6 ALADDIN OR THE
at one of the gates of the city, to some large line houses, to each of which belonged beautiful gardens, into which any body might go. At every house he came to, he asked Aladdin if he did not think it fine; and Aladdin was ready to answer when any one presented itself, crying out, Here is a finer house, uncle, than any we have seen yet. By this artifice the cunning magician got Aladdin a pretty way in the country; and as he had a mind to carry him farther, to execute his design, he took an opportunity to sit down in one of the gardens by a fountain of clear water: Come, nephew, said he, you must be weary as well as I; let us rest ourselves, and we shall be better able to walk.
After they had sat down, the magician pulled from his girdle a handkerchief with cakes and fruit, which he had provided on purpose. He broke a cake in two, gave one half to Aladdin, and ate the other himself; and in regard to the fruit, he left him at liberty to take which sort he liked best. When they had eaten up as much as they liked, they got up, and pursued their walk through the gardens, and by this means, the African magician drew Aladdin insensibly beyond the gardens, and crossed the country, till they almost came to the mountains.
Aladdin, who had never been so far in his life before, began to find him self much tired with so long a walk, and said to the magician, Where are we going, uncle? we have left the gardens a great way behind us, and I see nothing but mountains; if we go much farther, I do not know whether I shall be able to reach the town again. Never fear, nephew, said the false uncle; I will show you another garden, which surpasses all we have yet seen; it is not far off, it is but a little step; and when we come there, you will say that you would have been sorry to have been so nigh it, and not seen it. Aladdin was soon persuaded; and the magician, to make the way seem shorter and less fatiguing, told him a great many stories.
At last they came between two mountains of moderate height, and equal size, divided by a narrow valley which was the place where the magician intended to bring Aladdin, to put into execution a design that had brought him from Africa to China. We will go no farther now, said he to Aladdin; I will show you here some very extraordinary things, and what nobody ever saw before; which, when you have seen, you will thank me for: but while I strike fire, do you gather up all the loose sticks you can see, to kindle a fire with.
Aladdin found there so many dried sticks, that before the magician had lighted a match, he had gathered up a great heap. The magician presently set them on fire, and when they were all in a blaze, the magician threw in some incense he had about him, which raised a great cloud of smoke, which he dispersed on each side, by pronouncing several magical words that Aladdin did not understand.
At the same time the earth trembled a little, and opened just before the magician and Aladdin, and discovered a stone about half a yard square, laid horizontally, with a brass ring fixed into the middle of it, to raise it up by. Aladdin was so frightened at what he saw, that he would have run away; but the magician perceiving his design, caught
