So, if thou wilt come home with me, I
will give thee freely all thou lackest, without price. Moreover,
I will teach thee the ways of the city; and praised be God, O my
son, that thou hast fallen in with me and none other!' 'As thou
wilt,' answered Asaad; 'but make haste, for my brother awaits me
and his whole heart is with me.' So the old man took Asaad by
the hand, smiling in his face and saying, 'Glory be to Him who
hath delivered thee from the people of this city!' Then he
carried him to a narrow lane and entering a spacious house,
brought him into a saloon, wherein were forty old men, seated in
a circle about a lighted fire, to which they were doing worship
and prostrating themselves. When Asaad saw this he was
confounded and his flesh quaked, though he knew not what they
were; and the old man said to them, 'O elders of the fire, how
blessed is this day!' Then he cried out, saying, 'Ho, Ghezban!'
Whereupon there came out to him a tall black slave of forbidding
aspect, grim-visaged and flat-nosed. The old man made a sign to
him, and he bound Asaad straitly; after which the old man said
to him, 'Bear him to the dungeon under the earth and bid my
slave-girl Kewam torture him day and night and give him a cake of
bread to eat morning and evening, against the time come of the
voyage to the Blue Sea and the Mountain of Fire, when we will
slaughter him on the mountain as a sacrifice.
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