[11]Cf.the Koran (Surahs 13, 47 and 55).[Back]
[11]Cf.the Koran (Surahs 13, 47 and 55).[Back]
Othman’s eyes were riveted on the countenance of the enthusiastic youth, but his mien betrayed not the displeasure of his faithless heart. What could he expect of a lad who raved of fables meant for fools? How divulge to him the secret, which would in an instant shatter all his air castles? And how will it impress him?
“Answer me, son, art thou a coward?” asked the brigand, in a changed voice. “By my troth, thou speakest like a woman, yet art thou sired by a man who defies Eblis.”
“What Mohammed taught me and hisimamsthat I speak of, father; Yezed is a woman’s child, but no woman; nor am I a coward. Set me a task, however hazardous, it shall be done,” returned the youth, in a tone of challenge.
“That is my son’s true self,” resumed Othman, pleased with Yezed’s outburst of manly temper. “There is a task for thee to do this coming night, and it is not one for a craven to meddle with. Son, this world is made up of masters and of slaves; the few command, the multitudes obey. That Yezed take rank among the masters is his father’s wish; wilt thou be guided by his advice?”
“Whatever Othman Ibn Saad tells his Yezed to do, that he will do,” replied Yezed.
“Will he face danger without shrinking?” was the searching question of the father.
“If the deed is in accord with Moslem duty,” returned the son.
“Is there any wrong in slaying those who hate us,—those we hate,—those Mohammed hated?” continued Othman, insinuatingly.
“No; whomever the Prophet hated no Mussulman can love. Yes, it was his will that infidels be converted by the sword, if it must be. To shed blood is fearful, however, except it be he whose flesh ought to be torn by the fiends and bitten by the serpents ofal Hawiyat, there being no deeper place in hell. Yes, him I would this moment stab to the heart, and cast his carcass to the dogs,” cried Yezed, in a voice which boded no good for the object of his detestation.
“And who ishethou art speaking of,” inquired the father, delighted with the anger of his righteous offspring. “He must be indeed wicked whom Yezed hates.”
“I am speaking of him whose black deeds are matched by his black name, Eblis, the highway murderer of men and women, ripe for Monkir’s club, and eternal perdition,” asseverated Yezed, with flashing eyes and clenched fists.
In speechless consternation the eyes of theolder rested on the younger man. He, who had ruthlessly driven cold steel through the heart of many a victim, felt a chill of horror run through his veins at the deathful hatred he had thus engendered in the unsuspicious soul of his own child. Othman twisted the head of El Barak toward the last glow of the western heaven, looked thither for a moment, as though lost in wonder, then, turning round all composed, said in an undertone: “Why, Yezed, that is the very man we are to intercept this night. A great price has been set on his head, and my information makes it certain that we will be in a position to waylay him, if we use our time and arms well. This is the task I referred to. Is Yezed prepared to share his father’s daring exploit?”
“Yezed will follow whithersoever his father leads him, and face death in the name of Allah; there is no craven blood in Othman’s faithful son,” answered the youth.
“Thou art the lion’s whelp,” closed Othman, and spurred his horse to ascend a gorge which in the rainy season gives passage to a mountain torrent down to the dead water, butwhich was perfectly dry now. The path followed by El Barak with ease was narrow, steep and neck-breaking, a yawning gulf suggesting dreadful possibilities to the right, while to the left rose masses of blackened rock, overshadowing the horsemen by hanging projections which threatened to fall with terrific effect.
After a ride of about an hour through deepening twilight, Othman turned into a narrow break of the mountain, shot out of his saddle, bade his horse wait, and told Yezed to do as he did. The youth obeyed without a word, and followed his father who, nimble as a cat, began to climb up an almost perpendicular wall to a considerable height, and slipped into a hole scarcely big enough for an average human body to pass through without difficulty. Once within, Othman put his head out to encourage Yezed who, unfamiliar with the footholds so well known to his guide, despaired of performing a feat perilous even for an acrobat to attempt. Down came the end of a rope for Yezed to take hold of. It was dense night when the form of the lad disappeared in the interior of the rocky nest.
There was already a light, and Yezed was struck with wonder at the spacious hollow before him. High and dry and clean, it was irregular in shape, sloping down toward a narrowing deep which startled the imagination of the youth. Who could tell the mystery of that black pit which seemed to breathe like the mouth of a sleeping giant? Yes, a gentle breeze proceeded from the mountain’s heart, saturated with a something that made Yezed feel uneasy.
