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Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp


There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin,
a careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play all day long in
the streets with little idle boys like himself. This so grieved the
father that he died; yet, in spite of his mother's tears and prayers,
Aladdin did not mend his ways. One day, when he was playing in the
streets as usual, a stranger asked him his age, and if he was not
the son of Mustapha the tailor. "I am, sir," replied Aladdin;
"but he died a long while ago." On this the stranger, who was
a famous African magician, fell on his neck and kissed him saying:
"I am your uncle, and knew you from your likeness to my brother.
Go to your mother and tell her I am coming." Aladdin ran home
and told his mother of his newly found uncle. "Indeed, child," she
said, "your father had a brother, but I always thought he was dead."
However, she prepared supper, and bade Aladdin seek his uncle,
who came laden with wine and fruit. He fell down and kissed the
place where Mustapha used to sit, bidding Aladdin's mother not to
be surprised at not having seen him before, as he had been forty
years out of the country. He then turned to Aladdin, and asked
him his trade, at which the boy hung his head, while his mother
burst into tears. On learning that Aladdin was idle and would
learn no trade, he offered to take a shop for him and stock it with
merchandise. Next day he bought Aladdin a fine suit of clothes and
took him all over the city, showing him the sights, and brought him home
at nightfall to his mother, who was overjoyed to see her son so fine.

Next day the magician led Aladdin into some beautiful gardens a
long way outside the city gates. They sat down by a fountain and
the magician pulled a cake from his girdle, which he divided
between them. Then they journeyed onwards till they almost reached
the mountains. Aladdin was so tired that he begged to go back,
but the magician beguiled him with pleasant stories and lead him
on in spite of himself. At last they came to two mountains
divided by a narrow valley. "We will go no farther," said
his uncle. "I will show you something wonderful; only do you
gather up sticks while I kindle a fire." When it was lit the
magician threw on it a powder he had about him, at the same time
saying some magical words. The earth trembled a little in front
of them, disclosing a square flat stone with a brass ring in the
middle to raise it by. Aladdin tried to run away, but the
magician caught him and gave him a blow that knocked him down.
"What have I done, uncle?" he said piteously; whereupon the
magician said more kindly: "Fear nothing, but obey me. Beneath
this stone lies a treasure which is to be yours, and no one else
may touch it, so you must to exactly as I tell you." At the word
treasure Aladdin forgot his fears, and grasped the ring as he was
told, saying the names of his father and grandfather. The stone