This collection had been formed for a purpose like the present
by Carathis herself, from a presentment that she might one day enjoy some
intercourse with the infernal powers to whom she had ever been
passionately attached, and to whose taste she was no stranger.
To familiarise herself the better with the horrors in view, the princess
remained in the company of her negresses, who squinted in the most
amiable manner from the only eye they had, and leered with exquisite
delight at the skulls and skeletons which Carathis had drawn forth from
her cabinets, whose key she entrusted to no one; all of them making
contortions, and uttering a frightful jargon, but very amusing to the
princess; till at last, being stunned by their gibbering, and suffocated
by the potency of their exhalations, she was forced to quit the gallery,
after stripping it of a part of its treasures.
Whilst she was thus occupied, the Caliph, who, instead of the visions he
expected, had acquired in these insubstantial regions a voracious
appetite, was greatly provoked at the negresses; for, having totally
forgotten their deafness, he had impatiently asked them for food, and
seeing them regardless of his demand, he began to cuff, pinch, and push
them, till Carathis arrived to terminate a scene so indecent, to the
great content of these miserable creatures, who, having been brought up
by her, understood all her signs, and communicated in the same way their
thoughts in return.
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