The fisherman, having finished this prayer, cast his nets the fourth time; and, when he thought it was time, he drew them, as formerly, with great difficulty; but, instead of fish, found nothing in them but a vessel of yellow copper, that, by its weight, seemed to be full of something; and he observed that it was shut up and sealed with lead, having the impression of a seal upon it.  This rejoiced him; I will sell it, says he, to the founder, and with the money arising from the product, buy a measure of corn.  He examined the vessel on all sides, and shook it, to see if what was within made any noise, and heard nothing.  This circumstance, with the impression of the seal upon the leaden cover, made him to think there was something precious in it.  To try this, he took a knife, and opened it with very little labour; he presently turned the mouth downward; but nothing came out, which surprised him extremely.  He set it before him, and, while he looked upon it attentively, there came out a very thick smoke which obliged him to retire two or three paces from it.

This smoke mounted as high as the clouds, and extending itself along the sea, and upon the shore, formed a great mist, which, we may well imagine, did mightily astonish the fisherman.  When the smoke was all out of the vessel, it reunited itself, and became a solid body, of which there was formed a genie twice as high as the greatest of giants.  At the sight of a monster of such unsizeable bulk, the fisherman would fain have fled, but was so frightened that he could not go one step.

Solomon, cried the genie immediately, Solomon, the great prophet, pardon, pardon; I will never more oppose your will:  I will obey all your commands.—­Scheherazade, perceiving it day, broke off her story.

Upon which Dinarzade said, Dear sister, nobody can keep their promise better than you can keep yours.  This story is certainly more surprising than the former.  Sister, replies the sultaness, there are more wonderful things yet to come, if my lord the sultan will allow me to tell them you.  Schahriar had too great a desire to hear out the story of the fisherman to deprive himself of that pleasure, and therefore put off the sultaness’s death another day.

The Tenth Night.

Dinarzade called her sister next night when she thought it was time, and prayed her to continue the story of the fisherman; and the sultan being also impatient to know what concern the genie had with Solomon, Scheherazade continued her story thus;

Sir, the fisherman, when he heard these words of the genie, recovered his courage, and says to him, Thou proud spirit, what is this that you talk? it is above eighteen hundred years since the prophet Solomon died, and we are now at the end of time:  Tell me your history, and how you came to be shut up in this vessel.