Page:Fairy Tales Their Origin and Meaning.djvu/122

things, but who had great powers of magic, which made them visible and invisible at pleasure, enabled them to change their shapes when they pleased, and to move about on the earth or in the air. They dwelt in the land of Jinnestan, in the mountains of Kâf. These mountains were supposed to go round the earth like a ring; they were thousands of miles in height, and they were made of the precious stone called chrysolite, which is of a green colour, and this colour, so the Persian poets say, is reflected in the green which we sometimes see in the sky at sunset. In this land of Jinnestan there are many cities. The Peris have for their abode the kingdom of Shad-u-Kân, that is, of Pleasure and Delight, with its capital Juber-a-bad, or the Jewel City; and the Dīvs have for their dwelling Ahermambâd, or Ahrimān's city, in which there are enchanted castles and palaces, guarded by terrible monsters and powerful magicians. The Peris are very beautiful beings, usually represented as women with wings, and charming robes of all colours. The Dīvs are painted as demons of the most frightful kind. One of them, a very famous one named Berkhyas is described as being a mountain in size,