Other surprises diverted Yezed’s attention. What looked like a niche a few feet above their heads, was soon reached by stepping on a loose bowlder, and the young man’s wonderment was not small to see in the light of a lantern in his father’s hand, a wardrobe of various costumes, masks, bearded and unbearded, jack-boots, many uniforms, and a regular armory of weapons and ammunition. That was not all. Several leather bags were brought to light from under a tiger skin, and Yezed’s eyes dilated at the precious contents of each and all, as Othman opened them as a surprise for his true-hearted offspring. Costlywatches, costlier jewels, rings, bracelets, necklaces, strings of pearls, taken from murdered women; breastpins of every description, gold and silver money, made up a treasure to feed the avarice of a nabob. “If Yezed asks whose is all this? I will answer it is all Yezed’s,” said huskily the brigand.
He scarcely breathed the few words when a puff from the black hole put out the light, followed by a moan, a deep sigh and a light rumbling. Othman held his breath. Yezed heard nothing more, but his pulse throbbed nervously. What could he say? He had portentous feelings but no thoughts; it all seemed like a dream.
The light was again burning. “It is all right,” said Othman, reassured, and nothing further happened to confirm his suspicion that something had been astir in the unexplored deep. “The one who shall attempt to get the fruit of my life must have the nerve to perish in the attempt. Now, to business, Yezed. Here are this suit and mask for thee, and this thy armor. My panoply is here; don’t be disturbed; the devil must match thedevil. Hurry, the minutes count; the game will not wait for us.” Saying this, Othman amazed his son by transforming himself into the blackest demon the youth had ever dreamt of in fancy. The veritable Eblis could not look more deterring than the desperado in his black mask with red eyes, red mouth, long, hooked nose, a pointed beard, pointed shoes and tight leg coverings in one garment, a coat ending in a cow’s tail, black gloves which doubled the length of his fingers, and a red spear with many points completed the equipment.
“Thou art too slow, son, for an expedition which requires haste not less than courage,” said the robber, and actually pushed the youth into a strange garb, adjusted his mask, and threw a belt with pistols around his waist. “Ready!” was the signal, and Othman burst forth from the wall like a bomb from the mouth of a gun fired from the embrasure of a fort. Yezed would not stay behind and found it much easier to get down than up the steep.
Othman was now the real Eblis and his impetuosity seemed to wing El Barak. Fear andpride spurred Yezed to keep pace with his father. It was one of those nights when the moon is late in rising, and the outlines of the robber as a devil astride of a fiery courser filled his child with horror. Through night and desolation they sped onward, the father leading, the son close behind, with not a sound to vary the awful monotony. They had covered several miles when Othman’s experienced ear informed him that his game was near at hand. He discerned the petrified figure of Lot’s wife, a pillar of salt forty feet high, and distinctly heard the tramp of the approaching travellers.
“Thy first chance, Yezed, to show thyself a hero or a dastard. Here we leave our horses; thou wilt plant thyself in the way of the beasts; I will strike like thunder; if it prove too much for me, stab and fire; if I hold to, fight; if I give it up, run. I fall on them with the cry of Eblis! Having finished them, our horses will carry us home before the moon is out,” whispered the bandit, thrilling with excitement.
For the first time in his experience did Yezedfeel the fighting lust of his sire who was burning for the deadly encounter. If they succeeded in capturing or slaying the scourge of the Jordan’s plain, their names would be on everybody’s lips, including the Caliph of Estamboul. A lantern in the hand of a horseman afforded a clear view of the travelling company, made up of an armed escort of two civilians, having between them a foreigner on horseback, accompanied by an armed servant. With a yell that made the air shudder, Othman fell on the group, unhorsing one and striking the other with the ferocity of a savage brute. But the brigand was caught in a snare laid for his ruin. It was the Chief of Kerak who had conceived the idea of entrapping “Eblis” by spreading the rumor of the impending arrival of a travelling company in the quarter where they had good reasons to expect his attack. Three athletic Arabs stood by their Chief, but Othman was not a bird to be caught and carried off. His red spear held them at bay, but it was not possible for him to escape. He fired, was fired at, bled from many wounds, but fought like a woundedbear, the Arabs closing around him. “Give it to them,” he cried in desperation. In answer several shots struck the struggling group from a distance. Three of the five fell never to rise; Othman was one of the three, stretched lifeless by a bullet from the weapon of his Yezed. The son had killed his father, and realizing the nature of the tragedy and the peril of his situation, he made a rush for his horse, and vanished in the darkness of night, with none to give him chase.
