"Oh fy ! " said the king

"'No sooner had we got rid birds, which occasioned us great annoyance, than we were terrified appearance of fowl of another kind, and infinitely larger than even the rocs which I met in my former voyages; for bigger biggest domes seraglio, oh, most Munificent of Caliphs This terrible fowl had no head that perceive, but was fashioned entirely of belly, of prodigious fatness and roundness, of soft-looking substance, smooth, shining and striped with various colors In its talons, the monster was bearing away eyrie heavens, house it had knocked off the roof, and interior we distinctly saw human beings, who, beyond doubt, were in state of frightful despair horrible fate which awaited them We shouted with all our might, hope of frightening the bird into letting go prey, but it merely gave snort or puff, of rage and then let fall upon our heads heavy sack which proved filled with sand ! '"

"Stuff ! " said the king

"' just adventure that we encountered continent of immense extent and prodigious solidity, but which, nevertheless, was supported entirely back of sky-blue cow that had no fewer than four hundred horns '" {*18}

"That, now, I believe," said the king, "because read something kind before, in book "

"'We passed immediately beneath this continent, (swimming in legs cow, and, after some hours, found ourselves in wonderful country indeed, which, informed man-animal, was his own native land, inhabited by things own species This elevated the man-animal in my esteem, and , I now began ashamed contemptuous familiarity I had treated him; for man-animals in general were nation most powerful magicians, who lived with worms in their brain, {*19} which, , served to stimulate them by their painful writhings and wrigglings most miraculous efforts of imagination ! '"

"Nonsense ! " said the king

"' magicians, were domesticated several animals of very singular kinds; for example, huge horse whose bones were iron and whose blood was boiling water In place of corn, he had black stones usual food; and yet, of so hard diet, so strong and swift that drag load more weighty grandest temple city, at rate surpassing that flight of most birds '" {*20}

"Twattle ! " said the king

"' , also, people hen without feathers, but bigger than camel; instead of flesh and bone she had iron and brick; her blood, like that horse, ( , , she was nearly related,) was boiling water; and like him she ate nothing but wood or black stones This hen brought forth very frequently, hundred chickens day; and, after birth, they took up their residence for several weeks stomach mother '" {*21}

"Fa ! lal ! " said the king

"'One nation of mighty conjurors created man out of brass and wood, and leather, and endowed him ingenuity that beaten at chess, all the race of mankind exception great Caliph, Haroun Alraschid {*22} Another magi constructed (of like material) creature that put to shame even the genius of him it; for so great were its reasoning powers that, in second, it performed calculations of so vast an extent that required the united labor of fifty thousand fleshy men for year (*23} But still more wonderful conjuror fashioned for himself mighty thing that was neither man nor beast, but which had brains of lead, intermixed with black matter like pitch, and fingers employed incredible speed and dexterity had no trouble in writing out twenty thousand copies Koran in an hour, and this with so exquisite precision, that in all the copies there found one to vary from another breadth finest hair This thing was of prodigious strength, so erected or overthrew the mightiest empires at breath; but its powers were exercised equally for evil and for good '"

"Ridiculous ! " said the king

"'Among this nation of necromancers also one who had veins the blood salamanders; for no scruple of sitting down to smoke his chibouc in red-hot oven until his dinner was thoroughly roasted upon its floor {*24} Another had the faculty of converting the common metals into gold, without even looking at them during the process {*25} Another had such delicacy of touch that wire so fine be invisible {*26} Another had such quickness of perception that he counted all the separate motions of an elastic body, while springing backward and forward rate of nine hundred millions of times in second '" {*27}

"Absurd ! " said the king

"'Another magicians, of fluid that nobody ever yet saw, could corpses friends brandish their arms, kick out their legs, fight, or even get up and dance at his will {*28} Another had cultivated his voice to so great an extent that he made himself heard from one end world other {*29} Another had an arm that sit down in Damascus and indite letter at Bagdad -- or indeed at any distance whatsoever {*30} Another commanded the lightning down to him heavens, and it came at his call; and served him for plaything when it came Another took two loud sounds and made silence Another constructed deep darkness out of two brilliant lights {*31} Another made ice in red-hot furnace {*32} Another directed the sun to paint his portrait, sun did {*33} Another took this luminary moon planets, and having first weighed them with scrupulous accuracy, probed into their depths and found out the solidity substance they were made But the whole nation is, indeed, of so surprising necromantic ability, that not even their infants, nor their commonest cats and dogs have any difficulty in seeing objects exist at all, or that for twenty millions of years birth nation itself blotted out face of creation "' {*34}

Analogous experiments in respect to sound produce analogous results

"Preposterous ! " said the king

"'The wives and daughters incomparably great and wise magi,'" continued Scheherazade, without being in any manner disturbed frequent and most ungentlemanly interruptions of her husband -- "'the wives and daughters eminent conjurers are every thing accomplished and refined; and every thing interesting and beautiful, but for an unhappy fatality that besets them, and not even the miraculous powers husbands and fathers has, hitherto, been adequate to save Some fatalities come in certain shapes, and some in others -- but this I speak shape of crotchet '"

"A what ? " said the king

"'A crotchet'" said Scheherazade "' evil genii, perpetually watch to inflict ill, has put it heads accomplished ladies thing which we describe as personal beauty consists altogether protuberance region which lies not very far below the small back Perfection of loveliness, they say, is direct ratio extent lump Having been long possessed idea, and bolsters being cheap country, the days have long gone by since possible to distinguish woman from dromedary-'"

"Stop ! " said the king -- " 't stand that, and I won't already given me dreadful headache with your lies The day, too, I perceive, is beginning to break How long have we been married ? -- my conscience is getting troublesome again And then that dromedary touch -- take me for fool ? whole, get up and be throttled "

These words, as I learn "Isitsoornot," both grieved and astonished Scheherazade; but, as she knew the king man of scrupulous integrity, and quite unlikely to forfeit his word, she submitted to her fate with good grace She derived, however, great consolation, (during the tightening bowstring,) reflection that much history remained still untold, and petulance of her brute of husband had reaped for him most righteous reward, in depriving him of many inconceivable adventures

Notes --- Scherezade

{*1} The coralites

{*2} " remarkable natural curiosities in Texas is petrified forest, near the head of Pasigno river It consists of several hundred trees, in an erect position, all turned to stone Some trees, now growing, are partly petrified startling fact for natural philosophers, and must cause them to modify the existing theory of petrification -- Kennedy

This account, at first discredited, has since been corroborated discovery of completely petrified forest, near the head waters Cheyenne, or Chienne river, its source Black Hills rocky chain