Amazing Stories, Vol. 3, No. 2 — page 33: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

128 thap with the other—and, as the day broke before its conclusion (notwithstanding all the queen’s endeavors to get through with it in time for the bowstringing), there was again no resource but to postpone that cere- mony as before, for twenty-four hours. night there happened a similar accident with a similar result, and then the next—and then again the next; so that, in the end, the good monarch, having been unavoidably deprived of all opportunity to keep his vow during a period of no less than one thousand and one nights, either forgets it altogether by the expira- tion of this time, or gets himself absolved of it in the regular way, or (what is more probable) breaks it out- right, as well as the head of his father confessor. At all events, Scheherazade, who, being lineally descended from Eve, fell heir, perhaps, to the whole seven baskets of talk, which the latter lady, we all know, picked up from under the trees in the garden of Eden; Schehera- zade, I say, finally triumphed, and the tariff upon beauty was repealed. Now, this conclusion (which is that of the story as we have it upon record) is, no doubt, excessively proper and pleasant—but alas! like a great many pleasant things, is more pleasant than true; and I am indebted altogether to the “Tsitsoornot” for the means of cor- recting the error. “Le Miewx,” says a French proverb, “est Tennemi du bien,” and, in mentioning that Sche- herazade had inherited the seven baskets of talk, I should have added, that she put them out at compound interest until they amounted to seventy-seven. _ “My dear sister,” said she, on the thousand-and- second night (I quote the language of the “IsitsGornot” at this point, verbatim), “my dear sister,’ said she, “now that all this little difficulty about the bowstring has blown over, and that this odious tax is so happily repealed, I feel that I have been guilty of great indis- cretion in withholding from you and the king (who, Tam sorry to say, snores—a thing no gentleman would do) the full conclusion of the history of Sinbad the sailor. This person went through numerous other and more interesting adventures than those which I related; but the truth is, I felt sleepy on the particular night of their narration, and so was seduced into cutting them short—a grievous piece of misconduct, for which I only trust that Allah will forgive me. But even yet it is not too late to remedy my great neglect—and as _ soon as I have given the king a pinch or two in order - to wake him up so far that he may stop making that horrible noise, I will forthwith entertain you (and him if he pleases) with the sequel of this very remarkable story.” H EREUPON the sister of Scheherazade, as I have been sufficiently pinched, at length ceased snoring, and finally said “Hum!” and then “Hoo!” when the queen, understanding these words (which are no doubt Arabic) to signify that he was all attention, and would do his best not to snore any more—the queen I say, having — atranged these matters to her satisfaction, re-entered The next | it from the “TsitsGornot,” expressed no very par- ticular intensity of gratification, but the king having AMAZING STORIES ' Sinbad himself, as retailed by Scheherazade)—“ ‘at . length in my old age, and after enjoying many years of | tranquility at home, I became once more possessed with - 'a desire of visiting foreign countries; and one day, without acquainting any of my family with my design, I packed up some bundles of such merchandise as was most precious and least bulky, and, engaging a porter to carry them, went with him down to the sea-shore, to await the arrival of any chance vessel that might convey me out of the kingdom into some region which I had not as yet explored. “ “Having deposited the packages upon the sands, we sat down beneath some trees, and looked out into the ocean in the hope of perceiving a ship, but during several hours we saw none whatever. At length I fancied that I could hear a singular buzzing or hum- ming sound—and the porter, after listening awhile; declared that he also could distinguish it. Presently it grew louder, and then still louder, so that we could have no doubt that the object which caused it was approaching us. At length, on the edge of the horizon, we discovered a black spot, which rapidly increased in size until we made it out to be a vast monster, swim- ming with a great part of its body above the surface of the sea. It came toward us with inconceivable swiftness, throwing up huge waves of foam around its breast, and illuminating all that part of the sea ~ _ through which it passed with-a long line of fire that _ extended far off into the distance. “As the thing drew near we saw it very distinctly. Its length was equal to that of three of the loftiest trees that grow, and it was as wide as the great hall of audience in your palace, O most sublime and munifi- cent of the caliphs. Its body, which was unlike that of ordinary fishes, was as solid as a rock, and of a jetty blackness throughout all that portion of it which floated above the water, with the-exception of a narrow blood-red streak that completely begirdled it. The belly, which floated beneath the surface, and of which we could get only a glimpse now and then as the mon- ster rose and fell with the billows, was entirely covered with metallic scales, of a color like that of the moon in misty weather. The back was flat and nearly white, and from it there extended upward of six spines, about half the length of the whole body. “*This horrible creature had no mouth that we could _ perceive; but, as if to makeup for this deficiency, it was provided with at least four score of eyes, that protruded from their sockets like those of the green — dragon-fly, and were arranged all around the body in and parallel to the wer the purpose two rows, one above the other, a: blood-red streak, which seemed t of an eyebrow. Two or three of _ were much larger than the others and had the appear- ~ance-of solid gold. —— —— __ “‘Although this beast approached us, as I have before said, with the grea ‘apidity, it m : been moved altogether by necromancy—fo neither fins like a fish nor web-feet like: wings like the sea-shell which is blo manner of a vessel; nor yet did it~ thus, at once, into the history of Sinbad the sailor: _ _ward-as do the eels. Its head and its tail were shaped — “At length, in my old age’ (these are the words of precisely alike only, not far from the latter, were two cComicbooks:com sse dreadful eyes