"Son! what means all this?" said she, panting for breath. "I thought I
heard as I came up the shrieks of a thousand bats tearing from their
crannies in the recesses of a cavern; and it was the outcry only of these
poor mutes, whom you were so unmercifully abusing. In truth you but ill
deserve the admirable provision I have brought you."
"Give it me instantly," exclaimed the Caliph; "I am perishing for
hunger!"
"As to that," answered she, "you must have an excellent stomach if it can
digest what I have been preparing."
"Be quick," replied the Caliph; "but, oh, heavens! what horrors! what do
you intend?"
"Come, come," returned Carathis, "be not so squeamish, but help me to
arrange everything properly, and you shall see that what you reject with
such symptoms of disgust will soon complete your felicity. Let us get
ready the pile for the sacrifice of to-night, and think not of eating
till that is performed; know you not that all solemn rites are preceded
by a rigorous abstinence?"
The Caliph, not daring to object, abandoned himself to grief and the wind
that ravaged his entrails, whilst his mother went forward with the
requisite operations.
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