506 The Moth with the Golden Wings. (Nov. 
« This is invention, slave; think you we are to be fooled with tales of 
the genii; take you the buds and the cobweb, and then own your 
treachery.” These articles are given to Beber, who no. sooner touches 
them than they become, one-by one, a jewel, enclosed as before in a 
bag of silk! All the court are astounded at the feat. «This, how- 
ever,” said the Sultan, “ may be the art of some damnable magician.” 
“ Indeed, your highness,” replies Beber, “I am none; I know of no 
powers, save those of moral good and evil.”—“ And is it your power 
of good that transforms flowers into gems ?”—“ Let it be tried,” replies 
Beber, “ by making Giaffar touch a jewel; we shall then see what arts 
he made use of with your poor servant’s wealth.”—* It is well: come 
hither slave,” says the Sultan to Giaffar ; « touch with your finger the 
diamond in my turban.” No sooner is it done than the stone turns 
into a blighted lily ; and the Sultan, frantic at the change, is rushing 
with his drawn scimitar on Giaffar, when Beber, throwing himself 
before him, exclaims, “‘ Defender of the Faithful, let me stand between 
your greatness and your wrath:” and Beber touching the withered 
flower, it again becomes a diamond. 
All the court are paralyzed with astonishment; and the: Sultan is 
about to question Beber, when suddenly a beautiful palm-tree rises at 
the foot of the throne. The Moth with the Golden Wings settles on a 
large palm-leaf, which is instantly plucked, and found to bear the 
following words, which were read aloud by the order of the Sultan to 
the assembled people : 
« I speak for my mistress, the fairy Gezert. Ask not, oh Sultan! the 
reason of this mystery ; for know, that in the hand of the good and 
faithful the bud of the rose becometh a ruby; whilst the finger of the 
wicked maketh a diamond as nought. I was in pain, and a captive, 
and the poor man gave me freedom; his tenderness hath been his 
reward. To try the feeling of man, I put off my form, and took that of 
an insect. I have found evil and cruelty in the great; I have found 
love and mercy in the lowly. Oh Sultan! he who for sport tortureth a fly, 
would, but for the law, tear away an arm. Oh Sultan! let the merciful 
be rewarded, the guilty punished; and let this precept be ever in thy 
mind, and in the souls of thy people :—That in the hand of the good and 
Juithful, the bud of the rose becometh a ruby; whilst the finger of the 
wicked maketh a diamond as nought.” 
Scarcely has the officer finished reading, when the leaf escapes from 
his hand in sunlight; the trunk of the palm-tree becomes a pillar of 
water, spouting off and falling in the shape of branches and leaves. It 
has ever been approached with veneration by the people of Bassora, 
and is called by them—the Fountain of the Fairy Moth. 
A few words will now close the tale: Giaffar was delivered into the 
hands of the executioner, and Beber was dignified with riches and 
honours by the gratitude of the Sultan. 
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