are finished and furnished to perfection; and the belongings are in the best of taste and in the highest of ordinance.  Still to my thinking there be three things here wanting, which if thou hadst the place would be most complete.”  The Princess Perizadah adjured her saying, “O my aunt, I beseech thee tell me what three articles yet are lacking, that I may lose no pains nor toil to obtain them;” and as the maiden pressed her with much intreaty, the devotee was constrained to tell her.  Quoth she, “O gentle lady, the first thing is the Speaking-Bird, called Bulbul-i-hazar-dastan;[FN#361] he is very rare and hard to find but, whenever he poureth out his melodious notes, thousands of birds fly to him from every side and join him in his harmony.  The next thing is the Singing-Tree, whose smooth and glossy leaves when shaken by the wind and rubbed against one another send forth tuneful tones which strike the ear like the notes of sweet-voices minstrels ravishing the heart of all who listen.  The third thing is the Golden-Water of transparent purity, whereon should but one drop be dripped into a basin and this be placed inside the garden it presently will fill the vessel brimful and will spout upwards in gerbes playing like a fountain that jets:  moreover it never ceaseth playing, and all the water as it shooteth up falleth back again inside the basin, not one gout thereof being lost.”  Replied the Princess, “I doubt not but thou knowest for a certainty the very spot where these wondrous things are to be found; and I pray thee tell me now the place and means whereby I may take action to obtain them.”—­And as the morn began to dawn Shahrazad held her peace till

      The end of the Six Hundred and Seventy-third Night.

Then said she—­I have heard, O auspicious King, that the holy woman thus answered the Princess, “These three rarities are not to be found, save on the boundary-line that lieth between the land of Hind and the confining countries, a score of marches along the road that leadeth Eastwards from this mansion.  Let him who goeth forth in quest of them ask the first man he meeteth on the twentieth stage concerning the spot where he may find the Speaking-Bird, the Singing-Tree and the Golden-Water; and he will direct the seeker where to come upon all three.”  When she had made an end of speaking the Devotee, with many blessings and prayers and vows for her well-being, farewelled the lady Perizadah and fared forth homewards.  The Princess, however, ceased not to ponder her words and ever to dwell in memory upon the relation of the holy woman who, never thinking that her hostess had asked for information save by way of curiosity, nor really purposed in mind to set forth with intent of finding the rarities, ahd heedlessly told all she knew and had given a clue to the discovery.  But Perizadah kept these matters deeply graven on the tablets of her heart with firm resolution to follow the directions and, by all means in her power, to