Whither flee? In his present apparel he durst not seek his home, even if he had better news to bring than the slaughter of his father by his own hand. To get his clothing he must retrace his way to that frightful hole in the rock which he had gladly left in the earlier hour of the night. He dreaded the thought of it, but it had to be; the problem being how to find the way thither?
It was fortunate for Yezed that, in his precipitous flight, he had mounted El Barak in mistake for his own horse, and the sagacious animal carried him instinctively to the right spot, halting beneath the entrance of the hollowto which his dead master had ascended so often, especially after successful robberies. “Allah akbar,” sighed poor Yezed, as he got out of his saddle and prepared to reach the black nest. There was the rope inviting him to ascend. It was a horrible nightmare. So much had happened in a few short hours! Could anything worse befall him? Come what might, that hollow must be entered. He drew himself up, entered the cave, struck a light, threw off his disguise, put on his plain garments, fell on his face and wept bitterly. The pelf and the jewels will they revive his father who had fallen by his hand?—The pelf and the jewels—horrid thought! It flashed upon his mind like an inspiration.—Great Allah! Eblis—his father was himself that terrible impersonation,—a murderer! How could he doubt it? Did not everything point to the reality of that fact? “Allah akbar. Yezed is the most miserable of sons,” murmured the unhappy youth.
But hark! Yes, there was a sigh,—and another,—and a groan, and now a hoot,—and then a howl ascending from that unfathomed blackmouth of the hollow, which stared at him like the vicious eye of a Cyclops. The blood froze in his veins. Once more a puff of wind, as of a whiff from a monstrous gullet, left him in rayless darkness. But more appalling than the dense obscurity was the faint glimmer of a hazy shimmer which stole up from the deep, a phosphorescent illumining of the sepulchral gloom, just bright enough to make the shades visible. Terror drove Yezed to the verge of madness. Might not at any moment some apparition break out upon him through that animated gap? Seizing a loaded gun near by, Yezed emptied its contents into the outlet. The instantaneous response was a terrific burst of the mountain, which sent Yezed wheeling through the air with fragments of rock as great as pyramids. That he was not crushed was not so much a wonder as that he landed on top of a mountainous pile unhurt. New events threw previous happenings into the shade.
By this time it took a great deal to astonish Yezed, but his position of vantage placed under his survey a somewhat dim panorama,more beautiful than anything he had ever hoped to see this side ofJannat al Naïm. Through the shifting mists of an uncertain gloom the eye swept over a plain of tropic luxuriance on the shore of a lake as placid and limpid as the purest azure. As though ignited by a flash of lightning, sprang a blaze from lamps without number, giving distinctness to rich and noble forms of vegetation, studded here and there by fruit-bearing trees thick with blossom, or loaded with those Hesperian apples which rival sunshine in glow. From the shades of a majestic grove flowed the ineffable notes of the bulbul. Fragrant bowers stood decked with the vine’s exuberant foliage and cumbered with the clusters that produce the golden juice. Sparkling fountains played in the light of the mystic illumination. A lofty arcade, mocking the rainbow by a myriad multicolored lights, glowed like a curved horizon, covering a great stretch of green meadow, and making day for the fish, which swarmed in the transparent water. Underneath the arcaded bow was room enough for armies to pass each other, or to parade in military array.
Indeed the cymbal, fife and timbrel were heard, and a vast multitude of a strange race overflowed the entire plain, moving toward the arcade as the centre of attraction. It was a half-naked mass of brutified humanity, wild and salacious, the sexes intermingling with revolting indecency. At their head strode a ferocious biped, his hair long, straight and matted, his eyes bloodshot, his visage tattooed, his lips dyed,—chin, teeth and cheekbones of the gorilla, and limbs sinewy like the buffalo’s. In his grasp swayed a huge club; his breast was covered by a shield, his shins by plates of bronze, and he remained no secret to Yezed the moment his beastly cry was heard.
