Page:Fairy tales from the Arabian nights.djvu/411

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THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
385

after death; the symmetry, the neatness, the admirable order of the trees, the abundance and diversity of a thousand unknown fruits, their freshness and beauty, ravished my sight.

This delicious orchard was watered in a very particular manner; there were channels artificially dug which carried water in abundance to the roots of such trees as wanted it for their leaves and flowers. Other channels carried it to those that had their fruit in bud; some carried it in lesser quantities to those whose fruits were swelling, and others only so much as was just requisite to water those which had their fruit come to perfection. They far exceeded the ordinary fruits of our gardens in size. Lastly, those channels that watered the trees whose fruit was ripe had no more moisture in them than just enough to preserve them from withering.

I could never have wearied of looking at and admiring so sweet a place; and I should never have left it, had I not formed a great idea of the other things which I had not seen. I went out at last with my mind filled with these wonders: I shut that door, and opened the next.

Instead of an orchard I found a flower-garden, which was no less extraordinary of its kind. It contained a spacious plot, not watered so profusely as the former, but with greater nicety, furnishing no more water than just what each flower required. The roses, jessamines, violets, daffodils, hyacinths, anemones, tulips, crowsfoots, pinks, lilies, and an infinite number of flowers which do not grow in other places except at certain times, were there flourishing all at once, and nothing could be more delicious than the fragrant scent of this garden.

I opened the third door, where I found a large aviary, paved with marble of several fine uncommon colours. The cage was made of sandal-wood and wood of aloes. It contained a vast number of nightingales, goldfinches, canary-birds, larks, and other rare singing-birds, which I never heard of; and the vessels that held their seed and water were of the most precious jasper or agate

This aviary was so exceedingly neat that, considering its extent, one would think there must be not less than a hundred persons to keep it so clean; but all this while not one soul had appeared,