Then they journeyed on and went their way.
At three o'clock the people of that town saw a dust coming.
There in the Wazir's house the Wazir himself was on the roof looking
out, and his middle son was there with him upstairs; he and his father
were looking out at that road by which Ali had been lost to them.
That Wazir, his hair covered his face, as he had not cut it, and he
could not see for weeping for his son.
Then the people of that town saw a wondrously big horse soaring and
soaring like a kite.
Ali entered the town, but he spoke to no one.
The door of his house had been left open since the day he had set out,
and he passed in, he and the horse, but he spoke to no one, and there
were great rejoicings at his return.
Ali stayed for the space of seven days, neither speaking to any one, nor
drinking water, nor bathing, for fear of being bewitched by that Jin. If
he wanted food it was the horse who brought it to him, and if he wanted
water it was the horse who gave it to him.
When the eighth day came there was a big festival at the Wazir's and at
the Sultan's, for the child who had been dead was alive, he who had been
lost to sight was restored to view.
If Ali wanted to walk out it was necessary for him first to take counsel
of the horse. On the tenth day Ali brought all his riches downstairs and
filled ninety-nine store-rooms full.
So Ali lived, he did not marry nor did he want a wife, and those seven
sisters of his, whom he had brought away from amongst the Jins, they
did not marry, but they read their Korans night and day.
He built a house of seven storeys, and, in this house he put his seven
sisters who had come with him from the Jins.
This is the end of the fable.
[Illustration: THE MONKEY-PEOPLE OF THE FORESTS]
[Illustration: WHITE BEARDED GNU. E. AFRICA.]