, sprinkled me therewith, saying, "Quit
that shape and take thou the shape of an ape!" And on the instant I
became an ape, a tailless baboon, the son of a century.
Now when he had left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful
shape, I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of
Time and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and
constant to no man. I descended the mountain and found at the foot a
desert plain, long and broad, over which I traveled for the space of a
month till my course brought me to the brink of the briny sea. After
standing there awhile, I was ware of a ship in the offing which ran
before a fair wind making for the shore.
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