“The sultan expects your answer immediately,” said she; and then added, laughing, “I believe he may wait long enough!”
“Not so long, mother, as you imagine,” replied Aladdin. “This demand is a mere trifle, and will prove no bar to my marriage with the princess. I will at once satisfy the sultan’s request.”
Aladdin, as soon as he was alone, summoned the genie of the lamp, and required him to present the gift, before the sultan closed his morning audience. The genie professed his obedience to the owner of the lamp, and disappeared. Within a short time, a train of forty black slaves, led by the same number of white slaves, appeared opposite the house in which Aladdin lived. Each black slave carried on his head a tray of massy gold, full of pearls, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. Aladdin then called to his mother: “Madam, pray lose no time; before the sultan and the divan rise, I would have you return to the palace with this present as the dowry demanded for the princess, that he may judge by my diligence and exactness of the ardent and sincere desire I have to procure myself the honor of this alliance.”
As soon as this magnificent procession, with Aladdin’s mother at its head, had begun to march from Aladdin’s house, the streets were filled with crowds of people desirous to see so grand a sight. The graceful bearing, elegant form, and wonderful likeness of each slave; their grave walk at an equal distance from each other, the luster of their jeweled
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