“Hear Nimrod the Huntsman speak, children of Sodom! The mighty sons of Anak and those of the Rephaim, the sky-born, are coming to help us build the tower yonder in defiance of Him who has drowned our sires because of their having lived as we do, and because of their refusing to worship Him as thralls. We shall build higher than His mountains, and then scorn His rage. Yes, we shallclimb above His clouds, laugh at His floods, and storm His heaven. Who is He to be feared? He seized the power, the winds and the thunderbolt, and treats beings like Himself with cruel outrage.”
The dehumanized masses yelled, leaped, made horrid faces, distorted their bodies, swore blasphemously, and supplemented their blasphemies by such abominable excesses as caused Yezed to turn away his eyes in disgust. Bestial females rivaled with one another in winning their male brutes by intoxicating drinks, which they made them swallow in great quantities, drinking themselves until they reeled with inebriation. Wild dancing and lewd gesticulations were the prelude to the indulgence of nameless vices, and this was the opening of a Saturnalia of lust and riot.
“The Anakim, the Rephaim, make room for the heroes!” thundered Nimrod the Huntsman. Hereupon the Sodomites divided into two parallel lines, leaving a road free to the triumphal arcade, which burned like a vault of fire. Issuing from a shaded avenue, anarmy of hideous giants, swollen with vanity and bristling with arms of every description, advanced in two separate columns toward the blazing arcade where they were to be received and regaled. Their powerful chests were shielded by plates of bronze; so were their knees and down the shins. They wore hides of beasts, the chief one a lion’s skin. As they came in sight of the immense vault their chief caused them to break up and pass through a series of evolutions to the vociferous acclaim of the drunken multitude. Nimrod was at hand to extend Sodom’s welcome to the warriors.
“Thou mighty leader of the invincible sons of giants, who durst storm heaven to dethrone Him who revels in outrage, we welcome thee and thine, we, the Sodomites, who welcome none, except it be to mutilate or slay the fools who trust our honor. For know, O chief, that in our midst the stranger gets stones to feed his hunger, mud to quench his thirst, and a bed to sleep on, which must fit his length; if he be too long we cut his limbs; if he be too short we stretch them to suit our measure.Force is our law, valor our God, plunder our business, and license our pleasure. What He above loves we hate, and what He hates we love. We injure the innocent, respect no woman’s virtue, roast the brute alive that He may fume and fret, who is our common foe, our tyrant. That you might join us in the work of raising that tower to a height far above His clouds we called you hither. Let Him send another deluge to drown us,—we shall defy His hereafter as we did hitherto, and make His clouds break against the top of that pile. But whatever work be ours to do, let this hour be given to feasting and pleasure, drinking, dancing and loving.”
What Yezed heard next was a myriad shriek of terror. As if the lake had been a caldron of oil, its volume rose in a tremendous flame, heaving toward the clouds, and in its conflagration the shores were soon involved. A general upheaval of rock, brought about by an impelling force from below, in its recoil dropped the bed of the lake deep under its shores, creating a gulf buried in fire. Streams of the consuming element shot up from ahundred cracks, crevices and chasms opened by the disturbance, wiping out whatever had life and breath. Swallowed by the fiery billows were the licentious revellers, no vestige remaining to tell of the illumined Eden, which but a few minutes before had been a scene of unspeakable depravity. The whole dissolved itself into a black smoke, pregnant with deathful odors, like the fetid exhalation that hung over the catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yezed alone escaped, and his trembling heart recognized Allah’s justice and mercy. On every side sulphurous damps, thick night and the silence of death enclosed him.
Where was he? How shall he ever get down from the towering pile upon which he had been dropped by some mysterious power? What will there be around him when day shall rise on the devastation? Ah,—if it all were but a nightmare, including his father’s death in the guise of the devil? But the night seemed endless, as though day would never come again, and the position was one of horrid suspense and miserable discomfort. To cap the climax of Yezed’s unparalleledmishaps, there soared before him the bleeding figure of his father in the attire of Eblis, just as he had seen him hurry to his doom. “Thy hands are clean, O, my son! but I am doomed to swim forever in a pool of blood, the life-stream of the hearts I pierced!” came wailing to his ears upon the passing breeze as the apparition faded from his vision, chilling the boy to the centre of his being.
