THE LAST EVENING
"I like it," said Fen, when Siddereticus had stopped. "It makes me feel prickles. What does it mean, is it magic?"
"Not exactly," said the Djinn, "though parts of it do sound a little magicky. People sing it in Smyrna, and—well, it means something like this: 'Sleep, my precious child, my beautiful, and dream softly. I will make Cairo for thee in rice and give to thee; all Alexandria in sweetest sugar. Cairo in rice, in honey all the Nile, and for thee, Constantinople, too, and there shalt thou reign for three years.'"
"How queer and nice!" said Fen. "It must be magic! And it's all about the Nile too, and places here, so it surely is. Please do it again—do you mind?"
He did not mind, and sang it again.
The kettle began to sing just as Siddereticus stopped, and he made the tea—very weak and almost all milk for Fen,
61
