"
Upon this question, the counterfeit Fatima surveyed the hall from one
end to the other. When he had examined it well, he said to the
princess, "As far as such a solitary being as I am, who am
unacquainted with what the world calls beautiful, can judge, this hall
is truly admirable; there wants but one thing."
"What is that, good mother?" demanded the princess; "tell me, I
conjure you. For my part, I always believed, and have heard say, it
wanted nothing; but if it does, it shall be supplied."
"Princess," said the false Fatima, with great dis-simulation, "forgive
me the liberty I have taken; but my opinion is, if it can be of any
importance, that if a roc's egg were hung up in the middle of the
dome, this hall would have no parallel in the four quarters of the
world, and your palace would be the wonder of the universe."
"My good mother," said the princess, "what is a roc, and where may one
get an egg?"
"Princess," replied the pretended Fatima, "it is a bird of prodigious
size, which inhabits the summit of Mount Caucasus; the architect who
built your palace can get you one."
After the princess had thanked the false Fatima for what she believed
her good advice, she conversed with her upon other matters; but she
could not forget the roc's egg, which she resolved to request of
Aladdin when next he should visit his apartments. He did so in the
course of that evening, and shortly after he entered, the princess
thus addressed him: "I always believed that our palace was the most
superb, magnificent, and complete in the world: but I will tell you
now what it wants, and that is a roc's egg hung up in the midst of the
dome.
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