alms to the Fakirs and the mesquin and the widows and the orphans, and this continued till the days of his Queen’s pregnancy were completed.  Then she bare a man-child fair of face and form, which event caused the King perfect joy and complete; and on that day when the boy was named Mohammed, Son of the Sultan,[FN#356] he scattered full half his treasury amongst the lieges.  Then he bade bring for the babe wet-nurses who suckled him until milktime ended, when they weaned him, after which he grew every day in strength and stature till his age reached his sixth year.  Hereupon his father appointed for him a Divine to teach him reading and writing and the Koran and all the sciences, which he mastered when his years numbered twelve.  And after this he took to mounting horses and learning to shoot with shafts and to hit the mark, up to the time when he became a knight who surpassed all other knights.  Now one day of the days Prince Mohammed rode off a-hunting, as was his wont, when lo and behold! he beheld a fowl with green plumage wheeling around him in circles and rocketing in the air and seeing this he was desirous to bring it down with an arrow.  But he found this impossible so he ceased not following the quarry with intent to catch it but again he failed and it flew away from his ken; whereat he was sore vexed and he said to himself, “Needs must I seize this bird,” and he kept swerving to the right and the left in order to catch sight of it but he saw it not.  This endured until the end of day when he returned to the city and sought his father and his mother, and when they looked upon him they found his case changed and they asked him concerning his condition, so he related to them all about the bird and they said to him, “O our son, O Mohammed, verily the creations of Allah be curious and how many fowls are like unto this, nay even more wondrous.”  Cried he, “Unless I catch her[FN#357] I will wholly give up eating.”  Now when morning dawned he mounted according to his custom and again went forth to the chase; and presently he pushed into the middle of the desert when suddenly he saw the bird flying in air and he pushed his horse to speed beneath her and shot at her a shaft with the intent to make her his prey, but again was unable to kill the bird.  He persisted in the chase from sunrise until sundown when he was tired and his horse was aweary, so he turned him round purposing a return city-wards, when behold, he was met in the middle of the road by an elderly man who said to him, “O son of the Sultan, in very sooth thou art fatigued and on like wise is thy steed.”  The Prince replied, “Yes,” and the Elder asked him, “What is the cause thereof?” Accordingly he told him all anent the bird and the Shaykh replied to him, “O my son, an thou absent thyself and ride for a whole year in pursuit of yonder fowl thou wilt never be able to take her; and, O my child, where is this bird![FN#358] I will now inform thee that in a City of the Islands hight of Camphor there is a