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Burton, Richard Francis

"The Arabian Nights"

Presently, descending the
ladder, he returned to the garden, where he fell to gazing at the
trees, whereupon sat birds glorifying with loud voices their Great
Creator. Now he had not observed them as he went in, but all these
trees bare for fruitage costly gems. Moreover, each had its own kind
of growth and jewels of its peculiar sort and these were of every
color, green and white, yellow, red, and other such brilliant hues,
and the radiance flashing from these gems paled the rays of the sun in
forenoon sheen. Furthermore the size of each stone so far surpassed
description that no King of the Kings of the World owned a single
gem equal to the larger sort, nor could boast of even one half the
size of the smaller kind of them. Aladdin walked amongst the trees and
gazed upon them and other things which surprised the sight and
bewildered the wits, and as he considered them, he saw that in lieu of
common fruits the produce was of mighty fine jewels and precious
stones, such as emeralds and diamonds, rubies, spinels, and balases,
pearls and similar gems, astounding the mental vision of man.
And forasmuch as the lad had never beheld things like these during
his born days, nor had reached those years of discretion which would
teach him the worth of such valuables (he being still but a little
lad), he fancied that all these jewels were of glass or crystal.


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