khan. His magic art soon revealed to him that Aladdin was the person who
had been the cause of the death of his brother. He had heard, too, all
the persons of repute in the city talking of a woman called Fatima, who
was retired from the world, and of the miracles she wrought. As he
fancied that this woman might be serviceable to him in the project he
had conceived, he made more minute inquiries, and requested to be
informed more particularly who that holy woman was, and what sort of
miracles she performed.

"What!" said the person whom he addressed, "have you never seen or heard
of her? She is the admiration of the whole town, for her fasting, her
austerities, and her exemplary life. Except Mondays and Fridays, she
never stirs out of her little cell; and on those days on which she comes
into the town she does an infinite deal of good; for there is not a
person who is diseased but she puts her hand on them and cures them."

Having ascertained the place where the hermitage of this holy woman was,
the magician went at night, and, plunging a poniard into her heart,
killed this good woman. In the morning he dyed his face of the same hue
as hers, and arraying himself in her garb, taking her veil, the large
necklace she wore round her waist, and her stick, went straight to the
palace of Aladdin.

As soon as the people saw the holy woman, as they imagined him to be,
they presently gathered about him in a great crowd. Some begged his
blessing, others kissed his hand, and others, more reserved, only the
hem of his garment; while others, suffering from disease, stooped for
him to lay his hands upon them; which he did, muttering some words in
form of prayer, and, in short, counterfeiting so well, that everybody
took him for the holy woman. He came at last to the square before