appeared no reason to suppose the transmutation could have been effected by such an accidental mixture of metals.  At length it was remarked, that a dervish, accompanying the barber’s son, had cast in a lump of ore, and immediately disappeared.  Upon this the sultan summoned the youth to his presence, and inquiring after his companion, was informed of the place of his residence, and of what, on his departure, he had said to him.  The sultan was overjoyed at the welcome intelligence, and dispatched the young man, with an honourable attendance, to conduct the venerable dervish to his presence, where being arrived, he was received with the most distinguishing attention, and the barber’s son was promoted to high office.  After some days, the sultan requested the dervish to instruct him in the transmutation of metals, which he readily did, as well as in many other occult mysteries; which so gratified his royal patron, that he trusted the administration of government to his care.  This disgusted the ministers and courtiers, who could not bear to be controlled by a stranger, and therefore resolved to effect his ruin.  By degrees they persuaded their credulous master that the dervish was a magician, who would in time possess himself of his throne, and the sultan, alarmed, resolved to put him to death.  With this intention, calling him to the presence, he accused him of sorcery, and commanded an executioner to strike off his head.  “Forbear awhile,” exclaimed the dervish, “and let me live till I have shown you the most wonderful specimen of my art.”  To this the sultan consented, when the dervish, with chalk, drew a circle of considerable extent round the sultan and his attendants, then stepping into the middle of it, he drew a small circle round himself, and said, “Now seize me if you can;” and immediately disappeared from sight.  At the same instant, the sultan and his courtiers found themselves assaulted by invisible agents, who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs.  At length the punishment ceased, but the mortification of the sultan did not end here, for all the gold which the dervish had transmuted returned to its original metals.  Thus, by his unjust credulity, was a weak prince punished for his ungrateful folly.  The barber and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could gain no intelligence of the dervish, and he and his courtiers became the laughingstock of the populace for years after their merited chastisement.

Adventures of Aleefa, daughter of
Mherejaun, sultan of hind, and Eusuff, son
of Sohul, sultan of sind.