"--Gibbon's _Decline and Fall._]
After he had given this charge to the officer he bade the envious man
farewell, and proceeded on his march.
* * * * *
When I had finished the recital of this story to the genie I employed
all my eloquence to persuade him to imitate so good an example, and to
grant me pardon; but it was impossible to move his compassion.
"All that I can do for thee," said he, "is to grant thee thy life, but
I must place thee under enchantments." So saying, he seized me
violently, and carried me through the arched roof of the subterranean
palace, which opened to give him passage. He ascended with me into the
air to such a height that the earth appeared like a little white
cloud. He then descended again like lightning, and alighted upon the
summit of a mountain.
Here he took up a handful of earth, and, muttering some words which I
did not understand, threw it upon me. "Quit," said he, "the form of a
man, and take that of an ape."
He instantly disappeared, and left me alone, transformed into an ape,
and overwhelmed with sorrow, in a strange country, not knowing whether
I was near or far from my father's dominions.
I descended the mountain, and entered a plain, level country, which
took me a month to travel over, and then I came to the seaside. It
happened at the time to be perfectly calm, and I espied a vessel
about half a league from the shore.
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