Page:Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp.djvu/70

28

the ninth image, than which there is not in the world a more precious; and indeed Thy Grace promised my father that thou wouldst give it to me.’”

Having thus taught his lord how he should speak with the King of the Jinn and seek of him the ninth image and how he should make his speech seemly and pleasant, Mubarek fell to conjuring and fumigating and reciting words that might not be understanded; and no great while passed ere the world lightened^[1] and rain fell in torrents^[2] and it thundered and darkness covered the face of the earth; and after this there came a tempestuous wind and a voice like an earthquake of the earthquakes^[3] of the Day of Resurrection. When Zein ul Asnam saw these portents, his joints trembled and he was sore affrighted, for that he beheld a thing he had never in all his life seen nor heard. But Mubarek laughed at him and said to him, “Fear not, O my lord; this whereat thou art affrighted is that which we seek; nay, it is a presage of good to us. So take heart and be of good cheer.” After this there came a great clearness

1. Sic (berec ed dunya); but dunya (the world) is perhaps meant to be taken here by synecdoche in the sense of “sky.”
2. Syn. “darkness was let down like a curtain.”
3. Lit. “like an earthquake like the earthquakes”; but the second “like” (mithl) is certainly a mistranscription for “of” (min).