Yezed attempted to speak, but found his tongue paralyzed; he tried to express himself by signs, but his arms and fingers were lame. Gathering all his strength, he threw his frame in the direction in which he had seen Othman depart, and he struck his head against a stone. How did the stone come here? There had been nothing there before. Yezed rose to his feet; there was no smoke to be seen. He thrust out his arms sideways and struck against a wall. There was no wall before. “Allah, great Allah, is not this the hollow where I changed my clothing!” So it was. Why not make a light? It was made, and, lo! there was the sequestered nest, there the armory and the singular wardrobe, there thetreasure of the dead brigand, and there the fearful black hole which graciously hid those mysteries he had witnessed. Yezed shook with chill. He felt that it was the dead of night, and had overwhelming feelings to control. What remained of the nightmare as an unescapable reality was horrible to dwell upon. Shall he ever return to the infernal hollow again? No, never! never! Why stay one second longer than necessary in the mouth of hell? Trembling and shivering, Yezed crawled out of the accursed cave, lowered himself to the ground, found the noble El Barak awaiting him patiently, threw his arms around the neck of the faithful brute and lamented bitterly. The horse neighed gently, as though he, too, understood his new master’s great sorrow.
Seated in the saddle, Yezed allowed the intelligent animal to take its own course, and was shortly before daybreak landed before his mother’s habitation. There was weeping and wailing in the widowed house. Yezed decided to divulge the whole truth to his friendly master, the muezzin. The holy man shuddered as helistened to his pupil’s tale, but advised secrecy, lest widow and orphan be thrown into prison as accessories to the numerous crimes of the guilty Othman. He took great care, however, to inform himself about the location of the interesting cave, and was ere long in a position to turn his back upon the humble villagers of Engedi, not without inducing the widow and her son to follow him to a happier place.
Transliterationsאשמדאי מלכא רבא דשידאיAshmedai malkha rabah deshiday[Back]מלאג אחד עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות סנדלפין שמוMalakh ehad 'omed baaretz vero'sho magya' etzel hehayot Syndalphon shemo[Back]כשבקש קב״ה לבראות העולם ברא כת של מלאכי השרת.keshebiqesh KB"H livroth ha'olam, barah kat shel malakey hasharet.[Back]נבראין מלאכי השרת בנהר דינור, מכל דיבור שיצא מפי קב״ה נברא מלאך.Nivrayn malakhey hasharet nahar dinur, mikol dibur sheyatzah mipi KB"H nivrah malakh.[Back]שלמה שלך לבניהו להביא לו השמיר מאשמדאי והשליכו ממלכותוShlomo shalakh leBenayahu lehavi lo haShamir meAshmedai vehashlikhu mimalkhuto[Back]
Transliterations
אשמדאי מלכא רבא דשידאיAshmedai malkha rabah deshiday[Back]
מלאג אחד עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות סנדלפין שמוMalakh ehad 'omed baaretz vero'sho magya' etzel hehayot Syndalphon shemo[Back]
כשבקש קב״ה לבראות העולם ברא כת של מלאכי השרת.keshebiqesh KB"H livroth ha'olam, barah kat shel malakey hasharet.[Back]
נבראין מלאכי השרת בנהר דינור, מכל דיבור שיצא מפי קב״ה נברא מלאך.Nivrayn malakhey hasharet nahar dinur, mikol dibur sheyatzah mipi KB"H nivrah malakh.[Back]
שלמה שלך לבניהו להביא לו השמיר מאשמדאי והשליכו ממלכותוShlomo shalakh leBenayahu lehavi lo haShamir meAshmedai vehashlikhu mimalkhuto[Back]
Transcriber's NoteThis book contains archaic spelling, e.g. meed meaning reward, targe meaning shield. There are also some variations in spelling, e.g. Allah akbar and Allah achbar both appear. Further, both American and British spelling is used, including appearances of shriveled and shrivelled, revelers and revellers, and marvelous and marvellous. In all cases, these are preserved as printed.Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made consistent.The following have been considered as printer errors, and amended:Page23—in amended to is—The slave-Sultan is not within these black reaches, ...Page37, footnote 2—24 amended to 22—... Al Zameri cries out to his rescuer (page 22) ...Page168, footnote 8—מלאןamended toמלאגandסנדלפןיamended toסנדלפין...מלאג אחד עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות סנדלפין שמו...Page210—seried amended to serried—... was made up of a serried division ...Page220—were amended to where—Menahem was where he wished to be, ...Page220—Iman amended to Imam—... within the boundaries of his dominion the Imam ...Page266—ot amended to of—Each division of troops had its elephantine accompaniment, ...Page279—world-renowed amended to world-renowned—... whispered Persia’s world-renowned hero.Page308—briliiant amended to brilliant—... an arched space, brilliant with dazzling light.Page309—licure amended to ligure—... and a variety of the jasper and the ligure, ...Page315—sycthe amended to scythe—... the Christians fell as grass struck by the scythe.Page319—Jannet amended to Jannat—It is a gazelle from Jannat al Ferdaws, ...Page324—Emil-al-Mumemin amended to Emir-al-Mumemin—... Omeyya presented himself before the Emir-al-Mumemin ...Page332—excep amended to except—... except this fiery steedEl Barak, ...Page343—Yedez amended to Yezed—... and told Yezed to do as he did.Page348—eel amended to feel—... did Yezed feel the fighting lust ...Repeated half titles have been deleted. Omitted page numbers refer to half title or blank pages in the original book.The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.
