kindness overcame my superstitious obstinacy, and I sent him word I would
carry the vase to him myself.

"I took it down this evening from the shelf on which it stood; it was
covered with dust, and I washed it, but, unluckily, in endeavouring to
clean the inside from the remains of the scarlet powder, I poured hot
water into it, and immediately I heard a simmering noise, and my vase, in
a few instants, burst asunder with a loud explosion. These fragments,
alas! are all that remain. The measure of my misfortunes is now
completed! Can you wonder, gentlemen, that I bewail my evil destiny? Am
I not justly called Murad the Unlucky? Here end all my hopes in this
world! Better would it have been if I had died long ago! Better that I
had never been born! Nothing I ever have done or attempted has
prospered. Murad the Unlucky is my name, and ill-fate has marked me for
her own."



CHAPTER III


The lamentations of Murad were interrupted by the entrance of Saladin.
Having waited in vain for some hours, he now came to see if any disaster
had happened to his brother Murad. He was surprised at the sight of the
two pretended merchants, and could not refrain from exclamations on
beholding the broken vase. However, with his usual equanimity and good-
nature, he began to console Murad; and, taking up the fragments, examined
them carefully, one by one joined them together again, found that none of
the edges of the china were damaged, and declared he could have it mended
so as to look as well as ever.