"they say you are very learned; now just look into this manuscript,
and see whether you can read it; if you can, I will give you a new
dress; but if you cannot, you shall have twelve boxes on the ear,
and twenty-five blows on the soles of your feet, for having been
called, without reason, Selim the Learned."

Selim bowed and said, "Be it as you command, Sir!" He examined the
writing for a long time, and then suddenly cried out, "This is
Latin, sir, or I'll give you leave to hang me." "Let us hear what it
contains, then, if it is Latin," said the caliph.

Selim began to translate: "O man who findest this, praise Allah for
his goodness. Whoever snuffs up some of the powder in this box, and
at the same time says, 'Mutabor,' may change himself into any
animal, and will understand the language of animals. If he wishes to
return to the human shape, let him bow three times towards the East,
and pronounce the same word. But let him take care, after he is
transformed, not to laugh, otherwise the word will disappear
entirely from his memory, and he will remain a beast."

When Selim the Learned had read this, the caliph was exceedingly
delighted. He made Selim swear never to reveal any thing of the
secret to any one; then he gave him a beautiful robe, and dismissed
him.

Then he said to his grand vizier, "That is what I call a good
bargain, Mansor! How impatient I am to become a beast! Come to me
easily to-morrow morning, and we will go out into the fields, snuff
up a little of the powder, and then listen to what is said in the
air and in the water, in the woods and in the fields!"