"My son," said he, "be not displeased at my proceedings against you;
they arose from my paternal love, and therefore you ought to forgive
the excesses to which it hurried me."
"Sire," replied Aladdin, "I have not the least reason to complain of
your conduct, since you did nothing but what your duty required. This
infamous magician, the basest of men, was the sole cause of my
misfortune."
The African magician, who was thus twice foiled in his endeavor to
rain Aladdin, had a younger brother, who was as skillful a magician as
himself and exceeded him in wickedness and hatred of mankind. By
mutual agreement they communicated with each other once a year,
however widely separate might be their place of residence from each
other. The younger brother, not having received as usual his annual
communication, prepared to take a horoscope and ascertain his
brother's proceedings. He, as well as his brother, always carried a
geomantic square instrument about him; he prepared the sand,[48] cast
the points, and drew the figures. On examining the planetary crystal,
he found that his brother was no longer living, but had been poisoned;
and by another observation, that he was in the capital of the kingdom
of China; also, that the person who had poisoned him was of mean
birth, though married to a princess, a sultan's daughter.
[Footnote 48: Reml or Raml signifies "sand prepared," or a preparation
of sand on which are marked certain figures serving for a kind of
divination, which we call Geomancy; and the Arabs and Turks _Kikmut al
Reml_.
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