so often, walking backward and forward in front of the palace, that the princess, who was then in the hall with the four-and-twenty windows, hearing a man cry something, and seeing a great mob crowding about him, sent one of her women slaves to know what he cried.
The slave returned, laughing so heartily that the princess rebuked her. “Madam,” answered the slave, still laughing, “who can forbear being amused to see an old man with a basket on his arm, full of fine new lamps, asking to change them for old ones? The children and mob crowding about him, so that he can hardly stir, make all the noise they can in derision of him.”
Another female slave hearing this, said, “Now you speak of lamps, I know not whether the princess may have observed it, but there is a shabby old one upon a shelf of the Prince Aladdin’s robing room. If the princess chooses, she may have the pleasure of trying if this old man is so silly as to give a new lamp for an old one, without taking anything for the exchange.”
The princess, who knew not the magic value of this lamp, entered into the pleasantry, and commanded a slave to take it and make the exchange. The slave obeyed, went out of the hall, and no sooner got to the palace gates than she saw the African magician, called to him, and showing him the old lamp, said, “Give me a new lamp for this.”
The magician knew at once that this was the lamp he
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