Transcriber's Note
This book contains archaic spelling, e.g. meed meaning reward, targe meaning shield. There are also some variations in spelling, e.g. Allah akbar and Allah achbar both appear. Further, both American and British spelling is used, including appearances of shriveled and shrivelled, revelers and revellers, and marvelous and marvellous. In all cases, these are preserved as printed.
Minor punctuation errors have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made consistent.
The following have been considered as printer errors, and amended:
Page23—in amended to is—The slave-Sultan is not within these black reaches, ...Page37, footnote 2—24 amended to 22—... Al Zameri cries out to his rescuer (page 22) ...Page168, footnote 8—מלאןamended toמלאגandסנדלפןיamended toסנדלפין...מלאג אחד עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות סנדלפין שמו...Page210—seried amended to serried—... was made up of a serried division ...Page220—were amended to where—Menahem was where he wished to be, ...Page220—Iman amended to Imam—... within the boundaries of his dominion the Imam ...Page266—ot amended to of—Each division of troops had its elephantine accompaniment, ...Page279—world-renowed amended to world-renowned—... whispered Persia’s world-renowned hero.Page308—briliiant amended to brilliant—... an arched space, brilliant with dazzling light.Page309—licure amended to ligure—... and a variety of the jasper and the ligure, ...Page315—sycthe amended to scythe—... the Christians fell as grass struck by the scythe.Page319—Jannet amended to Jannat—It is a gazelle from Jannat al Ferdaws, ...Page324—Emil-al-Mumemin amended to Emir-al-Mumemin—... Omeyya presented himself before the Emir-al-Mumemin ...Page332—excep amended to except—... except this fiery steedEl Barak, ...Page343—Yedez amended to Yezed—... and told Yezed to do as he did.Page348—eel amended to feel—... did Yezed feel the fighting lust ...
Page23—in amended to is—The slave-Sultan is not within these black reaches, ...
Page37, footnote 2—24 amended to 22—... Al Zameri cries out to his rescuer (page 22) ...
Page168, footnote 8—מלאןamended toמלאגandסנדלפןיamended toסנדלפין...מלאג אחד עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות סנדלפין שמו...
Page210—seried amended to serried—... was made up of a serried division ...
Page220—were amended to where—Menahem was where he wished to be, ...
Page220—Iman amended to Imam—... within the boundaries of his dominion the Imam ...
Page266—ot amended to of—Each division of troops had its elephantine accompaniment, ...
Page279—world-renowed amended to world-renowned—... whispered Persia’s world-renowned hero.
Page308—briliiant amended to brilliant—... an arched space, brilliant with dazzling light.
Page309—licure amended to ligure—... and a variety of the jasper and the ligure, ...
Page315—sycthe amended to scythe—... the Christians fell as grass struck by the scythe.
Page319—Jannet amended to Jannat—It is a gazelle from Jannat al Ferdaws, ...
Page324—Emil-al-Mumemin amended to Emir-al-Mumemin—... Omeyya presented himself before the Emir-al-Mumemin ...
Page332—excep amended to except—... except this fiery steedEl Barak, ...
Page343—Yedez amended to Yezed—... and told Yezed to do as he did.
Page348—eel amended to feel—... did Yezed feel the fighting lust ...
Repeated half titles have been deleted. Omitted page numbers refer to half title or blank pages in the original book.
The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.