appeal in vain he went into the cage, whereupon the youngest of
the Princes arose and running up shut the door upon him. Quoth
the Bird, "Thou hast done the deed, O son of the Sultan," and the
youth replied, "Relate to me whatso thou hast wrought in magic to
these creations of God." Replied Philomelet, "Beside thee lie two
heaps of clay whereof one is white and the other blue: this is
used in sorcery and that to loose the spells."--And Shahrazad was
surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say
her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, "How sweet is
thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!"
Quoth she, "And where is this compared with that I should relate
to you on the coming night an the Sovran suffer me to survive?"
Now when it was the next night and that was

The Four Hundred and Twentieth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be
other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short
the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love
and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the
director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting
and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the Bird
said to the youngest son of the Sultan, "By the side of my cage
are two heaps of clay, this blue and that white; and the first is
the material for sorcery whilst the second looseth the spell."
Hereupon the youth approached them and finding the mounds took
somewhat of the white and scattered it upon the stones and cried,
"Be ye returned unto your olden shapes;" and, as he did so, each
and every of the stones became men as they had been. Now amongst
them were sundry sons of the Sultans, also the children of Kings